Making Easter eggs is joyous shell-abration
ot even you can mess this up.
Decorated eggs have been associated with Easter and Christianity since at least the 13th century. Back then, eggs were off limits as food during the Lenten season so people would decorate them in celebration of Easter and their return to the menu. If they could do it, you can too. And you don’t even need one of those store-bought kits.
For the simplest form of egg dying, you’ll need a few basic items that may already be lurking somewhere in your kitchen: a few mugs or deep bowls, food coloring, white vinegar and tongs. Lay the eggs gently in a large saucepan and cover them with water. Put on the lid, turn the heat up high and wait for the water to boil. Then turn off the burner but keep the lid on the pot for 12 minutes. Drain out the hot water, and fill the pot with cold water to stop the cooking process and make the eggs easier to handle. Grab your mugs or bowls and fill them with enough hot water to cover an egg completely. Add a teaspoon of vinegar (it creates a chemical reaction with the shell’s calcium and helps the color absorb better) and 20 drops of one color to each vessel. Let one egg at a time sit in the bowl for about 5 minutes. As a general rule, more dye and a longer dip time will result in a deeper egg color. When removing your eggs from their dye baths with your tongs, be careful to not slosh any colored water on your clothes — dye will stain them, too. Better yet, wear clothes you don’t care about ruining. Let the eggs rest on a paper towel until they dry. Now, if you want to get fancy, there are a few simple tricks you can try that are no more difficult than simple dying. Repeat step one and go from there. Stripes: Grab rubber bands and wrap them around an egg before dunking. Once you’ve reached your desired dye time, remove the egg from the water and let it dry before removing the bands and checking out your design.
Two colors: With a little patience, you can have twotoned eggs. Instead of submerging the whole egg into one color, hold onto the top half of the egg while the bottom is dunked, let it dry, then repeat with the other half in another shade.
Free-hand designs: If you happen to have a white or lightcolored crayon, use it to write or draw whatever you’d like on your egg before dipping it in dye. The wax prevents the dye from adhering to the shell, upholding your image.
Marbleized: First, dye an egg in a solid color, and let it dry. Next, mix some boiling water with just a little vinegar, a splash of olive oil and one color (ideally one that’s darker than the first color you dyed your egg in) in a shallow bowl. Swirl the oil around a bit. Place the colored egg into the oily, colored water and roll it around. The oil will allow the second color to sink into certain spots, but not all, creating a marbleized