Friday, April 2, 2010

From Easter Eggs to Dill Eggs



My children were unbearably excited to dip Easter eggs. I didn't allow the tablets to dissolve long enough and when I put lemon juice in the make "more vivid" colors, it foamed and seemed to leave streaks in the dye. The children did not notice, and I still think the eggs are pretty. The plan was to color on the eggs with markers and put stickers on them, but we got distracted by Ben's high fever (for four days now) and subsequent ear infection.

Our egg session was rushed and unimaginative (grabbed a box of dye at the pharmacy for $2). Do you have any inspiration for coloring eggs for next year? A cool technique or something especially gratifying for children? Or maybe I should just take my time. . .



Pre-Easter, I've already starting turning the eggs into dilled eggs. Remember the purple eggs? Here's another marinade: leftover pickle juice. Just plop the hardboiled eggs in there - for at least 24 hours, the longer the better. Then use them to make a fantastic egg salad.

3 comments:

A said...

Dearest,
If you want to get all Martha, apparently you can boil onion skins for a lovely deep yellow color...there are several other natural things to dye with but I can't recall them. The other fun thing is first drawing on it with a candle bit left over and then dying it to see the designs. My aunt also geniusly took several little containers (baby ones--maybe eye drop containers?) and put food color in them, stuck in them into a dish of playdough so they didn't spill, and then put Q-tips in them that the kids could use to draw on the dyed eggs.

Deanna Beth said...

I colored eggs with friends this year and learned this tip from them. It's smart in the realm of practicality rather than creativity. For little kids without the motor skills to handle that little wire egg lifter, use a metal whisk. Spread the wires enough to slip the egg inside, then the whole whisk, with the egg, can be dipped into the dye, allowing them more control.

Margo said...

A and Deanna Beth, THANKS! Both are great ideas I can use. And we did have some cracked eggs from littles trying to dip their own.