Hooray for Hors d’Ouerves: Deviled Eggs

Hors d’Ouerves Week continues with a party classic, Deviled Eggs.

This recipe is from the very cool Cookindex (1959) card set that I received from the very lovely Susan Marks, the author of the book Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America’s First Lady of Food and the accompanying Betty-themed blog. She is also a film producer and is the woman behind the documentary Of Dolls and Murder, narrated by one of the neatest people on the planet, John Waters. It was at a Baltimore screening of the movie that I got to meet Susan. She was incredibly sweet and she thought of me when she came across this set. So what a surprise it was when it arrived in the mail for me!

The set is hefty, like many of the other recipe card sets that I own, but 2 things make this different: 1. the illustrations, which are VERY 1950s, and 2. the super-cool window in the top of the box that allows you to view the recipe without damaging or dirtying the card! Clever! (the set’s booklet actually calls it a magic window). The booklet also outlines some healthy eating guidelines and names Seven Basic Food Groups:

1. Leafy and green and yellow vegetables–raw, cooked, frozen, canned (1 or more servings daily)
2. Potatoes and other fruits and vegetables raw, cooked, frozen, canned, dried (2 or more servings daily)
3. Citrus fruits, tomatoes, raw cabbage and other fruits and vegetables (1 or more servings daily)
4. Milk, cheese, and ice cream (drink or eat the equivalent of cheese or ice cream, 1 pint a day)
5. Meat, poultry fish–fresh, frozen, canned or cured. Eggs, dried beans, dried peas, nuts (Meat, fish or poultry, 1 serving a day. Eggs, 4 or more a week. Dried beans and peas, nuts: 2 or more servings a week)
6. Bread, flour and cereals, whole grain or enriched (2 or more servings a day)
7. Butter and fortified margarine (1 serving with each meal)

Yep. Ice cream in an acceptable dairy food. And that’s 4 servings of carbs a day and butter or margarine with EVERY MEAL.

And then there are ENERGY FOODS!

Foods listed below provide chiefly energy. Eat some of these in addition to, but not in place of the foods listed in the Basic Seven: bacon, salad dressings, salad oil, salt pork and fat back, suet, honey, jams, jellies, molasses, preserves, syrups, sorghum, hominy grits, macaroni, noodles, white rice, spaghetti, cakes, candy , chocolate, cocoa, cookies, pastries, sugar, other sweets.

I think I am already on the Cookindex healthful diet plan. Bacon, spaghetti, candy and chocolate are all energy foods. But where is the wine?

Anyway, for Friendsgiving this year (yeah, still catching up here!), I contributed the treats outlined on card A1.

First up, the deviled eggs in the upper left hand corner.

Well, that’s pretty basic. Probably the most basic deviled egg recipe in the entire world. With that whopping few grains of pepper and all!  I made tiny modifications: I upped the pepper, used mustard powder instead of prepared mustard, and I added more mayo because it was just too dry with only 1 tbsp.

Here is the end result:

And I added a paprika sprinkle as well. Remember, it’s the dusting of paprika that really takes things up a notch and shows you care.

But lemme tell ya something, deviled eggs don’t need to be at all fancy. No capers. No crabmeat. No caviar. Just a plain ol’ deviled egg is always a big hit. These went like hot cakes. Everyone was making yummy sounds. I never knew that deviled eggs were such a crowd-pleaser. (I’ve since made a variation of deviled eggs for another party–I’ll get to those next week). I think they’re poised for a comeback!