BREAKFAST EGGS A RECIPE FOR UNDERSTANDING
This egg is from a chicken and serves to provide the occasional breakfast and more chickens if sat upon judiciously. Read on for what I ate this morning.
NOTICE THE SHADOW
IT HAS GREAT SIGNIFICANCE TO THE FOLLOWING
This is another musing that has nothing about hurricane preparedness but we at HURRICANE CENTRAL are mandated to provide all reader's needs. And let me add considering recent news of fires in California with stories of people fleeing with nothing but family pictures in fear of the towering inferno. With this in mind it's not too late for you to prepare for emergencies which can occur in the next minute with a family plan containing items necessary for survival. If you're in a hurricane zone refer to recent blogs regarding those subjects and those really discriminating readers might consider including HURRICANE FINDER a device which may save your life when electronics fail in that survival kit.
The following is a recipe for understanding something that may have troubled you in the past. Now what does this have to do with breakfast eggs you may ask? To find out you have to read this to the end and not just look at the pictures. Pictures and text combined convey the story, both contribute to what's in the author's mind, also a recipe of a kind.
Those who have read some of what I've written might know that I spent a great part of my life studying and teaching biology. Biologists refer to eggs as ova.
"How do you like your morning eggs?" she asked.
"Easy ova," I replied yolkly.
These things are important to the formation of life in many living things. Eggs are produced by females and since they combine with cells contributed by males to create new life are called sex cells or gametes, but you don't really have to know that. However keep in mind that eggs are more than just a breakfast goody.
One of the questions I often asked when teaching biology, literally the study of life, was, "What is the main purpose, the biological mandate, of all living things?" Does life have a purpose other than the pursuit of happiness or providing food for others? Yes it does and I'll discuss that further down. Now lets look at what I had for breakfast this morning.
"Can't you just get to the point?"
"No."
I had three eggs in the little refrigerator under the table on NEREIS my sailboat home for more that fifteen years. I've had these three eggs for several days, perhaps a week or more. You might say I was saving them for a special project or maybe just delaying the inevitable. Therefore these three eggs were important as they were the only ones I had and once eaten would be gone. On NEREIS this becomes a problem at sea or when cruising along a store challenged shore. I'm just rambling here, go on to the next paragraph.
I had a fresh loaf of Italian Bread and pictured a toasted slice with an egg sitting proudly on top with a little garlic salt and butter. The following is a unique way of producing this, at least unique to me. I didn't want to fry the eggs but sitting there on the counter was this toaster oven I recently purchased and was seeking new ways to use it.
I needed to make a cooking utensil of the bread, a concave surface which would contain the viscous semi-liquid contents of the shell. The fresh slices of bread needed some hardening and so I toasted them lightly until there was a slight light brown crust leaving the center soft and malleable.
Placing the slices on a plate I used my fingers to push down inside the crust to form a bowl-like container, a light coating of butter completed the bread cooking utensil. Then I spooned in eggs from a bowl using a slotted serving spoon to control the amount of egg white. Too much and the entire thing would be drowned and I wanted the cooked eggs to be contained by the edges of the bread.
Here they are ready for the toaster oven. I cooked them until the egg was still runny as in a sunny-side-up egg. This took about six minutes turning the pan around once inside the oven so ensure even cooking. This will vary of course with your toaster oven. I found that if the yolks jiggled when the pan was nudged with a fork they would be runny. A hard yolk will be ridged. Of course you probably already knew that.
Ready to eat on my little table which serves as computer stand, chart table and occasional seat.
I like the yolks runny.
A clean plate. The eggs are gone. I have no more. What if I want to have this dish tomorrow, or next week. Suppose these are the only eggs available, my goodness perhaps I used them too soon. Maybe I should have saved them for another even more spectacular dish. I must learn to husband my resources. If I'm to be able to produce more eggy culinary masterpieces I have to be careful of what I do with my limited supply of eggs. Suppose an honored guest shows up tomorrow desiring my famous egg dish. What am I to do?
Well this little tale really isn't about chicken eggs nor is it a recipe for breakfast but the following might be a recipe for life, or not, you decide.
Now lets look at what life is for. I promised in the beginning of this recipe to discuss the purpose of living things. You may think that your life has great meaning in promoting good, some of you might be in the pursuit of evil but I doubt many evil doers are reading this, except maybe you and I know who you are. Doctors heal, laborers labor, singers sing. Is this the reason they exist? Well biologists have a different slant on this question. Picture so-called inanimate life like a willow tree. They just grow and emit oxygen. Right? Well no but for this discussion lets assume that. If you were a willow tree and looked forward to the big question what would be the most important thing you could do? What does Mother Nature, for want of a better term, desire of each type of living thing.
The mandate of our beloved Mother is to make more of ourselves.
