Conference moira::parenting

    Can't remember the name of the kits, but we have used the Egg shakin'
    kits last two years.  Better colors, easy to use.  My kids enjoy them. 
    Thank goodness we'll be travelling this Easter!!!
    
    -sandy
    

Another thing we've seen and used (though it may be a bit difficult for six 
year olds) are stencils, used in conjunction with colored markers.

Clay

    
    Food coloring & vinegar (directions are on the food coloring box).
    Colors are always bold & bright--after the eggs are dry, you can
    decorate with stickers (glitter while still wet).  The options
    are endless & lots of fun.
    

    
    I've always used food coloring and water (no vinegar).  Make sure the
    water is COLD.  We do it in paper cups to minimize the mess.  Takes
    about 1/3 tube of coloring per egg.  You don't have to dump the water
    and start again, just add more coloring.  
    
    To make patterns, you can write on the egg ahead of time (white/yellow
    crayon works best), and the egg won't be colored there.  Wet eggs seem
    to take the color better than dry ones.
    
    A lady I used to work with used to save the peels from red onions, and
    then boil them to get the color out, and used that to color eggs.  Of
    course then I think you're pretty well stuck w/ pink/purple, and I
    don't have any real details on how she did it ....
    
    Good luck!
    
    Patty

    I saw one idea in a magazine where you take a damp paper towel and drip
    full strength food colors onto the paper.  You then wrap it around a
    damp egg with a piece of aluminum foil and let it sit for a few minutes
    and carefully unwrap.  With multiple colors it is supposed to make a
    marbelized effect.  However, I usually just grab the Paas kits and let
    the kids dunk.
    
    Meg

    
    Growing up we always used food coloring and viniger and hot water..
    the colors were great..
    
    Last year we bought a Paas kit since it was cold water but the
    colors were really poor! 
    
    I may use one again this year since my daughter is only 2 and I
    don't want her to get burned, but after she is
    older its back to the old way!!!!!!!!!!
    
    

    I decorate cakes, so I use the professional paste colors. They are
    super concentrated, and the colors come out much deeper.  I also use
    warm (not hot) water and a tablespoon of vinegar.  I don't know "WHY" I
    do, though : )  Try any party goods store for cake decorating paste
    colors.  My son insisted on using PAAS brand last year, because they
    had cute stand-up holders and stickers, but the colors left much to be
    desired...
    
    Sarah

    Re: .7,  I also decorate cakes, and would like to try the paste colors
    as you suggested in your note.  How much water do you use, and would it
    matter if the water was hot instead of warm.  Would it be, a cup of
    warm/hot water, TLBS of white vinegar and some of the paste color in a
    cup deep enough to cover the egg when emersed(sp).
    
    
    Thanks,
    
    Liz

    Hi Liz,
    If you use paste colors, then you know a little goes a LONG way.  I
    start with a toothpick and add a bit at a time until I get the
    intensity I need.
    I use coffee mugs to dip the eggs - let's see that's 8 oz. of water, 1
    Tablespoon of distilled white vinegar, and the coloring.  I don't use
    HOT water, simply because we eat the eggs and they are already cooked.
    I use warm - just a bit warm to the touch.  It seems to help dissolve
    the paste better than cold.  I don't think the temp. matters a whole
    lot, however.  I like to use coffee mugs because they clean up easy and
    don't absorbe the color.  Plastic containers usually get stained. And I
    don't have enough small deep glass bowls to ensure the eggs get covered
    completely.  
    Sarah

    
    I always use paper cups .... about 1/2 full makes more than enough to
    cover an egg, and we do 1 egg at a time.  You can test the quantity of
    water easiest if you just fill the cup with plain water, drop in an
    egg, let the "extra" water spill into the sink.  Take out the egg. 
    That's how much water you need.  
    
    FWIW, I always used to use HOT water w/ the food coloring, and this
    year switching to cold water and about 1/3 tube of coloring, let them
    soak 3-5 minutes, and the colors are VERY deep.  The eggs were still a
    LITTLE BIT warm, so maybe that helped??  I wouldn't use hot since my
    kids can't seem to resist poking at the eggs, and they end up w/
    blue/green/red/yellow/purple fingers for day ... (-:
    
    You DO need to add more coloring before each new egg is added to the
    water though.
    
