Sunday, March 23, 2008

The Colors of Easter

Happy Easter!


I remember having Easter Egg Hunts when we were young. Relatives would come to visit and the adults would hide the eggs. My siblings and I would join our cousins in the search for eggs all over the house and in the garden. Favorite hiding places included the White King cookie jar, behind throw pillows, inside flower pots, at the base of bushes, and inside the sand box.

Yes, there were a lot of eggs eaten on Easter, and on the days that followed. Cholesterol was not a major concern back then. Most of the eggs ended up with that ugly mixed-up color one gets when primary and secondary colors combine. That didn't matter to us, of course. What was important was that there were eggs to be found and baskets to be filled.

As the years passed, less relatives came over on Easter, but the activity of painting eggs and searching for them continued. Ten was more than enough manpower to paint eggs and look for them afterwards.

For this year, Mother boiled some eggs for the children to paint. I made a mixture of Spearmint and Orange Sunset in separate bowls using the instructions below. Plus I mixed up some other colors in a palette for painting so that the eggs would have an added variety of color.

MyGirl didn't seem interested in using the colors I mixed up so she just placed a couple of drops of blue in another bowl that had water and vinegar. She and RD were in charge of coloring the eggs. They were happy to do so.

This year's eggs ended up much better than any of the Easter Eggs we used to color when we were younger. None of those blackish-grey hues today. The Easter Bunny would have been proud.



Later in the afternoon, Auntie Z hid the eggs for RD and MyGirl to find. It was a hot day so she decided to limit the hunting ground to the study room upstairs. As you can imagine, GI was not the least bit interested in all this egg painting and egg hunting business. He was in front of the PC the whole time his siblings were looking for eggs.

After over half an hour of hunting, RD found most of the eggs and MyGirl found the rest. Except for one, that is.

Z said, "I bet your mother will find it if I give her the clues I gave you."

"How many kisses do I get if I find the last egg," I asked the two.

"Five kisses each," declared MyGirl.

"OK," I agreed. How could I lose if I had clues to work with, right?

Off I went to search for the egg. Z showed me the general vicinity where the last egg could be found. It was by the hallway where the mirror was hanging. This was a small fraction of the study room area, and the only piece of furniture found there was the old spice rack which had been converted to pigeon holes for our mail. This was going to be an easy ten kisses, I thought, as I knelt down to check the corner slot.

I immediately found the last egg. I don't know how the kids could have missed it. That would have been the first place I would look during an egg hunt. Oh, that WAS the first place I looked.


Anyway, much to the amazement of the two, I was in and out of the study room in less than a minute, raring to claim my kisses.

Thanks to Mother and Auntie Z, the two had an enjoyable Easter egg hunt. And thanks to MyGirl, we had egg salad at the dinner table that evening.


McCormick's Easter Egg Color Combination



1. Combine 1/2 c boiling water, 1 t vinegar and specified number of food color drops

Lime -- Y-24 -- G-4
Purple -- B-15 -- R-5
Cantaloupe -- Y-24 --R-2
Jade -- B-3 -- G-17
Plum -- B-4 -- R-10
Raspberry -- B-6 -- R-14
Watermelon -- B-2 -- R-25
Teal -- B-5 -- G-15
Fuchsia -- B-2 -- R-18
Spearmint -- B-2 -- Y-6 -- G-12
Maize -- Y-24 -- R-10
Grape -- B-17 -- R-1
Orange Sunset -- Y-17 -- R-3
Jungle Green -- Y-6 -- G-14

2. Dip hard cooked eggs in dye for about 5 minutes or until desired color. For variety, dip top half in one color and bottom half in another, or leave the egg in the dye for different lengths of time to create different shades of the color.

3. Use a slotted spoon or tongs to add or remove eggs from dye. Allow eggs to dry.

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