a little birthday picnic for 12 and a secret deviled egg recipe

On Saturday we had a little birthday soiree for my brother. Jim took out the old smoker early in morning, piled in some alder and hickory wood and smoked this salmon and some outstanding ribs too (which went too quickly to get a photo of--I'm serious) while I baked this peach-blueberry cobbler--I had to--the peaches and blueberries begged me to take them home from Saturday's market.

When everyone showed up later in the day, we passed around deviled eggs first (my mom's recipe, my brother's favorite) followed by the rest: a salad of fresh heirloom tomatoes (had to supplement my own with some of these beauties from the farmers market and just a little sea salt, olive oil and basil from the garden), some corn-on-the-cob and thinly sliced cucumber salad with yogurt, dill and lemon and some cornbread with fresh corn and japaleños that Jim had baked alongside my cobbler in the morning.

Later, my brother wore the birthday turban, blew out the candles on the cobbler and I passed out the fake mustaches. I think we all had a grand old time and my mom said she was very impressed by our interpretation of her deviled eggs.

my nieces and practically nephew (by virtue of his boyfriendliness to Laura)

My Mom's Famous "Gone in Sixty-Seconds" Deviled Eggs

8 eggs, preferably just laid recently by a chicken
some good mayonnaise
a tsp of dijon mustard or more to taste
1-2 Tbs fresh dill, chopped fine
2 Tbs fresh minced red onion
3 little cornichon pickles or capers, chopped fine
1 tsp or so good sweet paprika
sea salt and black pepper

Boil the eggs until the yolks are just about hard but still sunny yellow. Peel while still warm (unlike what I did which was to wait until they cooled down so we had to chip off the shell, bit by bit...not fun). Cut in half vertically this time, just to shake things up a bit in the deviled egg world, and scoop out yolks into a small bowl.

Set the halved white parts on a pretty platter. You may want to slice an ever-so-thin piece off the bottoms so they don't slide around.

To the bowl with the yellows, add mayo until kind of creamy and
a tsp or so of dijon mustard to taste.
Fold in chopped dill, onion and pickle or capers and mix gently and then some paprika and salt and pepper 'til you like the flavor.
Spoon gently back into the whites

Decorate with a sprinkle of bright red paprika, a sprig of dill, a tiny slice of pickle or a caper or sometimes mom puts a little curl of smoked salmon on top which is awesome too.