Easter Eggs

Spring is a marvelous time of year. The weather is finally warming, plants are starting to bloom, so many different fruits and vegetables are at long last coming into season, and you can do ridiculous but fun activities such as dying eggs.



Now, I suppose that this isn't really a recipe, but it's still food related for the most part so I decided that it was worth sharing.
Egg dying is always a fun activity on Easter and so I decided to get some of the residents of my student co-op together this morning to do just that. I was amazed at how well they turned out. The eggs are like little mini works of art, it's going to be pretty hard to eat them.



Food Coloring Egg Dye

A number of hard boiled eggs
1 cup water
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
food coloring (until it reaches desired saturation)

Simple, combine all ingredients in a container large enough to hold and egg. Add food coloring until it reaches desired saturation (it will lighten substantially when it's on the egg so this should be pretty dark)


Marbleized/Speckled Eggs

A number of hard boiled eggs
1 cup water
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
food coloring (until it reaches desired saturation)
1 tsp vegetable or canola oil

Follow the directions for making food coloring egg dye (you can use commercial egg dye as well), mix in teaspoon of oil, stir until oil is broken up on the surface of the dye (you'll have to re-stir a number of times). Have fun dying eggs!

You can layer the different colors to create marvelous tie-dye eggs such as the one below

Gingerbread Men (Better late than never)

Every Christmas my family whips up a batch or two of gingerbread cookies and then sits down around the table to decorate them in all manner of crazy ways. Now, I have always loved the decorating part, it is one of my favorite Holiday traditions, but I have never been such a fan of actually eating the gingerbread. To me, gingerbread has always tasted like spicy cardboard. I've always though of them as chewy, bland, just barely salvaged by the generous amount of icing smeared across them. This year, however, I discovered a recipe that completely changed my preconceptions of gingerbread. These cookies had all the punch of flavor of a gingersnap but were still mild enough so that the addition of decorations did not make them overwhelming. In addition, the cookies were strong enough to support gobs of sprinkles and icing and candies without having the consistency of a wood.

Gingerbread Men (adapted from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook)

1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup sugar (I used raw cane sugar)
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon milk
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
generous grate of fresh nutmeg
pinch black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine the butter, milk, and sugar. In a small saucepan heat the molasses to the boiling point, pour over the sugar/butter/milk mixture and stir until the butter is completely melted. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, spices, salt, and baking soda. Combine the dry mixture with the wet mixture If needed, add a bit of water to the dough so that the dough sticks together and handles easily. Roll the dough into a 1/4 inch thick sheet and cut out shapes using cookie cutters. Bake 5 to 7 minutes . Allow to cool completely and then have fun decorating.