Last year I posted several articles about hard-boiled eggs. They were some of my most popular posts of all time. Apparently, you people are all about the incredible edible egg! And why not! Eggs are awesome. In honor of the amazing egg, here is a round-up of my best hard-boiled egg posts, as well as some newbies.
Check out this picture sent in by my sister-in-law, Karen, one of my most faithful readers from Wisconsin. It shows the difference between their old method of boiling and peeling eggs and the new method they learned right here at The Simple Homemaker. Now that’s a gorgeous egg!
Do you want gorgeous eggs? Easy as pie! Easier, really. Just follow these directions:
For more ideas, I created a Pinterest board entitled Using Up Hard-Boiled Eggs. It’s about using up hard-boiled eggs. Appropriately named, don’t you think? Check it out for more ideas.
There are many ways to celebrate Easter with food, and many of them point directly to the Resurrection, such as this Jelly Bean Gospel or these Resurrection Rolls or these Resurrection Cookies. Chocolate Bunny Oatmeal has nothing to do with anything. It’s just plain fun. That happy, oblivious little bunny has no idea what’s about to transpire.
Serve up bowls of piping hot oatmeal and stick a chocolate bunny smack dab in the center.
As the bunny melts in the hot lava death hot cereal, it will transform the oatmeal into chocolaty goodness!
That’s all there is to it!
Tips:
To help the bunny stand up and create a better effect, make thicker oatmeal by using less liquid than usual.
The oatmeal must be served hot.
Don’t add milk or coconut cream or whatever you add until the bunny has worked its little bunny magic.
Adjust the chocolaty goodness by using a larger or smaller rabbit.
The teeny tiny one-bite bunnies are really too small, so have chocolate chips on hand to add some yum.
Solid rabbits are not going to melt as quickly or completely as hollow bunnies, unless they are small. We used small solids (7/$1) and they melted fine.
Make this after Easter when the bunnies are being unloaded cheap.
Don’t serve this on a morning when your kids will be expected to sit still and quiet for an hour. Ahem.
This works great for a no-life-lesson breakfast around Christmas, too. Stick a Santa in it.
You know this idea is going to nag you until you try it, so just give in!
My kids love creating masterpieces on their Easter eggs. They each receive 18 eggs as their blank canvases, and they spend a couple hours meticulously manipulating the appearance of the egg until we have a barnyard of animals, a testament of Bible characters, a library of elliptical novellas, a museum of art, a secret test site full of aliens, and about three or four eggs reading “I luv Momy” and “Ur the bets Momy.” Those are my favorite.
Living in a travel trailer as traveling music missionaries, I’m not too crazy about the mess of egg dye, although it might be an improvement over the upholstery manufacturers put in RVs, if you know what I mean. Because I’m a dye-on-the-upholstery party pooper this year, but not an egg-fun party pooper, I researched some alternatives to the usual egg-in-cup method.
I also included some dye-related eggs for those of you who don’t have upholstery in your dining area, but who may be tired of the same old egg-in-a-cup dyeing method.
Creative Easter Eggs
We can’t start an Easter egg post without my daughter Hannah’s no-fail egg boiling method:
These mess-minimized ideas are perfect for small spaces, mamas who don’t want a ginormous mess, or people looking for more than an egg in a cup. We recreated the eggs in this section so you could see the final results.
Sharpie Eggs: You really don’t need a post to tell you how to use a permanent marker to doodle on an egg. My family’s been doing this for at least two generations. Still, it’s the 21st century, and you can’t have any ideas without a link and a tutorial, so here’s a tutorial which basically says to doodle on the egg. Still, it’s a fun post and gives you blown egg techniques.
Thumbprint Eggs: What I love about this is the potential for only the children’s thumbs to be colorful on Easter morning, as opposed to their entire hands. It’s a break with tradition, but I’ll risk it. This egg by my son is not at all what I had in mind, but he did use only his fingerprints, which was the only guidance I gave. That’s the fun of letting them get creative instead of letting them “get creative” by “helping” them do eggsactly what you want. For the idea in my head, click through the link.