    Have fun!
    

    I know this is late (day after Easter), but I'm WAY behind in notes 
    these days... maybe you can remember this for next year.
    
    I read somewhere that you can color easter eggs by boiling them with 
    beets for red, onions for yellow, and spinach for green.  I thought 
    this would be fun to try, but my son isn't quite old enough to do it 
    this year... maybe next year.

>    I read somewhere that you can color easter eggs by boiling them with 
>    beets for red, onions for yellow, and spinach for green.  I thought 
>    this would be fun to try, but my son isn't quite old enough to do it 
>    this year... maybe next year.

And I'm sure that an Easter dinner of hard boiled eggs, beets, onions, and 
spinach will go over really well!   :^)

Clay

    My response is even LATER>>>>
    
    I waited until Saturday to buy both the eggs and the dye.  What I ended
    up with was at the local Brooks Drugstore, a THREE color dye set, with
    a plastic tray that had three different levels to create a "stripe"
    effect.  I waited until he was alseep, and told him it was the "bunny's
    job" to color and deliver eggs.
    
    In retrospect, the three colors were plenty, I hated the trilevel tray,
    and ended up using small clear glass coffee cups.  The colors were
    Blue, red and yellow, I dyed a couple in these colors, and then
    combined the colors for green and purple, and a pretty aqua.  
    
    As I was doing this I wondered if plain old food coloring wouldn't do
    the same thing.  These were tiny packets of liquid color that I added
    to "warm" water and vinegar.  
    
    I find eggs are easier to peel if they are not stark cold, so I run
    them in fairly warm water before peeling.  I've discovered the warm
    water eliminates almost all of the color.  But thanks to the cracks in
    the eggs, and the pin hole in the bottom of the egg, I had multicolors
    both *inside*  and out!  
    (I put a small pin hole in before boiling to eliminate cracking during 
    boiling.  The cracks I referred to came from the eggs knocking into each 
    other when I drained the eggs)
    
    Now I've got a week of egg salad, tuna and egg salad, AJ wanting an egg
    for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack and so on.  Sometimes I think it's
    too bad he loves eggs so much!
    
    Lyn

    Lynn,
    
    If you can convince him to leave the yolk, there's nothing at all wrong
    with the white of the egg.
    
    My kids dislike eggs, and Jason is always amazed how they get that
    "gold ball" inside a hard boiled egg.  (-:
    

    It's that time again!

    After many years of dying eggs (my oldest is 20, my youngest is 6), I
    still don't like the results.  It's been a while since I've tried
    regular food dye, maybe I'll try that again.  

    There seem to be contradicting opinions here about the temp of the
    water.  How about the temp of the eggs?  I'd like to cook the eggs one
    night and dye them the next.  Should I bring them to room temp first?

    Also, an artist I'm not, so I've never had any success with the white
    crayon before you dye.  Stencils sound interesting.  If I can't find a
    kit, what was used to color - a crayon?  paint?

    Another thought I've had is to have cooked, dyed eggs ready and let the
    kids paint them.  What kind of paint would be best?  I suppose
    non-toxic would be important.

    Any other ideas?

    there are several kits out there for stamping, stenciling or painting
    eggs this year.  Carrie loves to do a bunch, and I still like food
    coloring in splotches on aper towles for tie-dyed eggs, it is cheap,
    reasonably unmessy, and the results fit my personality.
    
    As for egg temperature, I dye mine as soon as they are cool enough to
    handle.  I use viniegar (about 1 tbs) and a teaspoon of salt in the
    water in a stainless steel pan to make sure the eggs are clean and free
    of grease or other residuals that affect how the dye takes.
    
    Have fun!
    
    meg

How do you tie dye eggs, Meg? 

      Carol, the poet (not!)

    No real mystery, I swiped this from a "family circle", or was it "women's
    day?"
    
