Making Confetti Eggs (Cascarónes)

Last year, Oliver was introduced to confetti eggs in Texas. Andrew's extended family in Texas were surprised to learn that I'd never seen confetti eggs before. Apparently, they're a tradition from Mexico's Carnival that's been adapted for Easter celebrations in Texas. All the grocery stores there sell egg cartons full of these confetti eggs that you bust open. Here's Oliver checking them out:

Well, in spite of our high Mexican-Hispanic population here in the Denver area, I've never seen confetti eggs sold in supermarkets or anywhere else. So, I decided to set the bar high and make some of my own. But wait, you're thinking. It's still February! You're right, of course. And to that, I answer: If I'm going to hollow out a couple dozen eggs before Easter next month, then I think I'd better start now. OK, yeah, maybe I'm just crazy...

Well, read on to see how I made confetti eggs. I got the step-by-step instructions from Martha Stewart's website. I took photos of each step as I did them.

100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler, Day 86: Egg Shells

Months ago, I found an activity on Pinterest from a blog called Play, Create, Explore that looked promising. You can find the original post here. The mom on that blog washed and dried a bunch of egg shells and put them in a bowl for her son to play with. I pinned the activity to save for a day when I was using lots of eggs, and then I forgot about it.

Fast forward to Friday night. I found a breakfast recipe for an asparagus and mushroom strata that appealed to me because you prepare it the night before, and, in the morning, you just pop it in the oven (that pin can be found right here). We were having company on Saturday morning. I thought being able to make the meal the night before would save me from having to get up early, cook, and then clean up the kitchen. Anyway, it called for eight eggs. I was stacking the cracked eggshells in an empty egg carton, trying to decide if there was anything I could do with them, and I remembered the pin.

I washed the eggs, and then I spritzed them with some anti-bacterial spray. I left them overnight to dry. Normally, I try to let my kids get dirty and exposed to the environment, but salmonella isn't something I wanted to expose Joanna to. So, I made sure they were clean and sanitized.

In the morning, I put some egg shells in a shallow bowl for both Jo and Oliver. They were both very curious about the eggs and picked them up and examined them.

It didn't take Oliver long to figure out that he could use the palms of his hands to smash the eggs. I was a little worried the shells would be sharp enough to cut his hands, but that never happened.

Oliver really got a kick out of smashing the egg shells with his palms. He was disappointed when he finished smashing all of his eggs. It took all of two minutes, and when they were smashed, he was done.

Joanna, on the other hand, kept playing! I kept an eye on her to make sure she didn't try to eat shells. She enjoyed picking off little pieces of shells. Eventually, she started to smash them, too.

Smash!

And then she enjoyed making them rain:

Andrew and I both had fun watch the kids smash eggs. I like seeing the kids explore new things and think. The activity was fun for Oliver, but it was definitely more age appropriate for Jo. She had an absolute blast with those egg shells. They weren't too messy to clean up. I just had to give the kitchen a quick sweep.

This is an activity I'll definitely remember to do again, whenever I make something that uses a lot of eggs. Next time, I'll give the kids the potato masher like the mother did on her blog. I give this activity an A!

And, in case you're wondering how that strata came out, it was delicious. It smelled insanely good, and my mouth watered the whole time it was in the oven. It came out bubbling like a lasagna. The recipe is definitely a keeper! Both Pinterest pins were a win. Yay!

Pinterest Challenge Day 18: Baked Eggs in Tomato Cups

I decided to do one of my breakfast pins today, so I made baked eggs in tomato cups:
http://pinterest.com/pin/216383957066137778/

They're as easy as they look! I bought some tomatoes on the vine, sliced off the tops, and scooped out the insides. I cracked an egg into each, and I topped it with a dab of butter and a sprinkling of salt and pepper:

I baked those bad boys for close to half an hour because the eggs just were not cooking (the egg whites stayed clear up until the last 5-10 minutes). I wonder if using cold tomatoes is to blame.

One tomato split open almost immediately in the oven. Two others split open near the end. Again, it's probably my fault. When I scooped out the pulp, I also scooped out the ribbing. I probably weakened the tomatoes when I did that.

In spite of the set backs, breakfast was fab. Andrew told me the tomatoes were perfectly tender, and Oliver especially enjoyed the mango smoothies (12 oz of OJ, half a fresh banana, 4 ice cubes, one diced mango that I'd previously frozen, and 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt) that he helped me make.

I love how simple this recipe is, but it's still elegant. I don't think it'd make a good weekday breakfast for us, since it needs to bake for so long, but I intend to do this again on a weekend morning.

Pinterest Challenge Day 14: Eggs in Peppers

Happy Valentine's Day! My husband woke me up this morning and said to me, "I made you breakfast, and I did one of your pins for you!"

I came downstairs and saw this:

Beautiful! He completed this pin:

http://pinterest.com/pin/216383957066203318/

The eggs were very flavorful. They'd picked up a hint of the pepper flavor, and he'd topped them with salt, cracked pepper, and a touch of Swiss cheese.

I told him I was going to take a picture of them for the pin, and he told me he already had! He'd also taken pictures of the cooking process. He told me that it's important to cut the peppers as straight as possible, otherwise the eggs leak out the bottom.

He chose to do two as fried eggs and two as scrambled eggs.

To the scrambled eggs, he'd added a splash of milk. Apparently, that caused the eggs to really leak under the peppers. He used a spatula to hold the peppers down to limit the runaway eggs. Once the eggs started to cook and form a seal, he scooped all the eggs that had run out and put them back in the peppers:

I enjoyed this morning in every way. Breakfast with my family, delicious eggs, and no pin to worry about today! OK, so I already had a pin completed, but I'll post that one tomorrow and take a day off pinning for today and tomorrow.

Pinterest Challenge Day 4: Football Deviled Eggs

Today's pin (here: http://pinterest.com/pin/216383957066137848/ ) appeared simple enough. Make deviled eggs. Use sliced olives to mimic football laces. End result: football deviled eggs.

I decided to use my standard recipe for deviled eggs because I don't like mayonnaise (what?!), but I love Miracle Whip. It's just so zesty! I got out the supplies:

Oliver helped peel the hard-boiled eggs:

After mashing the yolks and mixing them with approximately half a cup of Miracle Whip and a few tablespoons of mustard (both to personal taste), I piped the mixture bag into the eggs using a plastic baggie with the corner snipped off:

That's when things started to go wrong. Andrew walked up and looked at them and asked, "Uh, doesn't the yolk mixture need to be smooth for the laces?" Doh! I hadn't even thought of that. So, I cleaned my fingers and smeared down the pretty yolk mixture to be as smooth as I could. It went OK.

I sprinkled paprika (a little too much, oops) on the eggs because I don't think you can have deviled eggs without paprika! Then, I sliced up olives. They didn't work very well. The "laces" couldn't really overlap over each other. They just wouldn't fit on top. So, I had to slice the horizontal ones in half and stick a half on each side of the main lace.

It didn't look like a football. It looked like either a sea turtle with an extra set of legs, or a mutilated scorpion.

Here was my end result:

The good news is, they tasted fabulous. Andrew said, hands down, best deviled eggs he'd ever had. I learned minced olives are a good addition to deviled eggs, so today's project wasn't a total loss. It's a good thing I don't have much pride because I still intend to bring these to my parents' house tomorrow for the Super Bowl. They look ugly but taste great!