String Eggs: The creators use a blown egg, but you can do this either on a regular boiled egg, on an already-dyed egg, or on a balloon and pop it. Popping balloons is one of the joys (or pathological fears) of childhood.
Melted Crayon Eggs: This idea from Family Fun would be great for the older kids. The eggs would be too hot for the littles unless they are closely supervised. Did you notice that remark about focus issues? We really enjoyed this method, and the final result is shiny, shimmery, splendid! (This picture doesn’t show the shine.)
Decoupage Eggs: Drag out the junk mail and the 25-cents after holiday napkins for this fun craft. The link uses blown eggs, but my young artist used hard-boiled.
Artist’s Choice: Set out crayons, paints, whatever, and let the kids have at the eggs!
Crayons:
Acrylics:
A very unfinished sequence painting on blown eggs, depicting Jesus’ birth and death:
Creative Egg Dyeing
These techniques all require some sort of dye, and most involve a cup and scooper-outer or colorful fingers unless you follow this simple tip. They are variations on the norm, and will yield some lovely eggs that, quite possibly, nobody will want to eat–because they’re pretty, not grody! For pictures and directions, click on each link.
Tie-Dye Easter Eggs: All the mess is contained in the sink! If we do dye this year, this is it!
Silk-Dyed Eggs: This is a little involved, including the involvement of a trip to the thrift store or the raiding of Dad’s old silk tie collection, but the results are beautiful.
Kool-Aid Eggs: Cheap, nostalgic…well, not for me, since we didn’t drink Kool-aid, but we did see plenty of commercials with the freakish giant Koolaid pitcher monster crashing through walls and passing out cups full of the liquid contents of its body for children to drink. Who thought of that nightmare scenario?!
Watercolor Eggs: Technically it’s food coloring, which is dye and which is not watercolor paint, but it doesn’t involve dipping eggs in a tip-over-able cup, and the effect is charming. Great for any age.
If you did the math, you realize that I have seven children each decorating 18 eggs, plus the extra dozen I boil for crashes and creative parents, so that totals 138 hard-boiled eggs to consume. I’ve got you covered there, too.
Happy dyeing! I can’t tell you how many times I wrote “happy dying” over the years before I noticed I was randomly wishing bemused readers everywhere a pleasant death by dropping that “e.” Spelling. It saves lives…and friendships.
What are your best no-dye or dyeing (with an “e”) tips ?
I love food. I can’t help it. When a holiday approaches, my first thought is “Bring on the grub!”
Easter is just around the corner, and my “What are we going to eat?” musings have led me to create this list of Easter edibles from around the web. You can plan your own menu by selecting an item or two from each category, and, voila, your work is done…except for the shopping, cooking, and cleaning up. If you really want to know, the asterisked items are on our menu if we have access to an oven on our travels.
Enjoy!
Breakfast or Brunch
Baby Frittatas: Aw, little babies. So cute in their muffin tins. Make ahead and reheat in the morning.
Breakfast Easter Baskets: Two things here: cuteness and bacon. My kids would love this, and I would accidentally make way too much bacon. Yum, bacon.
**Deviled Eggs and Stuffed Chicks: An adorable addition to the Easter buffet, or a quick breakfast before heading off to church or the egg hunt.
Chocolate Bunny Oatmeal: I don’t have a link for this recipe; I don’t even know how this idea leaped into my head. Still, it’s borderline genius if you have an eight-year-old boy, which I do, thank you God and hubby. Make oatmeal in the crockpot so it’s ready when you wake up. Spoon it out into bowls and put a small-ish chocolate bunny in the center of each bowl. As it melts, your children will have chocolate oatmeal. Genius…or is that too much like a cute little bunny in a pit of hot lava death? Whether it’s brilliant or psychotic, it’s a unique way to start Easter morning with a blast of sugar. Woo hoo!
