In most households in America egg dying is an activity done once a year around Easter. In our household egg dying and Easter egg hunts are done all year round. We dye eggs when it’s warm, when it’s cold, when we need something to do. This is the process we follow every time: (1) hard boil a dozen eggs (2) eat 1-2 eggs (3) dye the eggs (4) eat another 1-2 eggs (5) take turns hiding and finding the eggs that have not been eaten multiple times a day. If it’s warm out we’ll hide the eggs outside, if it’s cold, we’ll hide them inside. When they crack from excessive hiding and finding, we throw them away. We do not eat them because they have not been refrigerated. Then when they are all gone, we dye another dozen.
Olivia loves this activity and it still amazes me that after months of doing this, she is still so excited as if it were her first time. Her most favorite part of dying is squirting the drops of food coloring into the cups. We make a dye for each color of the rainbow. The food coloring package comes with red, yellow, green, and blue so Olivia gets to mix the colors to make orange and purple. This is huge, the highlight of the whole process. When she’s not dying eggs or hiding and finding eggs, she is watching egg dying “how to” videos on YouTube. This is a real passion.
All of the colored eggs are stored in a green basket. Olivia picks a favorite colored egg each time..this time it was red!
Egg dying tips
1. Perfect hard boiled eggs from Ina Garten (no green rim around yoke)
- Cover eggs with cold water
- Bring water to a boil
- Turn off heat and let sit for 15 mins
- Remove eggs from water, let sit for at least 2 mins
2. Dye mixture
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 12 drops of dye (orange = 8 yellow + 4 red, purple = 8 blue + 4 red)
- leave eggs in dye at least 5 mins