Happy Eggs Re-visited

Easter is upon us, and I wanted to post about Happy Eggs because it is hard boiled egg season.

Okay, I have to admit, I snagged this pic of the smiley eggs from google pics, I have not taken any of my own egg pics. As you can see, you can have a lot of fun with face styles.

Ever since my boys were little, I made hard boiled eggs for them and to distinguish them from the raw eggs, I would put smiley faces on them to make them look fun to eat. My boys are teenagers now and don't have to be coaxed into eating healthy, they are really healthy eaters, but I still do this to distinguish cooked and uncooked..and we still call them "happy eggs".

Of course, if your kids are artistic and into dying eggs, you can dye them to tell the difference between cooked and uncooked..and really, you can do this year round, why just easter eggs are dyed I have no clue.

Dyeing Easter eggs is one of those perennial fun holidays tasks that has probably been around for centuries. Does it improve the taste of the eggs? No. Does it increase the fun and enjoyment of a holiday for kids? Most certainly! Here is a nice, simple way to dye eggs.

There are many ways to dye eggs, with stickers, rubber bands etc you can make all kind of designs on them...here is a basic how to....

masking tape
scissors
hardboiled eggs
food coloring
1/2 cup water per color
1 teaspoon vinegar per color
Cut a variety of shapes from the tape, such as circles, squares, diamonds, stars, hearts, moons etc.
When the hardboiled eggs have cooled, press the tape onto the eggs in any pattern you like.
Be sure to press the tape firmly onto the egg so the coloring doesn’t run under it.
Boil the water and add 1 teaspoon vinegar and 20 drops food coloring.
Dip the egg(s) into the boiling water for about 5 minutes, or longer for deeper color.
Carefully remove the egg(s) and let cool and dry.
When the eggs are dry carefully remove the tape.
You can repeat this process for as many colors as you like.
If you would like to have plain colored eggs, just omit the step with the tape.
(source for instructions: http://www.chevroncars.com/learn/fun-games/how-to-dye-easter-eggs) You can find many sources online. This was the first one in google that did not require me to go out and buy the kit.

I know a friend of mine who just put some vinegar and food color in her cold water bath to her cooling down eggs and that was that, they were all dyed the same color but she knew which were the one's that were cooked at a glance. (not a bad idea, but I think my boys would be secretly disappointed if they were not happy eggs anymore at my house).