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Easter Eggs the Easy Way

Perhaps like me, you’ll be having family around your table for Easter Sunday…adult children or grandchildren who love Easter eggs.  You love having a large bowl of pretty pastel eggs as a centerpiece/menu item for brunch.  But you don’t have any small kids around at the moment to help dye eggs.

With other preparations to make for the holiday, you’re much to busy to line up small cups of dye and dip eggs all afternoon.  So what are you to do?

Having found myself with this dilemma on more than one occasion, I wisely adopted my mother Margaret Owings’ shortcut for easy Easter eggs.

You simply dye the eggs while simultaneously hard boiling them.  All that is required is pots in which to boil water, a tablespoon, some food coloring and some vinegar.

Easter Eggs the Easy Way

Three dozen eggs  (Grade A large)

Three large pots filled three-quarters full with water

Three tablespoons white or cider vinegar per pot

Thirty or more drops of yellow, red, blue or green McCormick’s food coloring (can mix other colors according to directions on box)

Add three teaspoons of vinegar to each pot of water and turn on the burners.  Remove eggs from carton and drop carefully in the pots.  Squeeze in approximately thirty drops of food coloring per pot depending on how deep you want the color to be.  Bring the water to a boil, then lower it to a simmer and cover each pan with a lid.  Let the eggs simmer for 15 minutes.

Extract eggs.  You can submerge them in cold water for easier peeling but I usually place them back in the egg cartons to cool before arranging them in a bowl or basket.  I’ll serve them with homemade muffins or quick bread with juice and coffee for Easter brunch.

 

 

 

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Fresh Spring Herbs Tantalize Taste Buds

While not my favorite time of year, March is the month when my herbs spring back to life alongside daffodils, tulips and grape hyacinths.  I’m always careful not to get the grape hyacinths mixed up with the brighter green garlic chives that pop through through the soil at the same time.   Oregano peeks through the dried leaves and quickly spreads across my herb garden. Radicchio plants that overwintered are growing too.

Pots of thyme, sage and parsley bounced back well. They are abundant enough that I can run out the back door and break off springs to use for cooking or  use them in spring salads and salad dressings.

 

 

 

 

Here’s a recipe for an easy homemade balsamic dressing with garlic and herbs that’s a hit with my family.

Balsamic Dressing with Garlic and Herbs

1 clove garlic (finely chopped)

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Dash of salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2-1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 scant tablespoon water

Dab of French-style mustard (I use Grey Poupon)

Fresh herbs of your choice  basil, oregano, sage and thymeYou can mix this dressing in a blender as shown here or simply in a clean jar that you can shake to mix.  The basic recipe may be used with different kinds of vinegar (red wine or cider vinegar are good) and with different herbs.  You can vary the ratio of oil to vinegar according to your taste.

To blender or jar add:  garlic, sugar and salt, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and water

Use a knife blade or small spoon to add mustard

Strip leaves from springs of herbs and add to blender or jar

Blend or, if using a jar, shake until the ingredients are blended

Pour over salad greens and other ingredients

(The salad I made contained romaine lettuce, sliced apples, slices of orange pepper, blackberries, blueberries, garlic chives and edible violets.  However, the dressing is equally great with red leaf lettuce, and mushrooms, red peppers, shredded carrots or other veggies.)