Deviled eggs are evidently a hot topic for a lot of people.
I am referring to my January column here in Today in Mississippi about my miscalculation of the number of deviled eggs we made for Christmas and how hard they are to peel. The day the issue hit mailboxes I started getting emails about the best way to boil and shell eggs. And the emails continued. This is by far the most response I’ve have ever had to any article I have ever written. I even considered becoming a food writer, except I don’t really know a lot about cooking. I think I proved that with the deviled eggs.
I have gotten a lot of good suggestions about how to boil and extract eggs from their shells. I haven’t digested (pardon the pun) all the tips yet. But I promise to come up with a condensed set of recommendations when I do. Hopefully before Easter, since that’s the next time we will be boiling a bunch of eggs. One almost universal tip — new eggs don’t do as well as old ones. So, don’t wait until the week before you need them to buy them if you plan to peel them later.
But in thinking about writing about food, since I’m not that good of a cook, maybe I could get other people to share their recipes with me. For instance, I’d love to get Mr. D at the Old County Store in Lorman to give me a lesson on frying chicken. But then again, it’s a lot easier just stop by and pick up a to-go order when I’m in that part of the state.
Speaking of that part of the state, if you have a map that shows Lorman, look down to the southwest on Highway 553 and see if you can find Church Hill. Church Hill is probably best known for Christ Church, an Episcopal church built in 1858. For a long time, the church has been one of the last things standing at Church Hill. But that changed recently.
Around the end of November, the Church Hill Variety store opened. It is a convenience store, restaurant, and pub put together by screenwriter and film director Tate Taylor and some of his friends. Taylor directed the movie “The Help.” Taylor is from Mississippi and filmed “The Help” in Mississippi. And afterwards, he moved back to Mississippi. Now, several of his movie-making friends have visited here and decided they want to live here, too. A bunch of those friends and others are settling in and fixing up some of the old homes at Church Hill.
And with the Variety store here, they don’t have to drive all the way to Natchez for a loaf of bread, a weekend meal, or a place to relax with friends.
I like to see old places like Church Hill come back to life again with a real purpose — a new purpose.
