Also, to make this a "green" project I've also got to use as much of the left over veggies as possible. The beets we are giving to Mimi because she loves them. Lemon insides were made into some delicious lemonade! Oranges were eaten, no-brainer. Cabbage was boiled and eaten (just add salt!) Boiled spinach was frozen and I'll add it to a soup later. And last, we only used the outside layers of onion skin, so I'll saute the onion at our cookout this weekend. So, while buying all the veggies was way more expensive than $1 worth of PAAS dye, I'm re-purposing the food!
Yup, we boiled a bunch of stuff! Did you know if you put a wooden spoon across a boiling pot, it won't boil over. Crazy but true!!
Next step is to carefully drop the hard boiled eggs into the dye.
And here is what we got!
Yup, we boiled a bunch of stuff! Did you know if you put a wooden spoon across a boiling pot, it won't boil over. Crazy but true!!
Next step is to carefully drop the hard boiled eggs into the dye.
And here is what we got!Turmeric: We got a bright yellow as expected! This is the only one that you don't have boil, just add the spice to warm water.
Blueberries: I was not expecting the interesting grey color that we got from the blueberries. I think these are one of my favorites.
Coffee: Beautiful and really easy! It only took 2 tbs of coffee to get this color in just a few minutes.
Spinach: I boiled around 2 cups of spinach for around 20-30 minutes and let them sit in the colored water for another 20-30 minutes, but it didn't really turn green until the next morning. I didn't leave them in the water overnight, but they were definitely more green the next morning.
Cinnamon: The directions said that the cinnamon would turn a bright red color. Not what we got, but I'm guessing trying to boil water with 2 tbs of cinnamon isn't supposed to turn into a brown sludge. And while we didn't think the color was sticking, it ended up a pretty light brown. But, this one was quite a waste since we already had a prettier brown with the coffee.
Beets: Perfect and Beautiful!
Lemon and Orange Peel: I chopped the skins into small pieces but I think I should have grated them. The color had a hard time sticking and ended up rubbing off most of the way. The water never really turned yellow and I'm afraid that most of the color is from the peel burning in the bottom of the pot. We probably won't try this again since the Turmeric turned out so pretty.
Red Cabbage: We ended up leaving these in the bowl of colored water overnight in the refrigerator and they turned out a much prettier bright blue!
Red Onion Skins: I was expecting something a little more on the red side. I think we should have added more onion skin and possibly boiled it a little longer. We may try this one again next year.
And TA-DA... Beautifully dyed Easter eggs!
