Great Eggspectactions

Last night I went out and bought 5 dozen eggs.

I will bring them to Montreal with me tonight and then tomorrow and Saturday, the kids and I can color them. Actually, we will probably only colour a dozen or so, but who knows, the kids might want to do more.

Of course, we will drive Sofia crazy with the mess. I also bought a ham for breakfast Sunday morning. Eggs and ham are strongly ingrained in me as the proper way to start Easter morning (ok, after church). Of course, fresh baked buns are essential as well – although I don’t think I will be making any (principally because the oven still doesn’t work, and secondly, because it is a lot of work – yes, I have kneaded my fair share of dough in my life).

My mother colours eggs using onion skins. Yeah, those thin brown papery wrappings will actually colour the eggs a nice reddish brown. You need a lot of them, put them in a pot, add eggs, add water, add caraway seed (if you like) and boil for a while (I am sure it was in the 2 hour range).

The eggs would then be decorated by scraping them with the point of a knife. This scratched away the reddish-brown colouring, revealing the white underneath. So you would have these gorgeous reddish-brown eggs laced with delicate white images.

This page explains one way of doing it.

Image take from the same page.

Comments

Kay said…
Hi Richard

Happy Easter to you and family...

Too bad we dont have that here in Singapore, no colorings of eggs and hiding them for the children to find or watever it is u all do during this festive season...

Back here, every festivity is celebrated with prayers first according to your religion/race and then comes the feast and followed by visiting your families or friends...

Do you do all the cooking in ur house?? Just a question out of curiosity...if yes, then you must be a great cook..ehem..chef

I wish we live just nearby then I could come over and taste your delicious meals...yum yum

Anyways...Happy Holidays!!
Cavalock said…
Hah! sounds like fun!
Prince Romp said…
Hope your kids will enjoy their Easter..
buzybee said…
hmmn.. a good art & craft cum science lesson for the preschoolers, if not for the long process. :)

Over here, we dye eggs red using food colouring... a much faster process.

Hope you and your family have a blessed Easter.
Richard said…
sassy momma: Different cultures have different traditions. My cultural background is Polish. On the other hand, after emmigrating, my parents were more flexible in adapting other customs than most immigrants seem to be.

I don't do all the cooking. Certainly on the weekend I do most of the cooking. During the weekdays, I am separated from my family as I work in another city 200Km away.

I enjoy cooking, although cannot say my family necessarily enjoys my food. I love to experiment and try new dishes (I am akso very partial lto Indian and Thai style food - unfortunately, no one here seems to like a little spice in their life :-)

Egg hunts were something only started after I had kids. Growing up, we would wake up in the morning to find a small gift of Easter chocolates and candies.

When my daughter was around two, I made a trail of chocolate eggs in the house. Rather than following the trail and picking them up, she would stop at each one and eat it. She did not sem to have any awareness that there might be another egg after the current one.

cavalock: it is more messy than fun (at least from an adult perspective).

prince romp: thanks! I think they will. I have two hamsters in the garage to surprise them with on Easter morning.

bee: I don't colour my eggsthat way (I usue dye). I simply revealed a tradition I learned from my mother. Besides, a purist would argue that you have to do it from all natural, organic dies and not these synthetic cancer causing ones ;-).
Kay said…
Well, I would consider myself lucky if I were your neighbour...

You make celebrating Easter very fun and exciting. And I bet the kids would definitely be thrilled to find the hamsters...I've got four of 'em myself...hee

I'm simply a pet lover....

I do pity you for having to work that far from your family...

Well, at least I'm happy to know that you liked spicy food...I'm a fan of Indian food myself...I dont mind the Thai food, but I find it difficult to find some of the ingredients needed to cook up a recipe...

I would love to share a few of the recipes with you...if you want...

By the way how was your Easter??
Richard said…
Children grow up too quickly not to try and spend time with them to enrich their lives.

Being away from them pains me, because I feel that I am neglecting them to serve the dollar instead.

Easter hasn't happened yet here - I'm about 12 hours behind you.
Hey Richard,
I was talking to my mom the other day and she mentioned that she and my dad spent hours coloring eggs in fablous unexpected colors.
My Dad is a serious guy, and I still have a hard time imagining him coloring eggs. It is much easier to picture his traditional stance in the basement of our house fiddling with electronic gadgets of his own design. But I am so delighted that he spent the time to color some eggs.
Richard said…
That's fantastic!

Did you get pictures?

I can empathize with your dad tinkering around. I used to do alot of it myself (chemistry, electronics, and most recently - wood working).

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