Boy,am I relieved.This morning at 6:15,I saw Daddy at the box,thought he just might be feeding Mom.I didn't want to check that early in case Mom might be laying another egg.Just now when I came home,I decided to check the box.Dad was in a nearby tree and when I opened the box,there was Mom sitting there all crouched down,nice and cozy.she never even moved.Needless to say,I closed the box quickly and left her alone.I was very relieved and excited.I have no idea if there are more than 3 eggs or not,just happy they are ok.Also on the way back to the house,I walked by a box that has been mounted on the side of the garage for a few years and has always gone unoccupied.My husband mentioned the other day that he saw a bird sticking his head out ,but was unsure what it was.As I walked by,I gently tapped and out came a white breasted nuthatch.How exciting,that is a first for me.Very cool.This box is difficult to open,so I will just have to leave it alone and enjoy.Glad to share some good news.....Jane

Oh dear - let's see what I did :-) Basically, I started with the Gazpacho recipe in WS but wanted it chunkier and easier. Chopped 1 red onion in Vitamix - saved 1/4 cup for another recipe. Put 3/4 to 1 cup in a bowl for later. Add 1 chopped seedless (skinned or not) cucumber, 1.5-2 cups chopped heirloom tomatoes(or whatever you want - I used a mixture of Amish paste, heirloom, and regular tomatoes), 1 TB lemon juice, 2 tsp fresh chopped parsley, 1 TBS oil to this bowl and refrigerate Start a second bowl and put the rest of the onions in it. Core(if you want) another 2 lbs of tomatoes and quarter - put 1/2 in the bowl and the rest in another bowl.(or just combine them all - it works a well as you are going to liquify everything in the end). 1 large or 2 small garlic cloves Salt and pepper to taste (I keep things low sodium but added a bit for our guests) 2 TBS lemon 1/2 tsp fresh thyme 2 TBS Sherry vinegar (I didn't have any - so used 1 TBS Apple cider vinegar and 1 TBS port wine - LOL) Blend 1/2 of the tomatoes going from 1 to max until completely smooth. Then turn to level 1 to "burp" it. Pour into a dish Add rest of the tomatoes and another cuke and repeat. Just before serving, add the fresh veggies to the soup or ladle soup and have guests add the veggies. Now, the WS calls to use 2 cups of cubed french bread and blend that into the first batch of tomatoes(in the vitamin) but I didn't do that step - I didn't have any french bread and wasn't sure about how it would do. Serve with either plain yogurt or sour cream. Hope I didn't miss anything.

I was thinking the same thing as juliekcmo said: I think, in the context of the larger world outside of GW, that "messy cook" = "I cook" (vs I reheat/thaw) It goes farther, however. I wasn't feeling well so went for high convenience, low fuss. I asked the butcher to butterfly the chicken for me (i.e., no chicken bits flying because someone got too happy with his cleaver). I did slice an onion but used pre-peeled baby carrots, peewee potatoes, and yellow cherry sized tomatoes. Put all the veg in a sheet pan with the chicken on top, and--look out for the mess!--dumped a bottle of madras sauce over the chicken. Nope. No spills or splashes, just have to rinse down the sink after rinsing the jar for the recycling (waste of water, not mess). Delicious dinner. Passably homecooked, though not from scratch. No mess. One knife and cutting board to be washed. Dished up out of the pan. Pan went in DW. Some people do that kind of mess free, low prep cooking all the time. When I make a big kettle of spaghetti sauce, it splatters. It gets on the backsplash, and the counters, and the floor. Not a lot of it. But there's some mess what with the bubbling and the stirring and the ladling and the pouring. And for sure there are little tomato drips on the soapstone (and the tile). Like they could care. People complain about cleaning grout, but I can't even get red paint to stain it. Tomato sauce is a breeze. But by the time the containers are cool enough to refrigerate and the counter is revealed, if it were marble, it would have etched freckles at the least, and they'd probably be red ones. Yes, one could put down paper, or even better, a board, to preserve the marble, but what the hay? It's a kitchen counter! It seems silly to have to cover it in order to be able to ladle out spaghetti sauce. There's enough other clean-up to do as well, without obsessively lifting each container and trying to wipe up unseen freckles well enough that they don't become permanent. I do clean as I go, and actually wash the counter (and backsplash and floor (unless the housekeeper is coming in the morning, in which case I just wipe)) after everything's packed up, but, yes, I'm too messy a cook for marble.

The first grade answer is water, fats, get trapped in cell walls, meat fibers...cold/frozen foods. Quick heat and steam trapped under pressure with nowhere to go, boom. Only one egg exploded and i knew why immediately, just wasn't thinking...then hid expecting the second one to blow, haha. Rarely use the microwave. Re-heat tea, maybe a soup or sauce. Always in short increments. Defrost setting when that applies... I don't like day old HB eggs. Ice box cold. 5am in a rush. I wanted a less ice cold quick egg salad. Salt, pepper, dill, Sriracha, tbsp plain yogurt. I like it warm.