EGGSperiments!

It’s Easter!  

So it’s time for some…

EGGSperiments!!

This is all things hardboiled eggs!

First things first, how to make the perfect hardboiled egg…

I read so many blogs and even saw a chart that said for the perfect hardboiled egg, you have to bring the eggs to a boil, then remove them from heat and let them sit for 10 minutes before putting them in an ice bath to cool.  So that’s what I did.

My eggs didn’t cook all the way!  I’m thinking it was because my eggs were laid only days before from our chickens. So I did a little EGGSperimenting!

Here’s what I found to make the PERFECT hard-boiled freshly laid eggs…

Put the eggs in a saucepan with cold water.
Bring the water to a rolling boil.
Boil for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and let sit for another 5 minutes.
Then place eggs in a bowl of cold water until cooled.
Done!

FUN FACT

How can you tell when an egg is cooked and when one is not?  Spin them!  Yeah, I know, I thought it was strange too, but it makes sense.  The insides slosh around inside an uncooked egg and prevents it from spinning very fast.  This is not the case with a cooked egg.  I got to try this out, and my kids thought it was great!

 

Moving on…

I was reading and watching so many different ways to peel a hard-boiled egg.  It got me thinking, what is the fastest and easiest way?

Time for more EGGSperiments…

I took 5 different hardboiled eggs and peeled them 5 different ways.

The first way was with a spoon.  Peel a little off the top, and a little off the bottom and use a spoon to gently work in between the egg and the shell.

 

**Overall, it went faster than I thought it would and it was actually pretty easy.  The only downfall was that it’s easy to damage the egg.  As you can see, my peeled egg wasn’t so pretty.**

 

The next thing I tried was to make a small hole in the egg (I did this on both sides for a little extra advantage). Place it back in the bowl of water, and the water is supposed to seep into the shell and work its way in between the shell and the egg white.

**Mine did NOT.  It peeled around the hole easily, but stopped not too far away.  Eventually, I stopped trying and moved onto the next egg.**

The rolling method was next.  Peel a little off the top and a little off the bottom, place it on a hard surface and roll under your hand until you feel the egg shell cracking.  Roll until the whole thing is cracked, then peel.

 

**Holy Cow! This worked perfectly!  The shell came off in one piece and it was so easy to do!**

The next method was one I saw on YouTube from TheCrazyRussianHacker, and it was SO cool.  You peel a little off the bottom and a little off the top.  Put the small end to your mouth and blow.  The air is supposed to push the egg out the big end.

 

**I put the egg to my mouth and blew…and blew…and blew till I was blue in the face.  Then I peeled a little more off the bottom and tried again.  The same thing happened… Nothing.  This was a little disappointing.**

 

The last and final method was the shaker method.  You place an egg in a container with a little bit of water.  Put a top on it and shake it up.  The shell is supposed to crack right off in the jar.  I first used a bowl and places a plate over top of it.  When I shook it up, my water was coming out, so I moved to a saucepan. 

**The shell didn’t come off my egg all the way and I had water and little bits of shell all over the pan and bowl.  Granted, the shell came off easier when I took it out of the pan and peeled it off, but I don’t see me ever doing this again because of the gigantic mess.**

Overall… The rolling method was a clear winner, with the spoon method coming in a close second!  So peel away, and enjoy all those hardboiled Easter eggs!

FUN FACT

Myth or Fact:  “Freshly laid eggs are harder to peel than eggs that have been laid 4-5 days before.”

I didn’t see why this would matter, so I did a little…. Yep, that’s right… EGGSperiment.

I picked an egg out of the ones that were just laid that day,

and I cooked it with an egg that had been laid around 5 days earlier. 

When they were ready, I used the number one peeling method found above, the rolling method, on both eggs.

