I was lucky enough to attend the Easter Egg Roll at the White House this past Monday – what an assault on the senses! Unless, of course, you’re 7 and 8 years old, like my grandchildren Michele and Frank, and you believe in the Easter Bunny.

Because the American Egg Board is a sponsor of the big event, I was able to secure tickets for us. What a show it was. The day begins on the White House ellipse lawn where students from a local culinary school serve a breakfast of scrambled eggs wrapped in a flour tortilla, orange colored Jell-O with mandarin orange segments imbedded in it, pineapple juice and fresh bananas. Can you think of a breakfast smorgasbord a kid would love more? I can’t.

Once on the actual White House property, it was hellzapoppin’! There was so much going on that my grandchildren didn’t know where to begin. After President Bush greeted everyone, the fun began. Barbara Bush (the former first lady) assembled a group of kids and began reading them a story. Then a “Wild Kingdom” character assembled a group of kids to show them a real live vulture (they were fascinated) and let them pet an alligator. Disney characters were there for photos with the kids as were other kids’ favorites like Dora the Explorer, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Cabbage Patch Kids and so many other characters in costume I didn’t even recognize, though my grandchildren did, and they didn’t know who to say hello to first. There was even the silly guy with the tall upwardly combed hair from the Ringling Bros. Circus, who I recognized but the kids didn’t.

There were people dressed as presidents from the past that strolled around the grounds. My grandson, Frank, was able to take yo-yo lessons from a yo-yo champion (who gave him his first yo-yo) while my granddaughter, Michele, had her face painted with an image of the Scottie dog that’s the Bush family pet. And since this was, after all, an egg roll, everyone got a chance to roll a wooden egg down a track with a plastic spoon. It wasn’t a race. Just an experience.

Best of all, though, at least as far as Michele and Frank were concerned, was seeing the Jonas Brothers, today’s hottest kid band group from Disney, performing live and in person. The kids went wild! Thousands of them! My kids are such Jonas Brothers fans that they were able to sing the tunes the group was playing. With glee!

By noon, both the kids and I were exhausted! We had access to a VIP tent for a VIP lunch of sloppy Joes and grilled chicken. But who cared! When we walked into the tent, there sat the Jonas Brothers!!!! I saw in my grandchildren, for the first time, the personification of the word “starstruck.” They were mere feet from their musical idols, and were frozen with awe. I knew then that this was going to be a day they would never, ever forget. Me neither!

Last Friday, a friend of the American Egg Board, registered dietitian Mary Lee Chin, went on the NBC television station in Denver to talk about Easter and Egg Salad Week. I bet you didn’t know that every year, the week following Easter is Egg Salad Week! This “holiday” was started to encourage everyone to use all of those delicious leftover Easter eggs.

To kick off Egg Salad Week, I recommend reading Mary Lee Chin’s blog post on what she discussed on NBC. Not only does she provide some great meal ideas for what to do with all those leftover Easter eggs, she also gives a great run-down on all of the nutritional benefits of eggs! You can read it here: http://maryleechin.blogspot.com/2008/03/egg-salad-week-what-to-do-with-all_20.html

They’re hard cooked and colored, can you suggest recipes for them? Are they safe to eat if they’ve been out of the fridge for some time? What’s the history of Easter eggs?

These are the questions I get asked most often about eggs at Easter time. I won’t try to answer these questions plus any others you may have because all of the answers are at the American Egg Board website: www.IncredibleEgg.org 

My favorite Easter feature on the website is the new “Incredible Easter Egg Designer,” which is on the homepage. You can design your own digital Easter egg and send it to your friends!

Once you’ve created your perfect digital egg, go to the “Kids and Family” section.  There are egg decorating ideas including methods using all-natural colorings, and the background on holiday customs and traditions.

Find dishes that use up all those leftover Easter eggs in the “Recipes” section – a favorite of mine is Curried Eggs & Peas. And in the “Egg Safety” section you can find answers to all of your food safety questions.

As you might expect, more eggs are sold at Easter time than any other time of the year.  And here’s an interesting fact: New England is the only part of the country that primarily sells brown eggs year ‘round. That changes at Easter time when white eggs make their way into supermarkets and grocery stores so that those New Englanders can partake in the egg coloring tradition. But after Easter, the brown eggs are back.

