Eggs – Over Medium

Dado is boiling eggs, two at a time, on the gas stove. Gum is standing by the light blue counter next to the sink peeling the eggs, one per bowl, mushing them up small with the tines of a fork. She adds a little butter, a pinch of salt, and continues mushing. Parish is sitting in her chair, and I am sitting in Dado's chair on either side of the little kitchen table pushed up under the window that overlooks the backyard. Dado was trying to boil the perfect egg; white all the way cooked, yellow not yucky runny, but still a little runny. A creamy, buttery, chopped up tiny with the fork, wonderful egg. I don't know how many eggs were cooked and eaten that morning, probably all of them. Gum and Dado had patience, the patience only a grandparent has, to stand there and cook, and cook, and cook, laughing, joking, smiling all the while; and peel, and mush, and peel, and mush, and peel, and mush eggs all morning, without complaining, or being in a hurry.

I like to cook breakfast, especially eggs. But when I cook breakfast, I want to cook it for everyone all at once, and be finished. I don't want to be cooking breakfast all morning long.

I have found that ordering med+ boiled eggs at a restaurant, well...they don't know how to do that. A medium poached egg, too watery, they don't drain them enough. But a fried egg, over medium, while sometimes a little underdone, when mushed up with my fork, and stirred into buttery hashbrowns, is the closest thing to Gum & Dado's eggs that I don't have to make for myself.