**Resurrection Rolls: This starts Easter morning off with sugar and the empty tomb. It’s a cute way to help little ones remember the significance of Easter. We’re doing this mid-week, since Easter morning is busy busy busy.
Easter Overnight Breakfast Casserole: There are about as many recipes for make-ahead breakfast casserole as there are mamas who want just five more minutes in bed on holidays. I chose this one because it’s a 20-year-old recipe from church ladies–face it, church ladies make the best casseroles. Period. Adjust it by swapping meats, changing breads, adding more veggies–the kids will be too bleary-eyed to pick them out.
Easter Main Course
How to Cook a Simple Ham: This is our favorite way to prepare a simple ham. Sometimes simple is best. We set ours out on the buffet line, but it would do great at a sit-down dinner as well.
**Roast Pork Loin with Herb Stuffing: This looks so fantastic, I’m going to cry. Why does good food make me want to cry? Get help, Woman! I would totally simplify this recipe for the sake of my budget and my simple philosophy, but I can’t imagine how you could destroy the goodness unless you totally lit the whole kitchen on fire, in which case, I’d eat it anyway.
Garlic-Herb Roast Leg of Lamb: Still cryin’ here, People. Lamb sounds complicated and expensive, but this recipe from All You is simple and will run you under $4 per person. (That’s a lot of money in my book, but my book involves feeding nine people every day.)
Herb-Stuffed Roasted Cornish Game Hens: My kids love it when they get to eat their own bird without sharing! Look for a sale, and you’re set. You could also halve them, but that’s not quite as much fun as eating a whole hen.
Garlic-Herb Roasted Chicken: Here’s a cheaper alternative to most of the above. You can usually find a bird for under a buck a pound, or very near. Until I get my “I didn’t know chicken could be this good” recipe posted, I’ll direct you to this one. It looks good…but I’ve never made it, since mine is so juicy. Please remember to brine your bird first.
Crockpot Wild Rice Pilaf: If you have sacrilegious people in your family who don’t particularly care for the amazing goodness of mashed potatoes (such as my eldest and hubby), here’s a crockpot rice dish that whips up quickly. Optionally, leave out the dried cherries and nuts to take the cost and effort down.
Easy Scalloped Potatoes: Easy. Yummy. Replace the milk with stock if you or your guests are dairy intolerant.
Cheesy Sausage Potatoes: Click the link and scroll down for a cheesy sausage crockpot recipe from my friend Stacy who will never steer anyone wrong with potatoes, cheese, and crockpots. Crockpot cooking frees you up for other things, like nibbling the ears off the chocolate bunnies while the kids are hunting for eggs. Wait…what? I didn’t say that.
**Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon and Garlic: Roasting any veggie is ridiculously simple and the taste is remarkable. My kids and even my husband will eat anything roasted (except that Lego dude–sorry about that, Kids). Swap out the cauliflower for absolutely any veggie–we’re using butternut squash and carrots on Easter, but our faves are cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts–crazy, I know!
**Holiday Peas: This is ridiculously simple and tasty. My Mom did this with Ritz, browned butter, and broccoli and we kids never left a veggie on our plates. Use the veggies and crackers of your choice, even gluten-free.
Grilled Asparagus Wraps: Get the hubby involved in the cooking with these grilled asparagus wraps. They look really nifty. (Who says nifty? I do!) I know that hubby-doing-the-grilling remark may be considered sexist, but let’s face the facts–I blow up grills and singe all the hair off my arms, my man doesn’t. I birth babies and make milk, my man doesn’t. We all have our gifts–I’m cool with that. Gender differences are nifty. By the way, you could also throw these in the oven or replace with green bean bacon bundles.
Chilled Sides:
Deviled Eggs Pasta Salad: This is a brilliant and simple make-ahead alternative to deviled eggs. Noodles. I love noodles.
