New Week, New Projects...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  Personally, I will be mixed up all week after having no school yesterday...

I have to show you my Sunday night project...we didn't have an Easter dinner here this year (not a "company" dinner), it was just the three of us ~ but, I had been dying (no pun intended) to try this colored deviled eggs idea, so I did ~ to see if it was something I might want to do again.

Really, I just wanted to play.

So, I bought liquid food coloring (something I haven't done in years and years...probably the last food coloring I purchased was the Wilton "paste" kind. For this, you use just plain food coloring (they have "Neon" now, too!) ~

I boiled all my eggs (4 dozen ~ I know, I know ~ but I thought a lot more would break). Using my Mom's method of hard-boiling, though, they all came out perfectly ~ Start the eggs in cold water (with a splash of white vinegar for easy peeling) ~ making sure all are covered ~ and bring to a boil. Immediately turn the burner off, but leave the pan on the stove to cool down (wait at least 15 minutes); then pour off the water and add more cold water to help with the cool-down. Perfection!

After peeling, I halved the eggs length-wise and popped the yolks out into a separate bowl ~ you have to be sure there are no bits of yolk left, or the dye won't stick where it is, so I carefully rinsed the whites.

I added about 10 drops of coloring to a cup of cold water (no vingegar here, that's just for dying eggs in the shell), and left the whites in the color for about 10 minutes. Then I spooned them out and rinsed again (you have to be careful not to nick them, as the coloring is just on the outside).

Arrange them in a deviled-egg dish (I couldn't find mine ~ still packed somewhere) and fill with the yolk mixture as usual.

We ate a lot. I really don't want to see any more deviled eggs for a while.

The jury's still out, however, on whether or not I would do this again.

Though pretty, I think that if I did do it again, I would try to make the colors a lot more pastel. (More future experimenting...definitely future!) ~ this would require just less of the coloring, I think ~ not a timing issue ~ some of the colors immediately "took" and were really bold, right after putting the eggs in the dye-bath, and some took several minutes to show color. Just more "play" required!

It was, however, FUN. Even Jonathan got into coloring "his"...;^)

I just don't know how appetizing they look, even though they were fun...there's something psychological about certain foods and color...



(They actually did look better than they appear here, however ~ it was late and the lighting in my kitchen makes them look a little "off"...)

Here's a little more lasting project! Mr. B started a new flower garden for me this afternoon, right by the patio steps, so I can enjoy the flowers and herbs closer to the house. We had these pavers from last year (the herb garden has a checkerboard walkway around it), and there were enough left to make a walk here, too.

Leo, watching the construction going on outside...

Wednesday already tomorrow! Another week zooms by!

♥ ♥ ♥

Anne