The result… I wouldn’t say that either egg was hard to peel, but it did turn out that that the 5 day old egg was easier to peel.  Its shell was in one piece while I had to pick more at the fresher egg.  It was fun to see the air pocket that’s normally at the bottom of an egg was on the side of the fresh egg. It’s because it hadn’t had a chance to sit upright in a carton yet, but it’s still something I hadn’t seen before.

Myth or Fact?  I do believe that’s a FACT!

That brings an end to my EGGSperiments.  I hope you have as much fun with your cooked eggs as I did!

Leave a comment and let me know any other ways you like to peel eggs, or any other fun facts.

I always like to hear from you.

Until next time…

Happy DIY-ing!!!

Easter Bunny Bites

Need a quick and easy school snack for an Easter party?

I’ve got the perfect thing for you.

These Bunny Bites are so easy to make. 

All you need is popped popcorn, mini marshmallows, small pastel colored candies, and sandwich Ziploc bags.

When I was first looking for party snacks, I saw the popcorn balls that were made by melting the marshmallows so the popcorn and candy stuck together.  It was really cute, but since this was for preschoolers, all I could see were sticky hands getting melted marshmallow everywhere. 

With the Bunny Bites, they would get to pick out what they wanted to eat and what they didn’t, because we all know how picky little kids can be. 

Here’s how I made mine and what I used.

My Bunny Bites (filled 24 sandwich bags)

7 full size bags of popped popcorn
A full bag of mini marshmallows
Easter Sweet Tart Jelly Beans
Easter M&Ms
Easter Sixlets (Chocolate Balls)

At first, I tried to give the same exact amount of candy per bag and separated it into 24 piles.

Yeah, that was too hard, so I ended up putting approximately the same amount of M&Ms and Jelly Beans in each bag. Then I dumped one packet of Sixlets in each.

 

Now it was time for the popcorn.  I popped the popcorn and it in a big bowl to cool down. I worked with only two bags at a time.

Once cooled, I mixed in some mini marshmallows.  My mini marshmallows were a little sticky, so it worked out perfectly when they lightly stuck to bits of popcorn.

Place a cup of the popcorn mixture in each candy bag.

**Make sure to be careful not to include the unpopped kernels.  Those are never good for little teeth.**

Shake your bag to mix everything together and lay it face down so all the colorful candies fall to the front of the bag.

Press down on the bag to squeeze out the air.  This will help keep the candies from falling right back down to the bottom of the bag. Seal and done.

That’s all there is too it, and you have a great snack for any school party.

To dress up my bag, I stuck a template under the clear bag painted over it.  I was thinking of stapling a label to the bag instead, but I could see flying staples when the preschoolers ripped them off.  Painting was much simpler, I thought. (That was until I hit around 15 and never wanted to paint another bunny again J; 24 was a lot of little baggies to paint.) In the end, I have to say that they were pretty cute.  Little bits of paint did chip off in the end, but nothing that ruined the design.

Now, for the true test…

The kids at my daughter’s preschool really enjoyed them.  Some dumped out them on their plates so they could pick through the stuff, and others just ate from the bag. 

It was a very quiet snack time.  Like her teacher, Ms. Shawna, pointed out, “You know it’s a good snack when all you hear is silence.”

I hope all your Easter parties are as fun… and quiet… as my daughter’s was.

Until next time…

Happy DIY-ing!!!

Message in an... EGG?

I found this wonderful DIY for Easter, and it’s so simple it’s crazy.

You’ve heard about a message in a bottle, right?  Well, this is a message... in an egg! Not one of those cheap plastic ones either.  This is made strait from the chicken and turned into something truly amazing.

My son takes care of twenty chickens and we just started getting a dozen eggs, at least, a day.  I am surrounded by eggs!  My husband can’t sell them fast enough, and there are only so many times kids will want to eat eggs in a row.  Easter couldn’t have come sooner!

This year I hit the internet hard for all things eggs.  There are so many things out there, but what I kept getting drawn to was the hollowed out eggs so people could put things inside.  Glitter, cereal, grass, paint… You name it, someone probably putting it in an egg. 

