Food brings my family together. At every holiday and family gathering, food is the most central part of the celebration, planned far in advance and anticipated all year long. Although each holiday has a different tradition tied to it, one ingredient seems to show up at every meaningful family moment: eggs. Whether it is dying Easter eggs with my cousins in April, cooking up eggs Benedict to serve my mom in bed in May, or piping deviled eggs for an appetizer in November, eggs are a through line for connection in my family.
As eggs are not on my list of favorite foods, I was taking them for granted. But upon reflecting on all my memories of family holidays and special moments across the years, eggs always seem to show up somewhere. It turns out, some of my best memories of the holidays involve preparing egg dishes with my family. And perhaps none is as fun as the ever-messy, ever-beautiful Easter egg.
Dyed Easter Eggs
When I was growing up, my family spent every spring break in Florida visiting my grandparents. We spent our days relaxing at the beach, golfing, and of course, dying Easter eggs.
Between my siblings and my cousins, six children took part in the annual egg-dyeing extravaganza. The day before Easter, my mom or aunt would head to the nearest Publix to buy three dozen white eggs (yes, 36), which we then hard-boiled to prepare for the dying. And I mean hard-boiled. The harder the better to make sure they didn’t break during the dying.
We always used the cheap grocery store Easter egg kits, the ones that come with the colorful cups, the wire egg holders, and the little dye tablets. We started by prepping the obligatory water and vinegar mixture and adding in the tablets to make our colors. Then, all us kids gathered around my grandma’s little kitchen island to begin dyeing our eggs.
As we reached over each other’s arms and fought over the most-desired shades, our 36 eggs slowly became brilliantly colored. When we were young, we dyed our eggs solid colors under parental supervision. As we got older, we got into color theory, dyeing our eggs two and sometimes even three colors. We discovered that dyeing an egg two-thirds yellow and two-thirds blue makes a beautiful green stripe in the middle. We also discovered that mixing green and orange makes an ugly brown (who knew?). We learned patience and wrist strength as we held our eggs halfway in the dye, lamenting each time an egg slipped and got fully submerged.
Some of our kits came with fun decorations, like glitter, stickers, and white crayons to leave spots undyed. