18 Eggs, 4 People, 24 Hours

We have a ridiculous over-supply of lemons, oranges and mandarins at the moment, so we did what any normal people would do - prepared to make marmalade and lemon curd. To this end, on Friday afternoon, I bought 18 eggs.

As I plopped the shopping bag on the floor outside the kitchen, I returned to the front door to lock it. As I turned the key in the lock, I heard an odd sound, then a very loud "OH! Teddy!" from an indignant Harriet. Cue me running back to find Teddy standing over the shopping bag with an upturned, empty 18 egg carton in his hand.

After soothing his startled little body, I surveyed the damage - 8 eggs smashed on the floor beyond repair, and surprisingly 10 eggs found snuggled away in various pockets of the bag completely intact. Woot! So I packed them gently away in expectation of Saturday's lemon curd making extravaganza.

Saturday morning - bunk bed making day! To which Ted spent the first three hours screaming and howling hysterically abut Papa "breaking my bed", Harriet screamed and yelled at Ted, and I tried in vain to get something done other than cooking various breakfasts, calming hysterical toddlers and discussing logistics and the need for calm with Harriet. James then mentioned how tired Harriet had been for the last few days...and grumpy...and how she seemed to be more bony rather than just her usual lean.

*lightbulb* She needed more protein! So I offered her one of the precious few eggs remaining. She ate one soft boiled egg with toast soldiers...then another...then an egg and lettuce sandwich in quick succession. So that's three eggs and two pieces of toast, as well as a bowl of porridge and an apple from earlier that morning. We seriously need a second mortgage to cover food costs.

The egg stash has dropped from 18 to 10. Now it rapidly dropped again from 10 to 7. Then I started making the lemon curd for a present...which used 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks... bringing me down to 3 eggs remaining. So I made the lemon curd but whilst I was stirring it (it needs you to stand there constnatly whisking the mixture over a low heat for about 40mins) I briefly left it to take James' bread for the sandwiches out of the freezer. When I returned to the curd (such a short time it had been left!) there were now tiny little bits of cooked albumin in there. Argh!

So yet again me and egg had a special relationship as I strained out the tiny pieces of cooked egg and returned it to the pan. I continued to make the curd (yum!) and embroidered a little love heart for the lid.

James then had two egg and lettuce sandwiches for lunch himself, which left me with one egg. And that's what we have left right now - one hard boiled egg sitting in the fridge.

And that's the story. The bunk bed is a similar saga, but I need to get back to reading Jennie's thesis on salmonella. Mmmmm....