Eggs

There is only one thing that can be used in pancakes, salads, and pie. Eggs. Heck, my grandma used to even put them in her tacos. Eggs have got to be the most versatile food in the world. If in doubt, throw an egg in it.

All the many uses of eggs can make cooking them complicated. To help simplify this process we have come up with names like over-easy and scrambled. Still, getting the name of the egg matched with the desired outcome can be tricky.

My 10-year-old son, Zach knows exactly how tough the egg name game can be. The other night we went to a 50's diner with my parents. The kids sat at one booth while the adults sat in an adjacent one. As the menus were passed around, Mommy went to the kids' booth to make sure they all knew what they were going to order. It was pretty simple. There were four rounds of mac and cheese and one order of bacon and eggs.

With the adults all settled into our booth, the waitress came over and started taking the kids' orders. Everything was going perfectly as one child after another politely requested a plate of macaroni and cheese. Then came Zach's turn. He placed his order for bacon and eggs and the waitress responded by asking how he would like his eggs cooked.

Zach cooks himself an egg for breakfast several times a week, so he knows exactly how he likes it. What he doesn't know is what his favorite style of egg is called so when the waitress asked how he wanted it, he simply pointed at the picture on the menu and said, "Kinda like that."

What he meant by that was that he wanted it with white on the edges and yellow in the middle, not scrambled. The waitress looked at the photo and said, "Oh, you want it sunny side up."

Zach is a very logical thinker. Everything is black and white to him so he responded the way any logical guy would respond. With a perfectly sincere face, he said, "It doesn't matter if it's up or down, I just don't want it to run." In his mind, he could easily turn it over if the egg was served to him upside down. That wasn't really important. Somehow the waitress kept a straight face and narrowed down his order to somewhere a couple of notches past over-medium.

Eggs confuse me sometimes as well. That's why I just stick with the classic scrambled style when I order at a restaurant. At least I know exactly what I'm getting and I don't look confused when my order arrives.