Spring Vegetable Salad: This is a great cold dish for the allergic crowd, although it does contain mayo which commonly has eggs and soy. You could swap it out for yogurt, or, hey, leave it out. It’s a good buffet dish.
Easy Coleslaw: If you’re hosting a simple buffet, try a simple make-ahead coleslaw.
Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing: This is a simple, fast make-ahead dish. My family would love this without the sugar, so don’t feel you need to use it…or at least all of it.
Pineapple Stuffing: This is totally a dessert disguised as a healthy side dish, but if you ate the chocolate bunny oatmeal for breakfast, you probably don’t really care.
Simple Biscuits: Every occasion is an excuse to make biscuits. It’s Monday–biscuit time! It’s 2:00–biscuit time! I stubbed my toe–yes! Biscuit time!
Find your own yummy veggies here:
Simple Ways to Spruce Up Veggies: This is my all-time favorite Pinterest board and I have no idea why. If you need some simple but delicious vegetable side dishes for your Easter buffet or dinner table, or for any day of the week to make your family happier and healthier at the same time, check this out. Seriously good stuff on here–we eat many of them, especially the Brussels sprouts. You heard me.
Easter Treats
Coconut Chick Cookie Picture by Chocolate-Covered Katie
**Key Lime Pie: This has nothing to do with Easter at all. I can’t even remotely make a connection except God created key limes. Still, I’m going with it, because it’s what we’re having. There are two recipes to click on. We’re using the first one as opposed to the “lightened key lime pie,” because the words “lightened” and “pie” do not belong in the same conversation.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs: These “eggs” from my friend Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents are so good you’ll want to slap your mama! I can’t comprehend that expression, but at the writing of this we’re in the south, and Stacy’s a southerner, so, I borrowed that bit of southern love from her. You’re safe, though, Mom. I won’t be slapping any mamas…except maybe myself for eating way too many of these babies! If you feed your family only one thing at Easter this year, it should be this. That’s what I’d pick!
Paleo Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs: These will cost more than Stacy’s eggs, but they are paleo and other-diet-friendly. If you have some alternative eaters joining you, or if you are one yourself, give these a go. Drool!
Dessert Fruit Pizza: It’s a cookie and it’s fruit. I mean, a cookie…and fruit! Are we on the same page here? I’ve never tried this, but…it’s a cookie! It’s only Easter-y because it’s shaped like an egg, but, seriously, why is a ham Easter-y? It’s a dead pig shaped like…a butt cheek, when you think about it.
Coconut Cookie Chicks: A super cute dessert idea for the vegan or gluten-free crowd from Chocolate-Covered Katie who can do no wrong in the kitchen. (See the picture above, posted with permission.) Mine would never make it to the bird stage. I would eat the macaroons alone, and then drown my sorrows for having no macaroons left by eating the rest of the ingredients.
Easter Kit Kat Cake: If you eat this, you will die. Before you die, however, you will hear oodles of “That’s too cute!” and “How did you do that?” and “Holy shmoly, are those Kit Kats?!” Shmoly isn’t really holy, just so you know.
Peeps Sunflower Cake: I told myself in my most authoritative voice not to post any recipes with peeps in them. Apparently self has issues with authority.
Lemon Chiffon Easter Cake: This dessert is a little–okay, a lot–more grown up than the other desserts, which means you probably shouldn’t grab a piece with your hands and shove it in your mouth and stick a second piece in your pocket for later and put a third piece on your plate when people are looking. Don’t be afraid of chiffon cakes. They’re not as hard as people say they are. Of course, I said that about algebra, and now my firstborn has trust issues.
Eggs have a natural protective coating that keeps the inside of the egg fresh despite the porous nature of the shell. When you boil hard-boiled eggs, you wash the protective coating off the shell, taking away nature’s preservative.
If properly refrigerated, hard-boiled eggs are generally considered edible for a week after they are boiled. (No need for confessions here about how long any of us actually let those eggs go!) That gives you an incredibly short amount of time to use up the 9 dozen eggs you boiled for Easter.
