Easter Eggs & More

With Easter around the corner, this seems a good time to talk about hard cooked eggs and some tips on how to cook the perfect one.

First, my thoughts on coloring Easter eggs, I will make literally ANY excuse to have a reason to sit at the table and play arts & crafts with hard boiled eggs. Our nest has been empty for nearly 20 years and I still color eggs in most years. Here in 2025, bird flu may curtail the fun, but it's not going to stop me from reminiscing about it.

Coloring Easter Eggs brightened up the early days of the COVID shut down.

The eggs pictured here I refer to as sanity designs because they were done for Easter 2020 when the world was on COVID 19 local-down and there was very little to be cheery about.

In previous years when we were actually seeing people for the holiday and I wanted the colored eggs to look really special. I would polish them with some coconut oil as shown below.

'Polishing' Easter eggs with some coconut oil makes them shiny without getting sticky

As far as boiling the perfect hard cooked egg, that has been a lifelong quest of mine.

It never fails, if I'm making egg salad, they peel beautifully, and if I'm planning deviled eggs, they the eggs look like severe burn victims when I'm done peeling them.

It seems that I'm not alone and MANY have studied the best way to boil the perfect egg. The method that works best for me -- when I don't need the shell intact for coloring, is steaming them. This is actually a combination of 3 different methods that I've tried on any given occasion.

Steam the eggs for 12 to 14 minutes

Immerse into ice and water

when cooll enough to handle, pop a hole n the big end

return to ice and water until completely cool

EVERY egg peels this cleanly.

• Bring a few inches of water to boil in a pot that has a steamer basket.

• Once the water is boiling, fill the steamer basket with a single layer of eggs , place the steamer in the pot and cover for from 12-15 minutes depending on the size of the egg and how firm you want the yolk.

• While the eggs are steaming, fill a large bowl with ice and water in which to plunge steamer basket when you remove it.

• As soon as the eggs are cool enough to handle, use the end of s wooden spoon to crack the large end of the egg where the air pocket is.

• Then return the egg to the ice water bath until completely cool 5 minutes or so.

• At this point they peel perfectly 99% of the time, and yes, I have tried it that many times. They will be wet, so you'll want to pat them dry with a paper towel.

If you want to color the eggs, you don't want to break the shell, so just use the ice water bath, that works very well, but it's not a guaranty so best plan on egg salad for the dyed eggs.