Colored Eggs
Delia wants to invite friends over for Easter Sunday. For part of the table decoration she wanted "a few" colored eggs. She also wanted to make a few stuffed eggs for appetizers. I said I would pick up three cartons of 18 eggs each. Her reaction was that we wouldn't need that many. I still bought three cartons. The store had just run out of older eggs and had wheeled in a fresh supply as I brought my cart up.
When I got home with my cargo of eggs, I put one carton on to boil. Two eggs cracked, about the normal number, so I ate them and let the rest of them cool. Delia gave me the package of colors and stickers she had picked up at bargain price. It looked old. There were six colors. I asked Delia how many of each color she wanted. Her answer was "Oh, three or four." That always translates to four. I counted my cooled eggs. Eleven had survived. It was time to cook the second carton. Only one cracked the second time. leaving me four spare eggs when they all cooled. There is still a carton of eggs for the deviled or "stuffed" eggs that will be made later.
I protected my work surface, laid out six glasses, each with the required half cup of water, and dropped in the dye tablets, one per glass. Three dissolved. By crushing the remainder I was able to get them to dissolve enough to do their job. All six left gritty deposits in the bottoms of the glasses. I placed the first eggs into the dye solution.
At this point, Delia decided I must be doing something wrong. I had set up to remove the eggs onto absorbant paper plates; she substituted a large china plate. It immediately became obvious that her plate wouldn't work. The eggs rolled through puddles of dye left by other eggs and took on a varigated appearance, losing their purity of coloration. Delia's plate was retired. Napkins were placed on the paper plates to increase absorption of excess dye.
Eventually all thirty eggs were dyed, dried, stickers applied and their surfaces oiled to give them a brilliant sheen. The colors were splotchy and uneven, some had merged, and the purple tended to divide into areas of blue and areas of pink, but it won't matter. The eggs will provide a spot of color on the table for a moment as we prepare to eat, then will be forgotten.
And I will be eating them for the next few weeks.
Comments (3)
Buddy gets all the goose eggs this year. None of them will be dyed. He likes them raw.
I can't remember the last time I ate an egg. If I don't go out for an Easter brunch with any friends, maybe I'll swing by the supermarket, pick up a carton of eggs, and boil a few.
We always color eggs, that is, my husband, kids and grandkids do. I watch. I chop them later and make egg salad.
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