Sunset

You will need:
Fresh orange juice
Fresh lemonade
Raspberry syrup (Torani's is okay, but try for a better brand if possible)
Soda water (optional)

Get individual glasses and fill them half-full with ice. Pour lemonade until each glass is half-full of liquid; gently pour the orange juice over the top. Droozle about a shot's worth of raspberry syrup over the top of that and do not stir— the amount will vary with the strength of the syrup so be sure to test it out. If the mix is too sweet, or you want a little sparkle, add some soda water to the lemonade before adding the rest of the ingredients. (Okay, you can add it after, and stir, but it's not as pretty.)

You might guess from the name that this is related to a Sunrise, as in Tequila. Go ahead and add the liquor if you want but I'm not going to ruin the taste.

Update: Rowan mentions that she has had a grenadine version instead of raspberry. I think that is an excellent idea, so take your pick of the two.

Eggs!

To make proper hard-boiled eggs, you must start with cold water. If you're making a whole bunch of eggs at once, and merely dump the new ones in already boiling water, the eggs will tend to split and ooze. Not a good thing. You place the eggs— preferably several days old, so they will peel easily— in a pot, cover them with cold water, salt the water*, and heat until boiling. Then you cover the pot, turn off the heat, and let it sit for 10 minutes. (PLEASE NOTE: That time changes with altitude; consult a high-altitude cookbook for proper timing.) Run cold water over the eggs in the sink until they are cool and safe to handle. There! Hard-boiled eggs.

*Salt in the water helps the egg to release from its shell.

But then you have to dye them. Dye kits are inexpensive and widely available, but you can make your own if you really want. It takes about 2/3 cup water and 2 tsp. distilled (white) vinegar, plus as much food coloring as needed to get the right shade. Celestial Seasonings and Home & Garden Television have recipes for natural dyes. Celestial Seasoning also mentions that adding a little vegetable oil to your dye will create a marbelized look.

If you're really hard-core about decorating eggs, you can do Ukrainian style eggs, also known as pysansky. Be aware that not only is this a time-consuming process (with the traditional tools including a candle; no doubt professional decoraters have nifty technical tools), but that a properly made pysansky is done with a raw egg, so it's dangerous to handle for several months (until it dries out entirely.) Simpler effects can be achieved with the wax crayon included in most decorating kits; leave the crayon in the sun for easiest use.

Okay. You've boiled them, now you must eat them. Last week's egg salad is one way to get rid of the suckers. Deviled eggs aren't that different of a concept, but take a little more work. They are so popular that there are platters designed just for serving them.

For deviled eggs, you always start with the basic hard-boiled egg. Most recipes I've seen ask for six, so assume all proportions work from that number. You peel the shell off, cut it lengthwise, and remove the yolk. The yolks go into a bowl with varying ingredients, depending on your recipe.

Goodegg.com has a classic recipe where you mash the yolk with 3 tbsp mayonnaise, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp mustard, 1 tsp vinegar, salt, pepper, and paprika. Okay for the basic idea, but you can replace the mayo with mustard (or dijon) for a kick, or go in a new direction entirely, adding horseradish and Parmesan cheese for a new take, jalepeños, chiles, and cumin for a Southwestern feel, or you could get very swank and use a recipe that requires making the mayonaisse from scratch. Neat.

If none of those recipes does it for you, do an online search and you'll turn up thousands more. Or no doubt, the other participants of the Carnival of the Recipes will be happy to share their personal recipes.

Once you've mashed up all of the ingredients, you have to put them back in the egg halves. If you have a deft hand with a spoon, this isn't a problem, but there's a more fun alternative. You take a large ziploc bag, put the mash in there, and seal the top, then cut a small hole in one corner and squeeze the stuff out like it's a pastry bag. (You can, in fact, use a pastry bag.)

So then comes the question, Why am I pointing to all of these online recipes instead of sharing my own? Well, when I was a kid, I hated hard-boiled eggs for a while. I think it had to do with choking down a whole egg when I was sick, not precisely the stuff of good memories. I didn't develop an appreciation for deviled eggs until I was in college, by which point I didn't have a family recipe to fall back on. I suspect my recipe would feature mustard and some onion variant (like chives), but I'm not willing to inflict an untested recipe on you.