By the way, there’s no difference whatsoever between brown and white eggs except that the brown shell is sturdier than a white one. The flavor’s the same. The nutritional values are the same. Only the hens that lay them are different. It turns out that white eggs come from white hens and brown eggs come from brown hens. It’s that simple.

Click on the TV below to learn a great way to peel hard-cooked eggs!

As a bonus to my previous post on Green Eggs & Ham, here are two more easy dishes for your family on St. Patrick’s Day:

Shamrock Egg-in-the-Hole

If, per chance, you have a clover shaped cookie cutter, make a clever St. Pattie’s Day Egg –in-the-Hole. Remember Egg-in-the-Hole? That’s where you tear a hole in the middle of a slice of bread, put it in a buttered skillet, crack an egg into the hole then fry it on both sides.

For St. Patrick’s Day, instead of tearing a hole in the middle of the bread, use the clover shaped cookie cutter to punch a clover shaped form in the middle of the bread. Kids’ll love it.

Green Deviled Eggs

You can make green deviled eggs work with thawed and drained chopped frozen spinach. Hard cook your eggs, shell them, and then cut them in half lengthwise and remove the yolks.

In a bowl, mix the yolks with mayonnaise and the spinach so the texture is smooth and creamy. Spoon the mixture into a quart-size Ziploc plastic baggie, then, with a pair of scissors, cut a corner from the bag and pipe the mixture into the egg whites. If you want ham with these green deviled eggs, put the ham in a food processor and grind it up finely, then add it to the egg/spinach/mayo mixture, too.

Happy St. Pat’s Day!

…and please don’t think that the only way to do it is with green food coloring. You can make the eggs green by mixing frozen chopped spinach that’s been thawed and thoroughly drained into the eggs. Scramble-up the eggs with as much spinach as you’d like (obviously the more spinach, the more green). Be aware, though, that the eggs will take a bit longer to cook.

The ham part, of course, is easy. Any kind of ham, any way you want to serve it.

Here’s a recipe for a quick Green Eggs ‘N Ham Pie:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F

2. In a bowl, mix together 6 eggs with a cup of milk and one 9 or 10-oz. package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and thoroughly drained (you may thaw in the microwave in a pinch) Add as much diced or shredded ham to the egg and spinach mixture as you like.

3. Pour the egg, spinach and ham mixture into a 9-inch deep dish frozen pie shell and bake it in the pre-heated oven for 40 minutes. Mmmm.

 Right in time for Easter! Click on the TV icon below to watch my video on how to perfectly hard-cook eggs. Follow my easy method and you’ll never have an ugly green ring around the yolk.

It was a terrific experience.  I was on this past Sunday to kick off National Breakfast Week, and what better reason to be on this popular morning national television program. Eggs ARE breakfast, and that was made clear when, Bill, one of the hosts of the show, introduced my segment by saying that an omelet for breakfast can be made in less time than it takes to pour a bowl of cereal!

I started out by making my famous 40-second omelet. I was being timed and made it just under the wire since I also had to explain exactly what I was doing. Plus, the pan just wasn’t hot enough! A hot pan is KEY for a fast omelet. After everyone cheered my 40-second omelet, I got to tell everyone why eggs are the best breakfast – because their high-quality protein fills you up and makes you eat less throughout the day.

Many of you may have only seen that first part. But I actually filmed TWO segments! The second one focused on omelet FLIPPING. In case you didn’t know, I hold the Guinness World Record for omelet flipping! (I try to be modest…) And it turns out that Bill, the host, holds the record for PANCAKE flipping, so it seemed like a natural fit. So the hosts Bill and JuJu, plus Ron the newscaster and Marisol the meteorologist, all had their own pans and everyone learned how to properly flip an omelet. While I was originally upset that we wouldn’t all be making omelets, the flipping ended up being very entertaining. Afterwards, I went backstage and cooked made-to-order omelets for all of the hosts and crew. All of the running around and planning was worth it, I had the BEST time at the show, even though it all started at 6:00 am. And according to someone on the crew, they had a good time with me, too! I pleaded the producer, Eric, to let me come back when the weather is better and I can make omelets in front of the studio in Times Square. Stay tuned… Here are some “behind the scenes” pictures!