Put down the egg-shaped Peep. The season may nearly demand pushing yourself to the edge of sugar coma by consuming a vast array of ovoid candies. But Colorado has a full carton of opportunities to appreciate eggs, old and new. Here are some to try:
VERY OLD EGGS
Dinosaur eggs are a lot harder to find than dinosaur bones for the simple reason that the originals were pretty fragile. But such fossils, which range in size from apples to melons, have been unearthed at more than 200 sites around the world over the past 20 years, and Colorado museums do have a few specimens.
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science has a clutch of 150 million- year-old eggs from the earliest known nest in North America, found in the Morrison Formation near Cañon City. They’re on display with the rest of the big fossils in the Prehistoric Journey exhibit, along with a 70-million-year-old duck-billed-dinosaur egg from Montana.
The Morrison Natural History Museum (501 Colorado 8; 303-697-1873), which just celebrated the 130th anniversary of the first dinosaur discovery on the hogback north of town, also has a clutch of eggs – castings of about two dozen large, elongated raptor eggs, from a circular nest found in China.
A limited number of other eggs or egg shells are in the hands of the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center (201 S. Fairview St., Woodland Park; 719-686-1820) and the Dinosaur Journey Museum (550 Jurassic Court, Fruita; 970-858-7282).
In the field, dinosaur eggs “usually don’t look like an egg, because they tend to be cracked and distorted,” says Charlie Magovern of stonecompany.com, which produced a traveling exhibit that was on display at the University of Colorado Museum in Boulder last fall. “The only way you can really tell is to examine the shell structure.” – Jack Cox
DON’T BE CHICKEN!
When it comes to eggs, don’t be chicken, at least not exclusively. One of the more interesting aspects of Colorado’s increasing ethnic diversity is the availability of other kinds of eggs. Asian groceries stores have an abundance of eggs – fresh, pickled, dried and otherwise.
In Denver, Pacific Ocean International (2200 W. Alameda Ave., 303-936-4845) is a good bet and its prices are a good gauge. Last week, quail eggs were selling for $1.29 for 10. Duck eggs for 59 cents each.
But what to do with them?
Duck eggs are larger than chicken eggs and have a larger yolk. That makes them perfect for folks who take life over-easy. They’re a bit richer, and they whip up bigger, too, which means they’re good in desserts.
Because they are larger, it’s smart to adjust down the number off eggs in a recipe, maybe two large duck eggs if something calls for three regular chicken eggs.
The good news: They’re high in protein. The bad news: Research varies, but they can have twice as much cholesterol.
Quail eggs are high in cholesterol also, so they might not make a full-time substitute for chicken eggs, but they’re tasty and well, cute.
Keep it simple and hard boil them or go for it, like The Fort restaurant in Morrison, which serves pickled quail eggs wrapped in house-made buffalo sausage in a dish called “Bison Eggs,” or Strings, in Denver, which has a “tiny truffle quiche and sunny-side-up quail egg” on its appetizer menu.
A plate full of deviled quail eggs livens up a dinner party, but honestly, it’s a lot of work. These eggs are small: It takes five to substitute for one chicken egg in recipes. – Ray Rinaldi
THE FRESHER THE BETTER
Eggs are great almost any way you get ’em, but they’re at their best when they’re fresh, golden-yolked, and sunny-side up. Wherever you order them, inquire as to their freshness; with eggs, fresher is undeniably better.
Mona’s Restaurant (2364 15th St., Denver; 303-455-4503) serves a range of excellent egg dishes, from scrambled to Benedict. But the best egg dish on the menu is the classic Corned Beef Hash, a crispy-meaty pile of sizzling corned beef, green peppers, onions and potatoes with two resplendent fried eggs perched on top, yellow yolks tall and supple and proud and begging to be pierced. Plunge your fork in and let the goo ooze through the corned beef. Eat it all, and spend the rest of the day happy.
Also providing an exemplary range of farm-fresh egg dishes is The Kitchen Cafe (1039 Pearl St., Boulder; 303-544-5973). Best on the list is the poached eggs, rich and heavy with yolk, which hold court on a slice of meaty ham under a veil of tangy Hollandaise sauce. Linger over this dish with a mimosa and an extra cup of coffee, then take a hike up Sanitas Trail. – Tucker Shaw
SPYING ON THE BIRDS
The vast open spaces around Xcel Energy’s power plants here – and in Minnesota – make for some secluded nesting spots for eagles, hawks and owls. But the big birds aren’t quite out of range of prying eyes.
Lucky for us armchair birdwatchers, the power company has installed “bird cams” on nesting boxes that allow us to spy on the birds. And even more fortunate is that many of the nesting pairs are sitting on clutches of eggs right now.
The cameras snap shots every two minutes, so you can follow each of them through their day. If you watch closely, you may even see one bird bringing a breakfast mouse or two back to the nest.
Visit birdcam.xcelenergy.com and pick your Colorado egg watch:
Kestrel Cam – This camera is trained on a nesting pair of kestrels at the Pawnee Power Station in Brush. Inside the nesting box, the birds are nurturing four big brown eggs.
Eagle Cam – This camera is trained on a pair of bald eagles nesting in the dead cottonwoods at Fort St. Vrain Power Plant near Platte- ville. The female is minding two eggs that were expected to hatch this weekend. The chicks will fledge around May.
Owl Cam – A nesting box on one of the stacks at the Valmont Plant in Boulder is one of the most amusing to spy on, because the great horned owls nesting there have very expressive faces and they look at the camera a lot. The first clutch laid in February did not hatch, but the female is still hanging around the box. This has given biologists the impression that she’s trying again. The Owl Cam also peeks into a barn owl nesting box, so if you visit this cam, you may get a glimpse of them, too. – Dana Coffield