Everything I saw, a big portion of the shell was gone, so I know how the insides came out.  What really caught my eye was the tiny love note found in a cracked egg. {Love Message in an Egg}

It’s so cute, and kind of romantic.

By the looks of things, the process looked more daunting than fun, but I wanted to try.  Oh man, was I wrong!  Out of everything I did this Easter, this was probably the easiest. 

Here’s how:

Grab a small bowl, a needle, and of course an uncooked egg.

Poke a small hole in the bottom of the egg with the needle. I also used the needle to break the yoke apart while doing this.

Make the hole a tad bit bigger, but not too much.  I used the needle for this as well.  You want it small enough to be discreet, but large enough for the insides to come out.

The problem…  I held the egg over the bowl, but nothing came out.  I gave it a little shake, but still nothing.  Here’s the trick…

Poke a small hole it the top as well.   Not a big one, just the size of the needle.  Place it over the bowl and blow into the top hole. 

The air will push the insides of the egg out the bottom hole.

 

Once all the insides are out, run water over the bottom hole.

 

When water gets trapped in the egg, place your fingers over the holes and shake, shake, shake to clean it out.  Blow the water out the same way you did the yoke.  Do this a few times to make sure the inside of the egg is clean.

Place it over a bottle/container overnight so all the water can drip out.  This helps so the note won’t get wet. 

While that’s waiting, you can get your message ready.  Tear off a small strip of paper and write your message. 

It can be anything you want to say.  I was thinking that it might be cute for fortunes as well.  Instead of a “fortune cookie” you give out a “fortune egg”.

Roll it up as small as you can.  I used a toothpick for help and rolled it around that.

Oops, be careful when you put your message in.  The egg is fragile and my message was a little bit bigger than my bottom hole. My hole cracked a tiny bit bigger than I would have liked.

If this happens, it’s no big deal.  Stick a small piece of tape over the bottom.  The paint hides everything anyways.

 

Speaking of paint… Once the message is in, it’s time to decorate the egg.  You can use whatever you want to do this.  I used my acrylic paints and puff paint to give it some dimension.

There you have it, you’re very own “Message in an Egg.”

These would be great as gifts, or even party favors. 

The look on my kids’ faces when I cracked the egg and only a piece of paper was inside was priceless!  I felt like Super Mom because they thought I was the coolest mom in the world for making that happen. 

If you were to do this, what would you put in an egg?  What would it say?

Comment below and let me know.

Be sure to look around my blog for more holiday and Easter DIYs to do at home.

Until next time…

Happy DIY-ing!!!

Eucalyptus Green Tea Bath Bomb

What's under the bubbles??? A bath bomb, of course...

This DIY was interesting to say the least.  You know that friend that I told you about during my Leprechaun Loot post, the one that’s surrounded by boys.  Well, along with the fun Leprechaun Loot, I wanted to send something that was just for her; something that she could use to just relax and take some time for herself.  That’s when I remembered seeing adorable little heart shaped bath bombs on YouTube.

After watching video after video and reading countless blogs, I came up with a plan to make my own.  Of course since this was part of a St. Patrick’s Day gift, I had to make them green.  What if I were to go one step further and use actual Green Tea?

Green Tea Bath Benefits

Restores Skins Elasticity

Antioxidant

Healing Properties

Click here for more…

Then there was the oils… Every single tutorial I watched or read talked about essential oils, so I had to go get some.  When I was at the store, I saw eucalyptus.  I am a sucker for eucalyptus, and the combination with Green Tea sounded so earthy and appealing.