Mmm. Onion.

Egg Salad

You will need:
Hard-boiled eggs
Mayonnaise
Spices— pick your favorites. I like salt-free lemon pepper, dried onion flakes, and chives, but you can also use dill, rosemary, paprika, or oregano
Dijon mustard, optional
Good bread

Okay, how's this for simple. You dice the hardboiled eggs, using a knife, egg slicer, or fork, and put them in a bowl. You stir in mayo until the eggs are just holding together, adding a little dijon if that's what you like, and add the spices. Toast the bread, spread with egg salad, and make it a sandwich.

Because of the mayo, it is recommended that you either keep the egg salad refrigerated or in a cooler if you're making sandwiches for a picnic. And remember that egg salad is also the perfect way to use up Easter eggs, even if the dye has seeped through the shell and made it more colorful.

Vaguely Mediterranean Chicken

You will need:
One dozen pitted kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup coarsely chopped roasted red peppers*
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
3 tbsp tomato purée
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper (as always, fresh ground is tastiest)

*note: if these come packed in olive oil, as is common, short the measure of the olive oil.

Heat olive oil in a skillet over low heat. Add peppers, garlic, olives, and tomato purée. Add a little salt and pepper. Cook with occasional stirs for 3-4 minutes. Add chicken, cover pan, and turn heat down as low as possible; cook, turning chicken once, until it is white throughout. The recipe says this should be about eight minutes, but this varies widely with chicken thickness, so be sure to check the interior doneness with a sharp knife, and be careful if you're using a non-stick surface. Serve immediately.

I think that this would go well with either a rice side or with a ranch salad. Or possibly cucumbers.

Smoked Salmon Salad

Last week, when I went to the store looking for salmon steaks (there weren't any, so I had to use a flaky fillet instead), I discovered that Bel Air (a California grocery) actually had a product I have been in search of for quite some time: dry smoked salmon.

For some silly reason, it's almost impossible to find smoked salmon that isn't close to sopping, which sort of defeats the purpose.

My purpose, at least. "Old Fashioned" smoked salmon is almost completely dry, very flaky, and won't spread. But my husband calls it "the food of the gods" and utterly loves it. Of course, he thinks it should be eaten by itself, and so the following recipe is of no use to him.

You will need:
Spring greens or torn lettuce (no iceberg, please!)
Carrot curls
Raisins
Old-fashioned smoked salmon
1 hard-boiled egg, cut into slices
Kalamata olives
Feta cheese crumbles
Yellow or red bell pepper, cut into very thin strips (optional)
Olive oil

Toss the greens, carrot, raisins, and bell pepper, and put into bowls. (Yes, you can use a plate, but I've found shallow bowls much better for salads.) Scatter the egg, kalamata olives, and feta over the salad; top with shreds of salmon. (Make sure you remove bones.) Lightly drizzle olive oil over the top and serve immediately.

Broiled Salmon Steaks

You will need:
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp dijon mustard
4 salmon steaks (1 per person; scale this recipe as needed.)

Sauce:
1/2 medium roasted red bell pepper
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp dried tarragon
1/8 tsp salt (or a few turns from a sea salt grinder)

In a small bowl, mix lemon juice and mustard. Brush over salmon steaks; cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10 minutes. (Or marinade in a ziploc bag.) Broil salmon in pan lined with foil, turning once, until flaky, about 5 or 6 minutes. Serve immediately and watch for bones.

For the sauce, blend the roasted red pepper until smooth; add the yogurt, sour cream, tarragon, and salt and blend until just combined. Serve over salmon or in the cleaned lemon peel (cut a sliver of peel off the bottom to make it flat.)

Lemon Cake

You will need:
1/2 cup sugar
3 tblsp vegetable oil
2 tblsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp grated lemon peel
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 cup sifted cake flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350º. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil. lemon juice, lemon peel, and vanilla. Whisk in milk and yogurt. Sift in flour and baking soda; stir until just blended. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into batter. Pour into 8-inch greased cake mold (or shaped cake mold.) Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean— about 30 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes; turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with fresh strawberries. If fresh strawberries ar unavaliable, preserves may be substituted.