Easter Eggs and Tips*

I’m sure every family has their traditional Easter Dinner.  Ours is Baked Ham, our special family recipe Potato Salad, Asparagus Spears, Home Baked Rolls, Frozen Fruit Salad, and Strawberry Shortcake for dessert.

This week you can’t go wrong buying Ham at any of the stores—there are some great specials going. 

By the way, I’ve noticed that Spiral Hams always take at least a half-hour or more to heat through than what it tells you on the package.  Even though they usually fully cooked, I would recommend bringing them to the proper internal temperature before serving.

This is a great time of year to get good prices on asparagus; if you have been waiting for your first taste of this delicious spring vegetable, it would be a great treat for your Easter dinner.  Honestly, we love asparagus so much that when all the kids were home I would count the spears and tell them how many they could each have!  Now with just the three of us, we don’t have to fight over the asparagus as much.

After many not-so-perfect boiled egg experiences through the years, I finally came up with a method that seem pretty fool-proof to get Eggs ready to color for Easter:

Carefully place one layer of eggs in bottom of a large pan.  Cover one or two inches over with cold water.  Turn heat to high, and heat just to a strong simmer.  Turn heat to medium for 2 minutes to ensure simmer, then to near low for ten minutes.  Remove from heat.  Run one of the eggs under cold water and peel, then cut in half and check for doneness.  Do this as quickly as you can.  If it’s done, take all the eggs off, drain, and immerse in cold water immediately to stop the cooking.  If they aren’t quite done, leave in hot water (that has been removed from the heat) for up to another five minutes if needed.  Cool all the eggs in cold water, drain and dry, then refrigerate until ready to use or color.

Boiled eggs should be stored in the refrigerator, not left out for more than an hour or two.  Unpeeled eggs will last in the refrigerator for one week.

Note:  Remember that it’s best to use older eggs because they peel much more easily.  So if you haven’t bought your eggs yet, get them as soon as possible. 

*Originally distributed April 2013