Get Your Eggs Dyed!

Do you dye Easter Eggs? As kids, we always did. My mom would hard boil those puppies, then we would take turns seeing who could make the coolest speckled, polka-dotted, tie-dyed or the like, egg. We were way too cool for just solid colors! My mom & my aunt always got in on the action, too, as we always spent Easter eve at my grandparents house, then filled up an entire pew in church on Easter Sunday. However, it never crossed my mind about what actually happened to those eggs on post-Easter Monday (or Tuesday, or Wednesday...) besides the fact that they were eventually likely to smell. The Easter Bunny didn't take them, so I suppose our parents eventually ate them, which brings me to today's idea.

I am not about eating hard boiled eggs at ALL! Those things make my skin crawl. The smell alone is enough to remind me of well water or the day after a pinto bean dinner at my house! One thing we always have on the table for Easter dinner at my mom's house is deviled eggs-- which, are deviled eggs really appropriate after you go to church? (Get it... church, devil... oh come on!!) However, my kids still always want to dye those pesky eggs... LIGHTBULB MOMENT!

We hard boil our eggs to make deviled eggs, peel the shell off, then use food coloring to dye the eggs that will be eaten as deviled eggs. I even go ahead & cut mine in half & rake out the yolk, so my kids can dye twice as many. The first year we did it, my family took one look at those multi-colored things and gave me that "you've got to be kidding me" look. I feel certain they felt like we had used PAAS coloring and were conducting a study to see if egg dye had long-lasting harmful effects. :)

photo credit

Now, however, they are getting used to the idea of culturally diverse deviled eggs and enjoy praising the children on their colorful creations. PLUS the fact that I don't waste hard boiled eggs that will go uneaten.

If you want to go all artsy and try your hand at crackled-looking hard-boiled or deviled eggs, head over to The Barefoot Kitchen Witch for directions. They're so cool!

Now, for those of you who are wagging your heads saying "I just use the eggs my children dye the night before, as deviled eggs on Easter." Well, good for you, but my kids would cry foul for their fowl. They voice loud concerns when I so much as entertain the idea of putting a treasured art project into file 13. I can only imagine the wails that crushed egg shells in the trash would produce! :)

If dying eggs is on your list of things 'to do' this week, maybe you should consider dying your deviled eggs! Happy Easter and save on, friends! :)