Benefits of Eucalyptus Oil

Anti-inflammatory

Decongestant

Antiseptic

Helps with joint & muscle pain

Click here for much more…

Here was my journey into the world of DIY Bath Bombs…

Mini Eucalyptus Green Tea Bath Bombs

Items Needed

¼ Cup Epsom Salt
½ Cup Baking Soda
¼ Cup Corn Starch
1/8 Cup Cream of Tartar
3 Family Size tea bags of Green Tea
3 tsp Lemon Juice
1 Tbsp Water
3 tsp Eucalyptus Essential Oil
3 drops Green Food Coloring
1 Tbsp Almond Oil
Mold
Bowl and Wisk

***There are a lot of recipes with citric acid as the main ingredient to counteract with the baking soda.  Problem… I could only find it online, and I wasn’t going to wait.  Then I saw that Cream of Tartar has the same effect.  However, I only had a small container and bigger ones were pretty pricey.  I also saw how lemon juice can be used, but it doesn’t make the big fizzing action like a citric acid bath bomb. That’s how I came to the conclusion to use the Cream of Tartar I had and lemon juice to make up the difference.***

First, combine all your dry ingredients (Epsom Salt, Baking Soda, Corn Starch, Cream of Tartar, & Green Tea) in a bowl.

Wisk together.

Combine all your wet ingredients (Lemon Juice, Water, Almond Oil, Essential Oil, & Food Coloring) in a separate smaller bowl.

Now, this is where I put the wet mixture into a small spray bottle, planning on spraying it onto the dry ingredients.  However the oil started to clog the sprayer, so I ended up taking off the top and slowly dripping it in.

***Important… Add the wet ingredients SLOWLY, so the mixture doesn’t react to the liquid.*** 

Put in a drop or two and whisk together.  Put in a drop or two and whisk together… So on and so on…

I thought I would never stop whisking!  Eventually though, it started to look like my favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Check your mixture.  If it clumps when you squeeze it in your hand, you know it’s done.

Put it into your mold, and pack it in.

I used a flower silicone tray, but I have seen people use plastic molds, Christmas ornaments, and even a plastic bag.

If using a silicone mold, like me, don’t even think about touching it for at least 24 hours.  I covered them and waited.

Even after that, mine were still damp at the bottom and falling apart.  I pressed them back into the mold and stuck the tray in the freezer. 

If a freezer is needed.  Keep them in there for 30 mins to an hour, take out the tray and let it cool before removing the bombs. 

After taking them out of the tray, I placed them on tissue to help remove any excess moisture. 

Finally, it was time for the moment of truth… The fizz test!

 

Disclaimer… No, it did NOT fizz as much as I hoped it would have. It fizzed, but VERY slowly. 

Ok, I might have been a little disappointed that there was no big fizz action going on, so there was only one thing left to do… I took it to the tub!

It dissolved much faster when I was in the bathtub and there was movement in the water. Plus, it smelled SO nice!  Since mine were mini bombs, I saw no problem with popping another one into the bath as well.  I got out of the tub after I was thoroughly prunie and my skin felt so light and airy.  I told that to my husband, and he had NO clue what I was talking about.  Humph... <eye roll> That’s why I have you people…  You get it!

Because these were a gift, and my friend LOVES clovers, I painted a quick Celtic clover on a mini draw string bag, wrapped up the bath bombs in foil to protect them and keep out any moisture, and placed them inside.  It was so cute, and I was a little sad when I had to mail them out.

 

Overall, I think these were a winner.  They are easy to make, and there are so many different ways you can play around with them.  I’m thinking I might try lavender ones next time, maybe even with citric acid to get that big fizz.

Have you ever made bath bombs before?  How was your experience?

What combinations of scents do you think would go good together?

There are SO MANY possibilities!

Until next time…

Happy DIY-ing!!!

St. Patrick's Day Fact from Global News...

Green has NO historical link to honoring St. Patrick.

Turns out blue was the color knights wore in the Order of St. Patrick.
The association with green likely dates back to the 18^th century when Irish independence supporters used it to represent their cause. (Plus it goes nicely with the country’s grassy, viridescent hills).

For more facts you might not know, click here.