Favourite Easter Eggs
We were supposed to meet with Friends and their kids today. I was looking forward to a goofing around with them while on the Easter hunt. I’m good at kids games. And yes, over the years I’ve learnt to share.
Unfortunately the youngest daughter turned out to be very sick and so Hubby and I stayed home. I took the dog for a long walk, threw (the hopefully last) snow balls and watched her bury her shnoot in the ground while the sun was warming my face. Eventually I even took my coat off, running around with Kea is hard work and since there was no wind, it was perfect.
When I came home, it didn’t feel like Easter. I decided to make the Easter bun I had planned to do, whether or not we had guests. I hadn’t bought any coloured eggs but then remembered how my grandmother used to make them.
The only leafy green I had was cilantro, after all outside there’s still nothing but white. So I took a pot of water, boiled some onion skins, stuck a cilantro leaf on an egg and pulled a section of a nylon pantyhose over it, tied the nylon at both ends of the egg to hold the leaf in place and placed it carefully in the pot to cook until hard. Added 3 more.
Turns out, I didn’t quite have the ratio between onion skins and water right, so it the water wasn’t dark enough. Decided to add a teabag of Redbush tea and that did the trick.
The ones at the top of this post look more like the ones my grandmother would have made, rather than my boring cilantro leaf ones. Where the leaf is placed the egg remains whitish, every where else the onion skin water colours the egg. You can use different types of onion skins for different colours, also left over coffee ground or tea can change it up a bit. Polish the eggs after, I forget what she used, I just had a bit of butter left over to give it the gloss. Aren’t they almost too pretty to break and eat?
Ah and for those interested in the easter bun, Diamonds and Rust just posted a great recipe not too long ago:
http://diamondsandrust.wordpress.com/2008/03/09/swiss-plait-bread-and-easter-baking/
Hoping that you all have a WARM and SUNNY Easter weekend. Happy Easter!
PS. The bottom picture is actually my creation and my picture! And yes, I am proud of both of them 
Those “boring” ones are beautiful! I’ve never seen that before.
The bottom picture looks delicious!
Thanks Lolly! And that’s why I put these things up as who knows, might inspire other people to try out something new. I’ll be expecting your pictures next year.
Those are just beautiful, Spaaaaz!
Thank you Red……. are you an Egg decorator?
As a kid with my great-grandmother’s help, we dyed our Easter Eggs with red onion skins to make gray violet, lemon peels and yellow spices for yellow, coffee or boiled walnut shells for brown, and spinach greens for green. They were really beautiful. We shined them with Crisco and admired them for weeks. (We didn’t eat them!)
Even though the day will be passed, I may just dye some eggs tomorrow. For old times sake. Thanks.
Ah, good Crisco will have to be tried out for next year and so do the greater variety in colours. Thanks so much for sharing. PS. They have to be eaten, how else are you going to ‘egg punching’ contests?
. Wonder right now whether you could do the colouring thing with blown out eggs. I should try that approach next year too……
wow … you should be proud of your creations, amazing! beautiful
Thank you!
You made those beautiful eggs? Oh my gosh, you’re a genius.
WC
Ok, just to clarify and not take credit for something I didn’t do myself, only the bottom creation is mine, the top picture is what I would have liked to be able to do but because we’re stuck in snow, I didn’t have any grasses and ferns. In fact I’m not even sure anymore what ‘green’ looks like
NEAT! Great idea!
Thank you. Glad if I can inspire. Looking forward to next Easter, have more plans….
Great now I’m hungry
Oh, don’t you dare blame me for eating!
Why do we paint Easter Eggs? . . Speaking about the resurrection of Jesus with the Roman Emperor, Mary Magdalene held out an egg (representing life or something). The Emperor said, “Him rising from the dead is about as likely as that egg turning red” — whereupon the egg promptly turned red.
So I’ve heard anyhow, otherwise I have no idea why we paint eggs.
Peter! I am so sorry, not sure how your comment fell between the cracks, sorry for the delay in response. Thank you so much for sharing this story, I was not aware of it. But now I will remember it going forward! And no, I don’t have another story either…. be well, S.