    You take a paper towel ( I use the cheapest recycled fiber towels I can
    get), and put random drops of food coloring toward the center of the
    towel.  You want to space them a bit as the dye bleeds around some. 
    Put this on a piece of aluminum foil, oh about 12 inches square, put
    the egg in the center, and then crumple the foil up around the egg.  I
    try to set the egg upright and crumple from the bottom up.  this gets
    easier after the first egg.  After you have the egg snugly wrapped up
    in the foil/towel thingie unwrap and enjoy.  
    
    the foil lasts through a fair number of eggs and you can create
    differnet patterns with different paper towels.  
    
    Like I said, fun, reasonably unmessy and the results fit my cultural
    bias.
    
    Now if I can just find a good rose stencil to add in, or a decent skull
    
    ;-)
    
    meg

    re: a few back (having the eggs pre-colored and ready for artwork)
    
    While in the dairy section of our local Star Market, noticed that they
    were selling pre-cooked, pre-colored eggs by the dozen. Didn't happen
    to see the cost, since I wasn't interested in short-cutting the
    process, but it might be a solution.
    
    

    
    
    I don't like hard boiled eggs, so we have made them in recent years and
    thrown them out.  This year I called the 1 800-make-eggs number and
    ordered 2 egg molds for jello.  Each mold looks like a half dozen, I
    can't wait to try them, I haven't received them yet.
    
    -beth

    I got the jello molds free at the grocery store for buying
    4 small pkgs of jello.
    
    This was at Cub Foods in Colo Spgs but, I would think other
    grocery stores would have them too.
    
    Pam

    We got our 2 '6-packs' in the mail on Monday. The kids couldn't wait,
    so they've had Jiggler eggs as snack each of the past 3 days. The trays
    came with recipes/hints on how to make the plain jiggler eggs, two-tone
    jiggler eggs, 'creamy' eggs, and dinosaur eggs (Green creamy eggs
    w/flecks of cocoa or cinnamon.)
    
    Lots of fun, but not something the Easter Bunny will leave hidden
    around the house on Easter morning...(They *will* melt).

    Any idea how I could order the jiggler egg molds? It's probably too
    late for Easter now, but my kids won't mind having egg jigglers.  Heck,
    we're still using our Christmas cookie cutters to cut jigglers out for
    their lunches!
    
    Thanks,
    Cathy

    One company has come out with a tie-dye kit for egges this year as
    well.  I picked it up as it has more colors than I have in my food dye
    and also has a neat looking critter for making star-burst patterns. 
    also there is an egg stenciling kit out, (no roses or skulls, alas)
    that looks promising.
    
    meg

    I bought the Jiggler Eggs in my grocery store.  I have a ton
    of jello packages, so I didn't take advantage of the offer of
    getting the mold for free if I bought 4 boxes of jello.
    
    The price was $1.50.
    
    My grocery is a little local corner store, so I'm sure that you
    should be able to find them in the larger grocery chains.
    
    
    Diana

    To order the egg jello molds, purchase 4 small pkgs (or 2 large pkgs)
    of jello.  Send in the upc's, the original cash register receipt,
    $1.50 and your name and address to:
    
    	Jello Jigglers Egg Mold Offer
    	P.O. Box 3327
    	Maple Plain, MN  55593
    
    

    Here's a twist ....
    
    Make RUBBER EGGS!!!!!!
    
    Take hard boiled eggs, and white vinegar.  Soak the eggs in pure
    vinegar overnight.  The shell ends up very rubbery (and pretty
    disgusting feeling!), and, in theory, they're supposed to BOUNCE!!
    
    Jason brought this one home from school, and we tried it yesterday ...
    except he told me it was supposed to be a RAW egg.  I was a little
    suspicious, but figured "What the hell!".  Well, lo and behold, this
    morning we had a rubber egg!!  But, in the process of taking it out of
    the glass to wash it off, it slipped off the spoon, and slimed past my
    hand, and splattered at my feet.
    
    *THEN* he remembered it was supposed to be hard boiled!  Argh!  Anyway,
    it was definitely VERY rubbery before it splattered!  If it was hard,
    I'm SURE it would've bounced!!  We'll be trying it again on Friday.
    
    If I remember right from "rubberizing" other things, you need to keep
    it in the vinegar, to keep it rubbery.  Once it's back to 'normal air'
    for a while, it goes back to being hard/brittle again.
    
    Enjoy!