Make Delicious Egg Salad

We had a golden egg. Not a real golden egg from a mythical golden goose, but a  plastic one. It was the only one of its kind and, without fail, every year, my brother and I battled over who got to keep the egg in his/her respective Easter Basket. Easter morning we would scavenge for the many pastel, plastic hidden eggs, working quickly to find that golden treasure. And the battles were far more than physical — this was a psychological war.

It has been years since I have gone on an Easter hunt, dyed eggs, or any of those other Sunday traditions. I do miss it, but all I can really remember about dyeing eggs is the strong nostril-burning scent of vinegar. Dyeing eggs is an art form, at least it can be, and it was with great fascination that I would drop the tablet into an assortment of vinegar-filled bowls. Every tablet was black. I remember the frenzied anticipation, waiting for it to to fizz and reveal its true color. Pure excitement. But here’s the thing about eggs, and Easter, for that matter. It’s fun to dye, decorate, hide, find and the like.

What’s not fun? Eating the eggs.

But every year, my loving mother bought two to three dozen and boiled them all for our dyeing pleasure. Brief side note: One year my parents thought it would be fun to hide the eggs outside for a “larger” and more “natural” hunting ground. When we returned from church, ready for the game to begin, we soon realized that birds had pecked holes in every single egg. True story. It might be a bit dramatic to say that Easter was ruined, but it was.

I used to despise hardboiled eggs. Rubbery, dry, lacking the flavor I seemed to demand at that age. The eggs lasted for what seemed like weeks, but we never made anything with them. We never stepped outside the hardboiled box. How about some egg salad? Sounds good to me. But somehow I’ve made it nearly 30 years without actually trying any. It always looks so fluffy and has that pretty (Easter-like?) shade of pale yellow. What am I waiting for? Things are about to change. This is my solution to all those unwanted, colorful eggs.

Egg Salad

(makes 2 sandwiches)

• 6 Eggs
• 4 slices of bacon cooked extra crispy
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp dried chervil
• 3.5 oz Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp whole grain mustard
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard

Place eggs in saucepan and cover with water. Have a bowl of ice water ready and set aside. Bring water to boil and as soon as it boils, take off heat and cover for seven minutes. When seven minutes are up place eggs in cold water, this will stop the cooking. To make the salad, peel eggs. You can slice your eggs if you choose, but I  push my eggs through a cooling rack. This makes perfectly cubed egg pieces. Mix eggs with salt, pepper, mustards, yogurt, and chopped bacon. I like my egg salad on toasted rye bread, but of course your bread choice is up to you! Enjoy.

Try These Interesting Egg Dyeing Techniques

Rubber Bands

1. Get some thick rubber bands and wrap your egg with several of them before placing it in the dye.
2. Remove the egg from the dye and let it dry, and then remove the rubber bands. If you want to make an egg with different shades, remove just a few of the rubber bands before dyeing the egg in a second color.

Aluminum Foil

1. Crumple and uncrumple a large square of aluminum foil (large enough to go around the egg), then coat the foil with acrylic paint.
2. Put the egg in the center of the foil and loosely wrap it. Gently press the foil against the egg, then remove the egg and let it dry. You can repeat with other colors to make a textured look.

Marbleized Easter Eggs

1. Mix the dye according to package directions.
2. For each color that you want to “marbleize,” add 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil.
3. Dye the eggs.
4. The oil will give the eggs a marbleized effect.