Fun with Easter Eggs!

Ever since I was a little girl I loved decorating Easter Eggs or any eggs at all, it really didn't matter what time of year it was.  In fact, my grandmother who lived with us would give me the dry outer skins from the yellow onions and have me put them in with my eggs as I hard-cooked them.  The golden color from the skins would come off onto the eggs giving them a beautiful and natural golden color.  You would have thought that we had chickens that laid GOLDEN EGGS!

However, today they have all sorts of dyes to add to your eggs shells (available at craft and cake decorating stores) that enhance their colors and make them almost whimsical-like.  Rather than going out and purchasing all sorts of templates though to decorate your eggs with, below are some fun ideas that you can easily do at home with your kids, so they can have their own whimsical eggs this Easter!

However, before going out and purchasing those eggs here are some safety tips you should consider:

• Always buy eggs from a refrigerated case and keep them refrigerated before you boil them in preparation for decorating. Be sure to check the "Sell by" dates.
• When you boil your eggs, make sure the water is hot (185-190 degrees F). Cool your eggs in cold water or allow cooling slowly at room temperature.
• When shell eggs are hard-cooked, the protective coating is washed away, leaving open pores in the shell where harmful bacteria could enter. Be sure to refrigerate eggs within two hours of cooking and use them within a week.
• Don't eat or cook with cracked eggs or eggs that have been un-refrigerated for more than two hours.
• If you plan to eat the Easter eggs you decorate, be sure to use only food grade dye. (Some people make two sets of eggs - one for decorating and hiding, another for eating.)
• Make sure to wash (and re-wash) your hands, utensils, and work surfaces to keep bacteria from spreading.
• Hide eggs in places that are protected from dirt, pets, and other bacteria sources.
• Limit the hiding and hunting time for real eggs to two hours. Refrigerate them immediately if they are to be eaten.
• Eggs found hours later or the next day should be thrown out -- not eaten!

Now For Some Fun Decorating Ideas!  

Decorating with Stickers is a fun and simple way to create whimsical Easter eggs.

Materials:

• hard cooked eggs
• egg dye
• Stickers (paper reinforcements, store bought stickers or even designs you've created by cutting shapes out from Con-Tact paper

Instructions:

1. Begin with a cooled egg and cooled dye; otherwise, the adhesive gets sticky and difficult to remove. Cover the egg with stickers, then dip the egg until the desired shade is achieved.
2. Let the egg dry, and remove the stickers. If you wish, you can remove only some of the stickers and dip the egg in a second color.

Another fun technique is simply using rubber bands. 

Materials:

• hard cooked eggs
• egg dye
• rubber bands of various widths and sizes, long enough to wrap around the egg several times
• paper towels

Instructions:

1. Wrap rubber bands around the egg, covering it as much or as little as you like.
2. Dip the covered egg into the dye. The color will seep under the bands in some areas and be blocked out in other areas. Remove the egg when the desired shade is achieved.
3. Blot dry with paper towels and remove the rubber bands. If you like at this point you can repeat with a new color.

The last one it to sponge paint your egg.

         

Materials:

• hard cooked eggs
• scissors
• kitchen sponges
• tempera paints

Instructions:

1. Cut out small shapes, about 1/2-inch wide, from the sponge (a thin rectangle was used above to make the zigzag pattern).
2. Dip the sponge into the paint, dab off the excess and make a pattern of stamps on the egg.

Tip:  To keep your colors fresh and bright use a different sponge for each color.
         Of course don't forget you can also use stick-on jewels to embellish your eggs too!Remember if you're hard-cooked eggs never come out right, read my blog post on getting perfect hard-cooked eggs everytime!
Wishing you a Happy Easter and Happy Easter Egg Hunting!

Perfect Hard-Cooked NOT Hard-Boiled Eggs!

Easter will be here before you know it and for those celebrating you'll probably be making lots of hard-cooked eggs.  Whether you're making them to decorate or to eat you'll want to be sure you cook them properly. 

It's really quite simple to prepare perfect hard-cooked eggs. First of all you need to know the difference between a hard-cooked and a hard-boiled egg.  Although the cooking water must come to a full boil in this method, the pan is immediately removed from the heat so that the eggs cook gently in the hot water. This produces tender, not rubbery, eggs and minimizes cracking.


Most people I know just plop them into the water, let them boil for 10 mintues or so and then turn the heat off.  If you cook your eggs too long you'll find you have a green ring around the yolks.  This harmless but unsightly discoloration that sometimes forms around hard-cooked yolks results from a reaction between sulfur in the egg white and iron in the yolk. It occurs when eggs have been cooked for too long or at too high a temperature. 


For perfect hard-cooked eggs without the green ring just follow these instructions.  You'll not only have perfect eggs everytime but if you're celebrating Easter then you'll have perfect Easter Eggs as well!

• PLACE eggs in saucepan large enough to hold them in single layer. ADD cold water to cover eggs by 1 inch. HEAT over high heat just to boiling. REMOVE from burner or turn your flame off if using a gas stove. COVER pan.

• LET EGGS STAND in hot water for:  
  15 minutes for large eggs
  12 minutes for medium eggs
  18 minutes for extra large

• DRAIN immediately and serve warm. OR, cool completely under cold running water or in bowl of ice water, then REFRIGERATE.

Note:

Very fresh eggs can be difficult to peel. To ensure easily peeled eggs, buy and refrigerate them a week to 10 days in advance of cooking. This brief "breather" allows the eggs time to take in air, which helps separate the membranes from the shell.



Hard-cooked eggs are easiest to peel right after cooling. Cooling causes the egg to contract slightly in the shell.


To peel a hard-cooked egg: Gently tap egg on countertop until shell is finely crackled all over. Roll egg between hands to loosen shell. Starting peeling at large end, holding egg under cold running water to help ease the shell off.

Next up time I'll share with you some fun Easter Egg decorating ideas.

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