"Devil"ed Eggs

Our family was invited to a friend's house for Easter lunch.  We were thrilled at the invitation, and, as a respectful guest, I asked if there was something I could bring to the table.

This is a customary offer, is it not?  When invited for a meal, the invitee should always offer to bring a dish.  In addition to abiding by custom, though, I also actually love to cook and bake. So, I always enjoy bringing something to a meal.  I suppose in truth, however, I'm always hoping that I'll be the one who decides what exactly I will bring.  I'm always hoping for a, "sure, you can bring whatever you'd like!"  In which case, I generally bring a dessert--because that's what my skill and my taste buds favor.

In this case, I was asked to bring deviled eggs.... at which point I'm thinking:  deviled eggs?! You have got to be kidding.... I HATE making deviled eggs!

Deviled Eggs are named appropriately.  Because, when I think of the devil himself, characteristics like frustrating, difficult, aggravating, challenging and destroying come to mind.  And when I think of deviled eggs, I think of just those same things.

My anger towards the small white and yellow hors devours comes mostly from the act of shelling them.  I cannot, no matter how hard I try, seem to get their shells off without tearing much of the insides apart as well.  I have tried using a spoon; I have tried running them under water.  I have tried letting them sit in the fridge for a day.  Nothing works.  Most often, I am left with a mess of a white that hardly resembles an egg at all.  Sometimes the pieces aren't even whole.

The shame of it all is that I absolutely love the taste of deviled eggs.  Again, it reminds me of scenarios with the actual devil--sometimes, looking at someone's life of sin can look pretty appealing.  The taste of the egg is so good.....  but is it worth the price to get there?

In this instance, I didn't really have a choice.  I certainly didn't feel like I could tell the hostess, "no, I will not bring deviled eggs because they will be an absolute disaster."  I did, however, warn her that they will not win any awards for beauty.  At least I had a Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator so that all was not lost.  Otherwise, I'm not sure anyone would have even eaten my piles of goo.  Although, now that I say that, I don't yet know if the Easy Accent Decorator redeemed my eggs or not....  I still have T minus thirty minutes until I know the true result....

Will anyone even eat my offering?

And for anyone interested in the actual history of the word and concept of the deviled egg--here's a neat site that I found:  http://www.deviledeggs.com/why_called_deviled_eggs.html