Here are 10 ways to use up the eggs before they go bad. Some are common, others are unique. The combination will keep your family from saying “Eggs?! Again?!!!”
10 Ways to Use Leftover Hard-Boiled Eggs
Eat them as is…sort of: hard-boiled eggs make a great quick breakfast, easy lunch addition, or protein-rich snack. They are less boring if you use your mama powers to transform them into an adorable family of chicks or regal egg penguins.
Sliced on salads: a salad bar with sliced fruits, veggies, seeds, and hard-boiled egg slices makes a great lunch or light dinner.
Top soups: slice them and use them to top soups such as saimin, our personal favorite “fast food” noodle soup from Hawaii. Many saimin recipes call for scrambling the eggs, but we noticed that the locals slice hard-boiled eggs and drop them on top.
Potato salad: use as an add-in for potato salad. There are about 3 million different recipes for potato salad, so choose your favorite or check out this impressive list of potato salad recipes from Idaho, where they know potatoes!
Deviled eggs (or stuffed eggs): try this deviled eggs recipe or the accompanying tutorial for these darling chicks if you’re feeling creative.
Add-ins: chop the eggs and add them to just about anything, from a breakfast bake to a noodle casserole.
Egg salad: this basic recipe for egg salad also lists numerous variations as well as an egg salad quesadilla.
Scotch eggs: If you’ve never eaten these Scottish sausage-wrapped eggs, you’ve never…well…eaten them. If you’re intimidated by the traditional deep-fried Scotch eggs, try this recipe for baked Scotch eggs.
Make meatloaf: Huh? Okay, so this Filipino style meatloaf is not exactly quick and simple, but it is Filipino, and I married a Filipino, and, seriously, meatloaf with hard boiled eggs in it? Um, yum! You at least have to take a look. (You can vary the recipe if you don’t like raisins and sweet relish in your loaf, but why not be adventurous!)
And a bonus use–Target practice: if you can’t manage to eat up all the eggs before they’ve expired, send the kiddos into the woods to toss them at a tree. The critters will thank you.
What is your favorite way to use up leftover hard-boiled eggs?
Do not use fresh eggs. If you are using supermarket eggs, don’t worry about it. They’re not fresh. If you have your own chickens and ultra-fresh eggs, store the eggs for a couple weeks before boiling.
Plunge the eggs into ice water to cool as soon as you’re done making them. You may need to add more ice as the water warms up. The ice causes the egg itself to contract, thus separating the egg from the membrane and shell…but you knew that, because you totally paid attention in science class, didn’t you?
Peeling Hard-Boiled Eggs: The Process
There are two main successful approaches to peeling hard-boiled eggs:
Crack the larger end with the air bubble in it where the membrane is most separated from the egg. Get in under the membrane and start sliding the shell off with your fingers.
Crack both ends. Then roll the egg between your palm and a hard surface until the entire shell is cracked. (Gently! You’re a 100+ pound human being. It’s just a wee little egg.) Slide the shell off.
There is a third approach, but I hesitate to mention it. Okay, fine, here it is.
Randomly crack the egg and pick little bits of shell off while muttering your egg-peeling frustrations under your breath…but you already know that approach, which is why you’re here reading about peeling hard-boiled eggs.
Give the egg a quick rinse and your beautiful masterpiece is ready to…smash into egg salad.
What are your best tips for peeling hard-boiled eggs?
Thanks to reader Theresa for submitting this question. If you have a question you would like The Simple Homemaker to answer, submit it through my contact page. I would love to hear from you!
Today I am honored to have as a guest blogger, my lovely daughter Hannah.
It’s almost Easter! And one of the most popular signs of Easter is the Easter egg. So I’m here to tell you how to make the best hard boiled-eggs ever!
You know what I mean by “the best”? I mean a perfect bright-yellow-yolk-minus-the weird-green-color, easy-to-peel, and superbly delicious hard-boiled egg.
