Home >> Lifestyle: Crafts: Holidays & Occasions: Easter Egg Decorating How to Decorate The Perfect Easter Egg Sarah Potts When we think of Easter, eggs are definitely a main symbol most of us can relate to. Every April in most homes, families gather around a table to decorate and dye eggs. These pastel colored eggs are used for decoration around the house, in baskets or they are used for children’s Easter Egg Hunts. You simply can’t celebrate Easter without homemade Easter eggs. How To Hard Boil The Perfect Easter Egg When it comes to hard-boiling an egg there is a special way to get it to be perfect. Sometimes an egg yolk can come out a little runny in the middle or completely opposite and be a dark grayish color. Obviously you are either keeping the egg in the boiling water for too little or way too long. Follow these simple steps to achieve the perfect hard-boiled egg. 1. Place the pot on top of the stove. Make sure the pot is big enough to hold the desired amount of eggs you want to hard-boil plus boiling water. 2. Place the number of eggs carefully in the pot. Add enough water (temperature of water doesn’t matter) to completely cover the eggs. Place the pan on the stove and turn the burner on to high heat. Leave the pan alone for 20 minutes. 3. After the time has passed, place pan under cold running water to cool off the eggs. Let the eggs sit in the cold water for awhile. I sometimes add ice cubes to the pot to help cool of the eggs. Blow or Hollow Out Easter Eggs Sometimes families blow out the eggs and then decorate instead of using hard-boiled eggs. It might be more difficult for a child to try to decorate an egg that is hollowed out because it is more fragile. Follow these simple steps to blowing out your Easter Eggs. 1. Wash all eggs well and dry off with a paper towel. 2. Carefully, (and I suggest only adults do this) poke a small hole in each end of the raw egg. 3. Over a bowl, hold the egg and blow into one of the holes you just made. The raw yolk should slowly come out from the other hole. Sometimes this can be easy and sometimes it can be hard. 4. Once the egg is empty gently rinse it off again and towel dry. Place the raw eggshells in a safe place where they cannot get broken. I suggest placing them in the egg carton they originally came from. Keeping Things Clean Now that your eggs are ready, you need to set up a station where you can decorate them. Here are some starter tips for you to get ready to hop into your decorating mode. - Think about setting up your table outside, if weather permits. That way the kids and adults can be as messy as they want to be. - Cover the table with plenty of newspaper so cleaning will be less work than it needs to be. - Remember to hold on to all the empty egg cartons so when it comes time to place the painted eggs somewhere to dry you can use these. Just rip off the top of the carton and flip the bottom of the carton that actually holds the eggs in its place. More than likely some of the dye will drip from the bottom of the painted egg onto the carton so just use caution when picking them up. - Make sure all eggs are completely dry before handling them. Now for the fun part.....Decorating! Anyone can find Easter egg decorating kits at party stores, kid’s toy stores and even grocery stores but if you want to save some money, below is an easy recipe to make Old Fashioned Egg Dye for your Easter eggs. Old Fashion Egg Dye Ingredients: 1/2 cup boiling water 1 teaspoon vinegar Food coloring Directions: Combine boiling water, vinegar and the specified number of drops of food color to achieve desired colors. Dip hard cooked eggs in dye for about 5 minutes or until desired color. For variety, try dipping the top half in one color and the bottom half in another; or leaving the egg in the dye for different lengths of time, creating different shades of a particular color. Use a slotted spoon or tongs to add or remove eggs from dye. Following are some color combinations to create a vivid palette of colors for your Easter eggs: Lime - 24 yellow, 4 green Purple - 15 blue, 5 red Cantaloupe - 24 yellow, 2 red Jade - 17 green, 3 blue Plum - 10 red, 4 blue Spearmint - 12 green, 6 yellow, 2 blue Raspberry - 14 red, 6 blue Maize - 24 yellow, 1 red Watermelon - 25 red, 2 blue Teal - 15 green, 5 blue Grape - 17 blue, 3 red Fuchsia - 18 red, 2 blue Orange Sunset - 17 yellow, 3 red Jungle Green - 14 green, 6 yellow Have a wonderful Easter and keep your eyes out for the Easter Bunny! _______________________________________ Author: © 2007 Ampere Media LLC, All Rights Reserved Recipe4Living.com features more than 11,000 user submitted recipes, ideas and recipes from Wolfgang Puck, reference guides, healthy living advice, tips for kids, and much more. All of the recipes mentioned in this article can be found at http://www.recipe4living.com   Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/ _______________________________________   Article Posted: April 2, 2007

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