Everything else, in the eyes of nature, is superfluous. Think of the big picture now. Remember those movies of salmon swimming over towering water-filled dams to the upper reaches of some Alaskan stream to spawn as huge brown bears feast on the slow or lazy but then those escaping bear's greedy mouths die providing sustenance for carrion eating birds. All die, both males and females. These salmon have fulfilled their destiny in producing more of themselves and our Mother, having no further need for them, kills them off. Reproduction is their only biological mandate.
My goodness Mother have you no mercy?
Now some life, us for example, continue living after producing another, others like ourselves, mainly to take care of them until they too can make another batch. It goes on and on and on.
So what you may ask.
"What in hell are you babbling about man?"
"What's the point of this drivel?"
"Are you chef or muse?"
"Yes."
This really is a story about eggs but since I brought up all that biological stuff with the hint of sex, sexual reproduction that is, let me get to the real message. All the previous was merely preamble.
Human females have eggs, ova, contained in ovaries. Isn't Latin grand? There are a limited supply of eggs in each ovary. Women seek to make the best use of these relatively few eggs by finding the most desirable mate, so their eggs will go on to survive when combined with male gametes, sperm, to form a fertilized egg or zygote and produce more examples of their superior selves.
Remember the biological mandate, make more of yourself.
Therefore human females husband their eggs seeking to use them wisely. They cannot waste them or their biological mandate will be thwarted. Can they fight this? Yes in some degree as humans are thinking, although sometimes diabolical creatures, but biological nature is the most powerful force here. Therefore biology creates in human females a wise user of a scarce supply of eggs.
This is the reason I brought up the egg recipe above as preamble to the real subject. Try it though. I liked it, so may you.
Now here's the kicker. Males have the same biological mandate, powerful urge, to make more of themselves. This is the only reason they exist and fortunately we don't die afterward like salmon as our young need help to survive so they too can continue the process.
Males however have an almost unlimited supply of sex cells, gametes, sperm and have no biological need to husband their supply, we can use 'em almost indiscriminately and may therefore be biologically promiscuous. Sorry ladies but these are the biological facts here. Just the facts ma'am, just the facts.
This is the reason I've brought up this recipe for life. Men are biologically indiscriminate in mating habits, women have to be selective.
Sorry but these are the facts ladies, at least in biological terms. However humans also have the ability to think and males can overcome biological rote behavior transcending our promiscuous mandate and some no doubt do.
I'm not sure why I'm sharing this with you. Maybe I just wanted to have some eggs this morning.
"Is this a recipe for breakfast eggs or one for life?"
"Yes."
JUST A LITTLE BORED
NOTICE THE SHADOW
IT HAS GREAT SIGNIFICANCE TO THE FOLLOWING
This is another musing that has nothing about hurricane preparedness but we at HURRICANE CENTRAL are mandated to provide all reader's needs. And let me add considering recent news of fires in California with stories of people fleeing with nothing but family pictures in fear of the towering inferno. With this in mind it's not too late for you to prepare for emergencies which can occur in the next minute with a family plan containing items necessary for survival. If you're in a hurricane zone refer to recent blogs regarding those subjects and those really discriminating readers might consider including HURRICANE FINDER a device which may save your life when electronics fail in that survival kit.
The following is a recipe for understanding something that may have troubled you in the past. Now what does this have to do with breakfast eggs you may ask? To find out you have to read this to the end and not just look at the pictures. Pictures and text combined convey the story, both contribute to what's in the author's mind, also a recipe of a kind.
Those who have read some of what I've written might know that I spent a great part of my life studying and teaching biology. Biologists refer to eggs as ova.
"How do you like your morning eggs?" she asked.
"Easy ova," I replied yolkly.
These things are important to the formation of life in many living things. Eggs are produced by females and since they combine with cells contributed by males to create new life are called sex cells or gametes, but you don't really have to know that. However keep in mind that eggs are more than just a breakfast goody.
One of the questions I often asked when teaching biology, literally the study of life, was, "What is the main purpose, the biological mandate, of all living things?" Does life have a purpose other than the pursuit of happiness or providing food for others? Yes it does and I'll discuss that further down. Now lets look at what I had for breakfast this morning.
"Can't you just get to the point?"
"No."
I had three eggs in the little refrigerator under the table on NEREIS my sailboat home for more that fifteen years. I've had these three eggs for several days, perhaps a week or more. You might say I was saving them for a special project or maybe just delaying the inevitable. Therefore these three eggs were important as they were the only ones I had and once eaten would be gone. On NEREIS this becomes a problem at sea or when cruising along a store challenged shore. I'm just rambling here, go on to the next paragraph.
I had a fresh loaf of Italian Bread and pictured a toasted slice with an egg sitting proudly on top with a little garlic salt and butter. The following is a unique way of producing this, at least unique to me. I didn't want to fry the eggs but sitting there on the counter was this toaster oven I recently purchased and was seeking new ways to use it.
