I didn't do a lot of them this time. I have to confess - I'm getting a little egged out.
I wanted to try out all sorts of other egg-coloring methods...but I ended up just doing a few. But they were cool and fun and I'll definitely try out more of these next year. But not now.
But enough of that - here's what I DID do. It's kind of an amalgamation of various methods I've seen on the web lately.
I'd read somewhere that soaking the eggs in the same water as your simmering black beans would leave the eggs with a purplish color, so that was the first order of business - to get some beans a-soaking and to hard boil some eggs.
Then I went outside to gather some little leaves. It's still fairly cold outside, especially at night, and there aren't a ton of cute little leaves to pick. I plucked some sage and some strawberry leaves and decided that was enough.
And I also peeled some skins off some onions.
And then I put two of the hard boiled eggs in with the boiling beans...
Then I took some turmeric and saffron from the spice cabinet and put them in a little bowl.
I poured a bit of very hot water over the turmeric and saffron so the turmeric would dissolve and the saffron would release some color.
Next, I got a pair of stockings. Black ones, to lend a bit of drama. (Drama? It's egg-coloring.)
And then I started setting up these final 3 eggs.
First, I pressed my little strawberry leaves on one of them...
The leaves were soaking in water, which helped them stick to the eggs.
Next I pl aced that egg on a square of stocking...
And carefully wrapped the stocking around the egg and secured it with a rubber band.
That one went into a coffee mug along with the turmeric-saffron water.
Next up, some onion skin.
Onion skin is nice to work with because it's curved and wraps easily around the egg.
And I think onion skin is pretty.
Anyway, onion skin and stocking - check.
This one went into a mug with plain hot water.
And finally, sage leaves AND onion skin. I know - WOAH, there, Jayne! Get off that crazy train!
I wrapped the stocking around that one and put it in another mug with just hot water - oh, and the remaining sage leaves.
So here they are - three blue mugs with my little egg experiments.
Meanwhile, the two other eggs continued to cook with the beans. When I finally removed the eggs, here's what they looked like. They've still got black been gunk on them.
I think they're kind of...well...pretty damn ugly. But they still need a rinse.
This morning I unwrapped the eggs in the mugs. Here we go...
First up, plain onion skin.
And then the strawberry leaves in the turmeric/saffron blend...
Hm...well, it's incredibly subdued, I guess.
Last, the sage and onion skin.
Now that one's kind of cool.
Okay, so here we are, the final four (I tossed one of the black bean eggs - it had cracked, and you know what? Over-cooked, hard-boiled, black-bean-water-soaked eggs smell kind of horrible.
As you can see, I rinsed off the black bean egg - it's a quiet, purpley-gray color. I like them. I wish the turmeric/saffron egg had more color, but maybe I needed more spice in the water, or maybe I needed to let it soak longer. I'll give it another try next year - or maybe this summer, to use for deviled eggs.
Anyway, that's it for the eggs for me this year. It's been fun!
