Porch Chronicles

Maybe it’s a southern thing, but in the summertime I love sandwiches for breakfast. Top five? Cucumber and mayo, cream cheese and green olive, tomato and mayo, leftover ham and mayo and the all time winner- homemade egg salad with a baby kosher dill on the side.

My Mom taught me that the secret to a good egg salad is a pinch of curry along with salt- nowadays I like the flavor of sea salt.

I’m crazy about a brand of curry powder by JCS called Reggae Country Style Real Jamaican Style Curry Powder that I sought out on the Internet when they stopped carrying it at DeKalb Farmer’s Market. You can call 1-800-915-5678. Nice folks. They sent me a yellow key chain shaped like Jamaica with my order just for looking them up. I appreciate their old fashion attitude about customer service.

When it comes to mayo, you can either make it yourself or use Hellman’s – next best thing to homemade. Substitutes don’t work. You need just the right amount of acid that comes from the lemons in Hellman’s mayo to balance the richness of the yolks and curry.

A dash of plain, yellow hotdog mustard and you should be good to go. By the way, the ratio of hard boiled eggs to mayo, curry, mustard, salt and pepper is whatever makes you happy.

Slice a good French or multi grain bread or, if you can find it, Publix’s Five grain bread. To toast or not to toast, that is the question. Either way it’s all good.

A kosher baby dill on the side provides crunch and tang, but can be added to the egg salad for a variation as can chopped, stuffed green olives. Ripe olives will work, but don’t bring enough acidity to the party for my likes.

Not much porch time lately what with a round of the flu, record breaking temperatures of 107 and helping get kids to camp.

Looking forward to seeing what’s new in the hood. By the way, where the heck are the hummingbirds this summer?