I needed to make a cooking utensil of the bread, a concave surface which would contain the viscous semi-liquid contents of the shell. The fresh slices of bread needed some hardening and so I toasted them lightly until there was a slight light brown crust leaving the center soft and malleable.
Placing the slices on a plate I used my fingers to push down inside the crust to form a bowl-like container, a light coating of butter completed the bread cooking utensil. Then I spooned in eggs from a bowl using a slotted serving spoon to control the amount of egg white. Too much and the entire thing would be drowned and I wanted the cooked eggs to be contained by the edges of the bread.
Here they are ready for the toaster oven. I cooked them until the egg was still runny as in a sunny-side-up egg. This took about six minutes turning the pan around once inside the oven so ensure even cooking. This will vary of course with your toaster oven. I found that if the yolks jiggled when the pan was nudged with a fork they would be runny. A hard yolk will be ridged. Of course you probably already knew that.
Ready to eat on my little table which serves as computer stand, chart table and occasional seat.
I like the yolks runny.
A clean plate. The eggs are gone. I have no more. What if I want to have this dish tomorrow, or next week. Suppose these are the only eggs available, my goodness perhaps I used them too soon. Maybe I should have saved them for another even more spectacular dish. I must learn to husband my resources. If I'm to be able to produce more eggy culinary masterpieces I have to be careful of what I do with my limited supply of eggs. Suppose an honored guest shows up tomorrow desiring my famous egg dish. What am I to do?
Well this little tale really isn't about chicken eggs nor is it a recipe for breakfast but the following might be a recipe for life, or not, you decide.
Now lets look at what life is for. I promised in the beginning of this recipe to discuss the purpose of living things. You may think that your life has great meaning in promoting good, some of you might be in the pursuit of evil but I doubt many evil doers are reading this, except maybe you and I know who you are. Doctors heal, laborers labor, singers sing. Is this the reason they exist? Well biologists have a different slant on this question. Picture so-called inanimate life like a willow tree. They just grow and emit oxygen. Right? Well no but for this discussion lets assume that. If you were a willow tree and looked forward to the big question what would be the most important thing you could do? What does Mother Nature, for want of a better term, desire of each type of living thing.
The mandate of our beloved Mother is to make more of ourselves.
Everything else, in the eyes of nature, is superfluous. Think of the big picture now. Remember those movies of salmon swimming over towering water-filled dams to the upper reaches of some Alaskan stream to spawn as huge brown bears feast on the slow or lazy but then those escaping bear's greedy mouths die providing sustenance for carrion eating birds. All die, both males and females. These salmon have fulfilled their destiny in producing more of themselves and our Mother, having no further need for them, kills them off. Reproduction is their only biological mandate.
My goodness Mother have you no mercy?
Now some life, us for example, continue living after producing another, others like ourselves, mainly to take care of them until they too can make another batch. It goes on and on and on.
So what you may ask.
"What in hell are you babbling about man?"
"What's the point of this drivel?"
"Are you chef or muse?"
"Yes."
This really is a story about eggs but since I brought up all that biological stuff with the hint of sex, sexual reproduction that is, let me get to the real message. All the previous was merely preamble.
Human females have eggs, ova, contained in ovaries. Isn't Latin grand? There are a limited supply of eggs in each ovary. Women seek to make the best use of these relatively few eggs by finding the most desirable mate, so their eggs will go on to survive when combined with male gametes, sperm, to form a fertilized egg or zygote and produce more examples of their superior selves.
Remember the biological mandate, make more of yourself.
Therefore human females husband their eggs seeking to use them wisely. They cannot waste them or their biological mandate will be thwarted. Can they fight this? Yes in some degree as humans are thinking, although sometimes diabolical creatures, but biological nature is the most powerful force here. Therefore biology creates in human females a wise user of a scarce supply of eggs.
This is the reason I brought up the egg recipe above as preamble to the real subject. Try it though. I liked it, so may you.
Now here's the kicker. Males have the same biological mandate, powerful urge, to make more of themselves. This is the only reason they exist and fortunately we don't die afterward like salmon as our young need help to survive so they too can continue the process.
Males however have an almost unlimited supply of sex cells, gametes, sperm and have no biological need to husband their supply, we can use 'em almost indiscriminately and may therefore be biologically promiscuous. Sorry ladies but these are the biological facts here. Just the facts ma'am, just the facts.
This is the reason I've brought up this recipe for life. Men are biologically indiscriminate in mating habits, women have to be selective.
Sorry but these are the facts ladies, at least in biological terms. However humans also have the ability to think and males can overcome biological rote behavior transcending our promiscuous mandate and some no doubt do.
I'm not sure why I'm sharing this with you. Maybe I just wanted to have some eggs this morning.
"Is this a recipe for breakfast eggs or one for life?"
"Yes."
JUST A LITTLE BORED
ALWAYS WATCHING
TAKE CARE,
JB
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