How to Boil an Egg: Making Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs
What you need:
A pot and cover
Eggs–as many as you want, as long as they fit in the pot with some room to spare.
Water
A stove
A timer
A good book
How to boil an egg:
First, put the eggs in the pot and cover them completely with cool water. Set the pot on the stove.
Turn the stove on high; as high as it will go, its absolute highest, and wait for the water to come to a roaring boil. (When I say roaring boil, I don’t mean a few little bubbles at the bottom of the pot. I mean roaring, so that someone else can hear it from the next room.)
When it comes to a roaring boil, set the timer for three minutes. Then wait.
After the three minutes is up, turn off the stove, put the cover on the pot, and set the timer for seven more minutes. (Leave the pot on the burner!)
Then wait. Again.
When that time is up, take the eggs off the stove and rinse them in cold water. Sometimes I get lazy and just use room temperature water. That works too. (My mother, The Simple Homemaker, cools them in ice water.)
That’s it! Yep, you heard me correctly. You’re all done!
You can peel and eat them right away, or you can store them in the fridge. (It’s probably best to eat them within a week, but it’s a popular breakfast and snack in our house, so we have no trouble with that.)
So that, my friends, is how to boil an egg, the perfect hard-boiled egg.
It was cheap, it was simple, and it only took about ten minutes.
Here’s the boring printable version:
How to Boil an Egg: Making Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs
Author: Hannah
Prep time: 1 min
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 11 mins
The perfect hard-boiled eggs.
Ingredients
A pot and cover
Eggs–as many as you want, as long as they fit in the pot with some room to spare.
Water
A stove
A timer
A good book
Instructions
Put the eggs in the pot and cover them completely with water.
Set it on the stove.
Turn the stove on high and wait for the water to come to a roaring boil.
When it comes to a roaring boil, set the timer for three minutes. Then wait.
After the three minutes is up, turn off the stove, put the cover on the pot, and set the timer for seven more minutes. (Leave the pot on the burner.)
Then wait. Again.
When that time is up, take the eggs off of the stove and rinse them in cold water or plunge them in ice water until cool.
Enjoy your perfect hard-boiled eggs! Happy Easter!
Hannah is my firstborn daughter. She was a “roadschooled” 15-year-old at the time of this writing, 2012. Now she is a budding photographer and a freelance writer who loves experimenting in the kitchen and cooking for people on restricted diets. She is currently working on a chocolate cookbook for people who can’t eat sugar, grains, dairy, or soy. Hannah makes all the hard-boiled eggs here at The Simple Home…the good eggs, anyway. She emphatically denies any accountability for yesterday’s batch of less-than-perfect eggs made by a certain someone (a-hem…her mother) who did not follow the above directions.
To help the bunny stand up and create a better effect, make thicker oatmeal by using less liquid than usual.
The oatmeal must be served hot.
Don’t add milk or coconut cream or whatever you add until the bunny has worked its little bunny magic.
Adjust the chocolaty goodness by using a larger or smaller rabbit.
The teeny tiny one-bite bunnies are really too small, so have chocolate chips on hand to add some yum.
Solid rabbits are not going to melt as quickly or completely as hollow bunnies, unless they are small. We used small solids (7/$1) and they melted fine.
Make this after Easter when the bunnies are being unloaded cheap.
Don’t serve this on a morning when your kids will be expected to sit still and quiet for an hour. Ahem.
This works great for a no-life-lesson breakfast around Christmas, too. Stick a Santa in it.
)
Crack the larger end with the air bubble in it where the membrane is most separated from the egg. Get in under the membrane and start sliding the shell off with your fingers.
Crack both ends. Then roll the egg between your palm and a hard surface until the entire shell is cracked. (Gently! You’re a 100+ pound human being. It’s just a wee little egg.) Slide the shell off.
Randomly crack the egg and pick little bits of shell off while muttering your egg-peeling frustrations under your breath…but you already know that approach, which is why you’re here reading about peeling hard-boiled eggs.
