Also on Pinterest, I had seen an alternative method to hard boil the eggs and decided to try that also. This method had me cooking the eggs in the oven as opposed to in a pot on top of the stove. Apparently Alton Brown says this is the best way to cook them. He puts them directly on the rack in the oven and cooks them at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. Immediately they go into ice water for 10 minutes before peeling. Someone else suggested putting the eggs in a mini muffin tin, so I did that as it seemed to be an easier way to get them in and out of the oven. The advantage to cooking them in the oven is that the house didn't get that cooking egg smell. However, the egg shells got brown spots and some of those spots were also on the egg whites. The frustrating thing, and I assume the method of cooking was in part a reason for this, was that they were extremely hard to peel. After that, the rest of the process was easy!
I cut the eggs in half the long way and put the yolks in a small bowl. The egg whites were divided among four glasses where I had colored water. To each glass of water, I added 5 drops of food color; one each in red, blue, yellow and green. I left the whites in the water for approximately 5 minutes. The longer they are left in the dyed water, the darker the color becomes. (I suggest you check them frequently to get the shade you want.) Then I removed them and place them upside-down to drain/dry. In the meantime, using a potato masher, I broke up the yolks, adding some mayonnaise, yellow mustard and sweet pickle relish. I apologize for not having amounts, I just put them together by taste. I placed the colored whites on my egg platter and pipped in the filling. My husband said we couldn't call these eggs deviled on Easter, so we started calling them Celebration Eggs. With the pretty colors, they look more like a celebration! My cousin was thrilled to learn how easy it was to dye the eggs as she will be hosting a shower soon and will use this method to match the colors of the theme.
For dessert, I made the Lemon Cheesecake Tarts (I shared the recipe for before - see Valentine's Tea). I chose to add this picture to show you how different they can look, depending on the fruit you choose to put on top. In this case, I used a quarter slice of kiwi and a raspberry on each one. I also added a dollop of mint jelly. This is a pretty combination to use at Christmas.
The big hit in the dessert category was this Peanut Butter Cup Trifle. This recipe was also found on Pinterest, but it originated at the-girl-who-ate-everything.com. It uses a store-bought brownie mix for a 9x13-inch dish and 20 regular size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. You really don't want to scrimp on this ingredient! I found the Mini Reese's at Target and thought they would look best on the top. This is super easy to make and assemble. The thing that takes a long time is waiting for the brownies to cool, so give yourself plenty of time. This can be prepared the day before as mine was. I added the Cool Whip and mini Reese's just before serving. It was a major hit. Enjoy!
Peanut
Butter Cup Trifle
1 (9x13) pan of baked
brownies, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 (5.1 ounce)
package instant vanilla pudding
3 cups milk
½ cup creamy peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 (8 ounce) container thawed
Cool Whip, divided
20 peanut butter cups,
crumbled (do not buy bite sized; you could get away with less...but why?)
6-8 peanut butter cups to
garnish.
Combine pudding and milk.
Beat for 2 minutes. Add peanut butter and vanilla, beat until smooth. Gently
fold in 2 cups Cool Whip.
Layer in trifle dish ½ the
brownies, ½ the crumbled peanut butter cups, ½ the pudding mixture. Repeat. Top
with cool whip and peanut butter cups. Chill at least four hours until serving.
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