05 April 2010

things YOU probably know

Food coloring works brilliantly for dying eggs.

We started out using the Russian P@z-equivalent of egg dying tablets. And our eggs turned out like this:


Now, don't go all Sting on me, but I wasn't sure this was the safest of egg dyes. (One box we bought was actual paint. That made me skeptical, too.) And we had some cracked-while-boiling eggs to color. So I pitched that dye, reached for my imported-by-me food coloring...and it even said on the box that it could be used to dye eggs. Who knew? Oh, yeah--you probably did. I didn't. I followed the directions and the eggs came out like this:


(Crafty friends may be interested in these eggs I bought at Ashan. They'd make a nice Easter tree decoration alternated with blown and painted eggs, I think. But, only thought.)
You can make confectioner's sugar in a blender.

We made a carrot cake on Saturday (we did so. much. on Saturday--grocery shopped, colored eggs, made the cake, gave Lexi a haircut, sewed a skirt without a pattern...) and it really needed cream cheese frosting. Because, really, isn't frosting the point of cake?

I couldn't find a recipe online that didn't use confectioner's or powdered sugar. I do have a box of powdered sugar...but Lexi's birthday is written on that. So, ignoring all the online "wisdom" about it not working to powder your sugar in a blender...I put some sugar in the blender. It worked quite well!

WE enjoyed our carrot cake. And frosting. (So maybe the lesson here is that Lexi and I have lower standards for sugar powdering than the internets. Or maybe we just like frosting more.)



Our Easter was nice. The bunny came and left a basket with a new nightgown, bubbles, a baby chicken in a see-through egg, a chicken that had some chocolate eggs in them, and two egg-sized hollow chocolate eggs that had rings inside them! (Yeah, no pix of them, either.) I should have trusted that was plenty, but I added a stuffed lamb, too. There is not a stuffed bunny to be found anywhere!

We found all our eggs in the living room, enjoyed church (Lexi scored two Cadbury eggs--and has forgotten about them...), and had a slow, lazy day at home. We made cream cheese frosting, ate curried chicken and broccoli (used one of my last cans of cream of chicken soup for that...so it's more "special" than it might sound to those of you who have that readily available!), and just relaxed.

Hope you had a happy, peaceful Easter, too.

10 comments:

nicole said...

your eggs look lovely..we dye our hardboiled eggs and when the kids are going to eat them they roll the shell off and use the colorful cracked peices for crafts.I love carrot cake and yes cream cheese frosting is divine..it sounds like lexi and her mama are haveing a great easter..huggs from canada..p.s food coluring can be used to dye wool if you knit and so can koolaid..

beckyww said...

You're so talented! You really, really are.

Lea said...

I agree with the "you're so talented!" comment. I'm impressed. Your eggs came out great. Ours came out pretty much all looking similar because the boys put every egg in every color...but they had fun:). Happy Easter!

McMary said...

Sounds like Easter was a great time for you two. Love Lexie's hair and dress.
We spent the day with my sisters and their families--I think that we had more fun with the egg coloring than the kids did--the weather was just too nice--they wanted to be outside.

Barb said...

Yes, I'm impressed too! I don't do the egg-dying thing . . . have done it a couple of times but can't stand the hassle . . . Frosting is, of course, important! Glad you figured out how to get it done . . . The Easter Bunny also left more fun stuff than candy at our house too (because Momma doesn't like rotten teeth).

Annie said...

Cool information about the sugar! No; I didn't know; in fact I've often wondered about confectioner's sugar.

I was going to try the food coloring trick, but decided to use the Ukrainian dye I had instead.

The colors were so rich and beautiful, but one of the eggs exploded (we'd taken the insides out ahead of time). The darned thing blew bright blue dye all over the kitchen - all over my face, clothes - you name it.

I had to scrub my face so hard to get rid of the blue dye that I now have red sore places.

Am "off" egg dying for at least a year!

Anonymous said...

wait, you put sugar in a blender and it becomes confectioner's sugar? WTF? I had no clue.

Dawn said...

Glad you had a nice Easter! I remember dying eggs like that in the "old days" when I was little. :)

I think I've done the blended sugar thing. It isn't quite the same as the real thing, but close enough! By the way, they do sometimes have powdered sugar in Ukraine but it comes in tiny packages. I think it was called "pudrani saxar" or something like that. You'd probably need about 10-12 for a full batch of icing. It was usually in a white or clear pkg with blue writing.

Julie H said...

Great tips. I didn't know either of those things. I am always out of powdered sugar and having to go to the store. That sounds fun.

Elizabeth said...

Funny about the sugar. I remember the first time I was at a friend's and she did the blender trick, or maybe it was a food processor. Something with a nice sharp blade. I was like...powdered sugar comes from bigger pieces of sugar? Who knew?

Powdered sugar seems to be one of those products in Russia that periodically disappears from the shelves, then reappears a few months later.