deviled eggs for the class cookbook

Our oldest's third grade class is making a cookbook. He identified deviled eggs as the recipe he wanted to contribute, so today we whipped up a batch. We started with Alton Brown's recipe in I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking, modifying it slightly to have less mayonnaise, more onion (we used red), more celery, and a sprinkling of capers (not shown). Both boys helped as we steamed a dozen eggs for 12 minutes, mixed the filling, peeled the eggs, and filled them.

My smoked paprika was in a sizable tub rather than a small jar with a lid for sprinkling. I didn't think the boys were likely to produce good results by hand or from a spoon so I put a clump into a tea ball. By tapping that above the plate they had perfect control and produced a very nice dusting. I'm sure I'll use that trick again.

The results were deemed highly satisfactory by all. If I were making these for only myself I think I'd add a hearty dash of cayenne. Next time I'd also try substituting a bit of sour cream for some of the mayonnaise for a hint of tartness.