Salmonella

DJ eats raw eggs. Or rather, he used to. He would pour up a glass of skim milk (from cows that received no artificial growth hormones), crack two eggs into it, stir it with a fork and gag it down for breakfast.

Salmonella risk or no, this was too much for me to handle in the early morning hours. Laura, who generally has a very weak stomach, would stand in front of him and laugh as he choked and gagged on the slimy concoction. But I would gag right along with him, and my eyes would water... so I started cooking him eggs in the morning. Today I boiled some homemade chicken broth and whisked in two eggs for a fortifying and healing egg-drop soup that he could eat out of a large cup on his way to school. He still has a bronchial infection going on, and having suffered with it for about two weeks now, he is getting cross, which is good motivation for me to find him a cure.

Speaking of things like chicken broth and healing concoctions... a week ago Shawn was sicker than a dog with a stomach thing. He was up all night and then actually worked from home the next day. It didn't linger, and nobody else got it, so we finally decided that it came from the Burger King Whopper that he ate for lunch on the previous day.

People get all upset when they hear that DJ eats raw eggs. "Won't he get food poisoning?" they ask in horror (except the ones who hum the Rocky theme song; they just smile). DJ has done a lot of research. Well, yes, it's just internet research, but... he says your risk of getting food poisoning from eating at a fast food restaurant is exponentially higher than that of getting salmonella from raw eggs. Our experience suggests that he is right.

Something to think about. Consider your risks the nixt time you pull up to a drive through. You have better odds with raw eggs.