This recipe is simple yet simply wonderful. It comes from my great grandmother who often made it for friends.

She and her friends were not the sort to go to restaurants so they nearly always made the most wonderful lunches for each other every time they had the chance.

This is a wonderful idea that I intend to make more often now that I have gotten more used to cooking at home as have many of you.

Her lunch table was always set with porcelain, silver and crystal. She didn’t have a single colored tablecloth so it was always a white starched one without a seam in it from being folded. This was apparently a big deal as it never went unmentioned.

They did not know that it was I who starched that table cloth until it was nearly stiff and laid it over the bed in the spare bedroom the night before in anticipation of helping bring it to the table without a crease the next morning!

How many of you remember that terminology, the spare bedroom?

The eggs in this recipe were often served in the spring and were always met with the approval of everyone around the table.

They were served in the same egg stands I mentioned in the previous article. Egg stands and egg cups in silver and porcelain were heavily produced and heavily used.

I remember years later being at a diner in NYC and my egg was served to me in a restaurant style egg cup. It made an impression as I realized not everyone thought of an egg as something special but I did.

Our egg cups were made at the turn of the century by inspired artisans working in silver and porcelain for the tables of patrons of the arts who wanted this particular sort of beauty to adorn their tabletops.

The eggs came from our chickens and, yes, there were chickens in downtown Charleston in the 1960s and 70s. We would get about 12 - 14 eggs a day.

This made these an easy and inexpensive yet elegant ladies’ lunch.

Boil 12 eggs and set aside to cool. Peel, cut in half lengthwise and remove their yolks.

Mash the yolks with 1/2 cup of Duke’s mayonnaise, 1 dash of hot sauce, 2 tsp of liquid from a jar of green olives and 1 whole minced green onion - the green and white parts. Mix and fill each half.

Mix and fill each half.

Press one small boiled and cooled shrimp onto each half. Add salt and pepper.

Serve in egg cups with a lemon wedge and fresh salad with hot bacon dressing.

Place a luncheon-sized silver fork and knife at each place or a fruit fork and knife. Something smaller than usual makes the meal feel even more special and intimate.

This recipe is so easy and so elegant.

Placing the egg in the cup elevates it to a new status and makes us all appreciate how delicious something tried and true can be.

If you are allergic to or do not like shell fish, wrap the stuffed egg in a strip of prosciutto. It is the best thing you can imagine!

Get out your beautiful porcelain, silver, linens and crystal and make a memory for your friends and family.

Next week.. The recipe for wilted salad and hot bacon dressing over asparagus.