Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Best Easter Eggs Ever – Pink Saturday

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Growing up I always felt sorry for my friends who got hardboiled eggs from the Easter Bunny. What in the world could you do with a hardboiled egg after you found it? My eggs were just as colorful as their eggs, and they came filled with candy. Sometimes there was even a quarter inside.

My family has always made Easter Eggs this way. Starting several weeks before Easter, my mother would begin saving the egg shells as she used eggs in cooking. She would carefully tap the small end of the egg on the countertop and break out a hole a little larger than a quarter.

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Then she would rinse the egg and store it in an empty egg carton.

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easter eggs 006A few days before Easter is a good time to dye the empty egg shells. I don’t remember what brand of Easter egg dye we used back in the day, but I like to use PAAS. I just follow the instructions on the PAAS package and soon I have bright colorful egg shells.

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Once the eggs are the shade I want them, I stand them on the open end and let them drain onto paper towels until the outsides are dry to the touch. Then I put them back into the egg carton so that the inside dries out completely. Here’s Brent working on some Easter eggs on our porch back in the early '90’s. I tried to dye my eggs on my screened porch this year, but it was too windy, so I had to work inside on the island in the kitchen.

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Now comes the fun part. You can fill your eggs with any kind of candy you like, but we have found that the ideal Easter egg mix is M&M’s, candy corn and Planters Spanish Peanuts. These are the small salted peanuts with the red skin on them. What’s really good is if the Easter Bunny hides the eggs outside early in the morning. There’s something about the dew on the grass that helps to blend the sweet and salty flavors.

Once the eggs are stuffed, I close the open end with a crepe paper flute or some colorful Easter grass like the PINK grass I used this year because, would you believe, Michael’s did not have crepe paper.

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These eggs are all going into Ben’s Easter basket that I painted back in 1988. He and Claire will meet us in Memphis for church and lunch. I hope he’ll enjoy his Easter egg dessert.

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bijw9y On this PINK SATURDAY please visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound to see what others have to share.

15 comments:

Keetha Broyles said...

Wow, I like your mother's way better too!!!

We never had the actual egg shell, just candy.

Claudia said...

What a great idea! You can only eat so many hard-boiled eggs! Happy Pink Saturday!

Marjorie (Molly) Smith said...

That is such a clever idea. I always loved the hard boiled eggs, lol..I usually had a tummy ache after Easter cause I'd try to eat all of them...what we didn't eat that day was turned into stuffed eggs for supper the next night. I still eat alot of boiled eggs. I think I actually like them better than the candy.
Happy PS and Happy Easter.
Molly

Domestic Designer said...

What a great idea for Easter eggs! So much better than hard boiled! Have a blessed Easter!

Susie Jefferson said...

Oh, wild! Love this idea. Never mind my DH's cholesterol - I'll make sure we eat plenty of eggs so I can try this for next year (too late for this one!) I'm saving this post!

Thanks for visiting me, and re the comment, bless you - you're too kind!
Happy Pink Saturday, and Happy Easter.

Robin said...

That is such a great idea! I have never heard of that. My kids would like that sooo much better than dumb ol' hardboiled eggs!

{{{{{HUGS}}}}}

Robin :o)

From the Old InkWell said...

FUN! Can't wait to do this with my grandchild when he gets old enough!

Char said...

I will have to give the eggs a try next year, they look great, Happy Pink Saturday, Happy Easter too, Char

Jennifer said...

It looks like there was fun envolved in making those cute eggs! Happy Easter!
Happy Pink Saturday!
Jennifer

Cindy (Applestone Cottage) said...

I really like this idea! I am one of those poor kids who got the hard boiled kind. LOL, Cindy

momma said...

i love this idea!!! we eat a lot of eggs here, so i'd have TONS of shells to do this with next easter. thank you for sharing this!!

Bargain Decorating with Laurie said...

I've never seen eggs done this way. I wish I'd seen this before we did our usual hard boiled eggs. What a great idea! I'll have to remember this for next year. laurie

Lisa said...

What a cute idea! Thanks for the great how-to!Happy Pink Saturday!
Happy Easter!
Hugs, Lisa

Soosie said...

This was one of the many perks that I received by marrying into the Walker family..I thought my mom did Easter right with all those sugar panoramic eggs..but then I saw the famous Walker eggs with their wonderful candy concoction in the innards. The first time I made them as a new bride, I forgot to totally dry out the inside before I piled the candy mix in..yuk! I do love these eggs..Thanks for sharing, Kathy..Susie

Jane Gatewood said...

My goodness, Kathy. Same here. The Gordon-Ritchie family ALWAYS had the Easter Eggs as you did with crepe paper/coordinated fluffy, curly bunny poofs on top! We did not know of Easter Eggs any other way. I taught my younger son and his girlfriend how to make them to carry on the tradition. Do you think it was a Camden thing?
Jane Dansby Gatewood