Easter Egg Traditions and Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

Are you ready for spring? I am – with a double exclamation point!!

The calendar certainly indicates it is spring but in Minnesota, this always takes a little longer than we’d like here in the North Country. In the meantime, I’ve been getting into a spring mood by ordering from seed catalogs for my gardens, looking longingly at my spring dresses (I am so ready for some brighter colors!) and thinking ahead to Easter.

You all know I have a love of anything with eggs – that’s why I’ve been so proud to be a Good Egg Project Ambassador for the American Egg Board over the past year. And in my family, we have some classic egg traditions for Easter including:

Decorating Easter eggs: This, of course, is a no brainer, right? Joe and I have decorated eggs since he was old enough to plop the hard boiled eggs into the cups full of colored water. It’s a tradition that my mom always made time for with my siblings and me, and I can’t imagine not having decorated Easter eggs in the house for this holiday.

Full disclosure, though: I am not a super crafty mom. (Joe will vouch for this if you ask him.) So … usually we just buy one of those egg decorating kits at the grocery store or Target and we’re good to go. (And I am completely okay with this!) However, I just found some really cool tips for decorating eggs via the IncredibleEgg.org website – I think even I could handle a few these, including using rolls of decorative craft tape to roll around the eggs. How easy and fun would that be? You can find more Easter decorating tips and inspiration from HGTV’s The Novogratz here.

Deviled eggs: Have I mentioned my love affair with deviled eggs before? It runs deep and started at an early age, when I remember my Grandma Doris making deviled eggs in her kitchen. After I was married, my mother-in-law would often make deviled eggs, with her grandchildren’s help, for the family’s Easter dinner. And I make them, too – especially for dinner parties. I think they make awesome appetizers!

Several years ago, I learned the most amazingly easy tip from Howard Helmer, who is the world’s most amazing egg ambassador and world’s fastest omelet maker, about neatly filling the egg whites with the yummy deviled egg filling. Simply put the filling in a plastic zip bag, squeeze the filling together toward one corner of the bag, slice off a small opening in the tip, and squeeze out the filling into the egg whites (similarly to how you might frost a cake with frosting in a bag). Brilliant!

This is one of my favorite Classic Deviled Egg recipes – I’ve made this many times and it’s a winner.

I also have a tried-and-true method for hard boiling eggs. I do it this way always and it never fails to give me perfect hard boiled eggs every time.

• Place eggs in saucepan large enough to hold them in single layer. Add cold water to cover eggs by 1 inch. Heat over high heat just to boiling. Remove from burner. Cover pan.

• Let eggs stand in hot water about 12 minutes for large eggs (9 minutes for medium eggs; 15 minutes for extra large).

• Drain immediately and serve warm. OR, cool completely under cold running water or in bowl of ice water, then refrigerate.

I get asked about peeling eggs quite a bit – and I know it’s frustrating when you hard boil an egg and the peel doesn’t come off easily. My best advice is to hard boil eggs that are at least 7-10 days old if you can. The fresher the egg, the harder it is to peel once it’s hard boiled.

And remember – don’t skip the yolk! If you do, you’re missing out some amazing nutrients: high quality protein,  13 essential vitamins and minerals (did I mention antioxidants, too?) … at just 70 calories, eggs pack a nutrient-rich punch that’s super affordable, too. 

Do you have any egg traditions in the spring?