Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter, from my house to yours!!

Woke up this morning to blue skies, sun shining, and only a few small patches of snow on the ground. Yep, today is going to be awesome.

I'm expecting between fifteen and twenty family members here for dinner and can't help but feel a little blessed. Over the years my family has grown with those that are so kind and loving that no matter whether they are blood or not, they are dear to my heart and I'm excited to share this day with them.

My daughter and I stayed up late last night dying our eggs naturally, something that we have never done before. The end result is pretty neat. They aren't as dark and richly colored as their chemical counterparts, but they have a wonderful country charm to them. We had a blast experimenting with different fruits, vegetables, and spices to create some pretty unique colors. It took a lot longer to dye the eggs naturally, considering that I had to let them sit overnight. But now I don't have that feeling of guilt over using the dyed eggs to make deviled eggs, because if the dye seeps through I know that I'm not exposing my family to harsh chemicals.

One thing that remains the same when dying eggs naturally is that you add vinegar to the "dye". Here's a list of the ingredients we used and my personal thoughts on each one.....

• Blue: Blueberries mushed in hot water and vinegar. The unique and vibrant blue is probably my favorite of the bunch. I think that next year I will add less water and vinegar to try and make the color a little darker, but I do love the color.
• Green: Boiled spinach leaves. The green did not turn out as vibrant as I would have liked, so I think that next year I will add less water and more spinach leaves.
• Yellow: Turmeric mixed in hot water and vinegar. The yellow that came from this spice turned out to be very pure and bright. I personally could not tell the difference between the naturally dyed yellow eggs and those that we dyed last year using store bought dyes. Careful though, turmeric WILL dye your fingers so use gloves when dealing with this spice. I dropped some of our home fresh brown eggs in this dye to create an orange which turned out really neat as well.
• Brown: Coffee mixed with hot water and vinegar. This brown turned out to be really cool. The eggs have a sort of speckled marbled look. I'm interested in seeing whether or not some of the cracked eggs end up tasting like coffee. Maybe I should set them aside for "adults" only so that the kiddos aren't bouncing off the wall from the caffeine......
• Redish Pink: Pickled beet juice. I didn't add more than a drop of vinegar to these ones because they are pickled and I didn't want to dilute the dye too much. The color turned out really neat, another group of eggs to resemble a marbled pattern.
• Violet Pink: Beet juice mixed with mushed blueberries in hot water and vinegar. Very unique color, sort of a country pink. Very much in love with this color. I love how soft it is.

I would say that our natural dying experience was a success this year and I can't wait to do it again next year; adding a few new ideas. My daughter had so much fun dying eggs that she asked if we could dye some for her birthday. An Easter themed birthday party might be kind of neat;)

Anyway, I hope you all have a marvelous Easter full of love, laughter, faith and family.