The Incredible Role of Eggs in Everyday Life
Have You Ever Thought About How Important Eggs Are?
Have you ever thought about how ingrained something as simple as an egg is in our lives? Sometimes, a simple reminder triggers a rabbit hole of realizing how a seemingly insignificant staple actually plays a role in everything—from our everyday activities to our yearly holiday traditions.
This month was my turn to host Bunco. Since I was hosting at someone else’s home and leaving for a trip the next morning, I decided on a cold meal. I could prep at home and dump everything into serving dishes to avoid imposing too much on the actual gracious host.
I planned a menu of Chicken Salad Croissants, Pasta Salad, Broccoli Salad, the always popular Deviled Eggs, Grapes, Chips, and my favorite Cheesecake for dessert. As I made my late-night grocery run to start prep for the next day, I realized I couldn’t get my hands on a key ingredient—EGGS! With the recent rise in egg prices and the lack of supply, I couldn’t find any in time. I had to scratch the two recipes I was most excited about: cheesecake and deviled eggs. Store-bought cupcakes were going to have to be enough this time.
Down the rabbit hole we go... What is your earliest memory of an egg? Mine would have to be our annual backyard family Easter Egg Hunt. My mom used a mixture of plastic-filled eggs and colored hard-boiled eggs. Hold on though…that’s not the core memory—
Fast forward a few months to the heat of a southern summer when you stumble across one of those bad boys that were never found during the crucial hunt. Those suckers could hide with the best of them! Despite our beautifully manicured yard, those eggs managed to stay hidden for months. This is where the all-important egg count originated.
Hosting Community Egg Hunts
For several years, I hosted a super popular local egg hunt at Bel Laurel Farm in Williamsburg. Every year, it was a magical weekend watching the excitement of hundreds of kids—during their reserved hunt times—gather colored-coded eggs (after checking our allergy-friendly egg chart) from a horse field guarded by the beloved farm dog.
Stuffing hundreds of plastic eggs was time-consuming (we’re talking HOURS), but the excitement on those kids’ faces made every minute—and every moment of me yelling at my kids to help—worth it.
Eggs, Memories, and Unexpected Joys
During a recent trip to Italy, I had to pick up some Kinder Eggs before the airport run to pick up our daughter and her friend to join in our adventure. The pure joy of seeing the “American contraband” was probably more exciting than seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It brought back memories of friends returning from overseas and sharing other countries’ choking hazards.
I can honestly say I’ve never participated in egging anyone’s property. Maybe I can’t say the same for using toilet paper or forks…but definitely no egging of my enemies.
During a leadership retreat in college, we made individual omelets in zip-lock bags in a pot of boiling water—a technique that carried over to Girl Scout campouts, family reunions in the mountains, and even during kitchen renovations. Anywhere you can boil a pot of water, you can make your own omelet to your own specifications.
My niece shared that she remembered this from a family reunion and put a spin on this idea. Instead of boiling, everyone mixed their favorite ingredients in their bags and dumped them onto a Blackstone griddle. It was like being a short-order cook without having orders barked at you, and the kids had so much fun helping!
I’ll never forget a family reunion when my kids were young and the budget was tight. Embarrassed walking in with my tray of deviled eggs—the cheapest potluck contribution I could come up with—I soon realized I had nothing to worry about. The embarrassment quickly flew out the door as the eggs vanished faster than any other dish. Lesson learned: simple can be delicious.
Farm-fresh eggs remind us of the miracles around us. Waking up to a new, beautifully colored egg to collect each morning never gets old. Add to that the excitement of finding a double yolk, and you’re a kid again for a moment. If you’ve ever had the chance to crack an egg inside another egg, you’ll never forget it. I swear it’s a thing.
At an Airbnb we stayed at several times, the host always left eggs from their chickens along with freshly baked bread. These small gestures made us feel so welcome that we returned multiple times and referred our friends to do the same. I may not have grandkids for a while, but I was just as proud when my son brought me eggs from his chickens for the first time.
Eggs in Every Form
There are so many types of eggs in our lives:
Chicken and Duck Eggs
Pro tip: Bake with duck eggs—they’ll make whatever you’re baking rise higher than with plain old chicken eggs!
Candy Eggs
Cadbury eggs… yum!
Plastic eggs
Perfect for filling with your favorite treats!
Fabric eggs
Last Easter, when we flew to Hawaii, I sewed Delta Airlines-colored, egg-shaped pouches filled with treats for all the flight attendants—they loved them!
When you think of an egg, you might think: fried, scrambled, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, poached, sunny-side up, over easy, over hard, over broken, omelet, quiche, eggs-in-a-hole, frittata, deviled, or my favorite—Eggs Benedict (try it over a crab cake instead of Canadian bacon!). Can you name anything more versatile than an egg?
The Symbolism of Eggs
When we think of eggs, we may remember that they symbolize birth and new beginnings—especially in the spring. And yes, we can debate whether the chicken or the egg came first, but I’ll just be grateful for both. I still get a chuckle remembering reading a book with my toddler and she pointed to a picture of an egg, then a chicken, and called it the “mommy egg.” Heartwarming and hilarious.
So, how do you use eggs the most? What’s your first memory of an egg? What’s your favorite way to eat them? Are you judging me yet for writing a whole post about eggs?
Let’s use this as a reminder: the simplest things in life are the most important. Let’s not take them for granted.