Easter Eggs The Armenian Way

For most holidays, I try to find a way to incorporate something from at least one of the kids' cultural heritages.  Last year for Easter I made a traditional Bulgarian bread called Kozunak and this year I decided to die eggs as is done in Armenia.

I found the instructions and went to work.

Step 1: Clean out the onion skins from the bin at my supermarket.  Since I am fortunate enough to shop at a very clean grocery store, this took two trips.  Yep, I can be that person, I have no shame when it comes to certain things.

Step 2: Boil the onion skins in water for about 15 minutes, then let the mixture sit for about ten hours.

Step 3: Prepare the eggs by placing cilantro leaf designs onto them and wrapping them into pantyhose (3 pairs of knee highs for a buck from the Dollar Store did the trick).

Step 4: Put eggs into the cool onion skin water and boil.  Then remove pot from burner and allow the eggs to cool in the water.

Step 5: Remove eggs from water and release them from their nylon wrapping.  I took my eggs out a little bit staggered, hoping for different shades in color.  Some of the leaf designs came out better than others and that's okay.  These eggs aren't mass-produced, they were died by a frazzled, multi-tasking mom.

Step 6: Polish eggs to a shine with sunflower oil.

Step 7: Enjoy beautiful Armenian-inspired Easter eggs.

If you want to try this at home, I recommend using only the sturdiest cilantro or parsley leaves as they will hold up best to the boil and wrapping your raw eggs as tightly as possible.

Happy Easter, everyone!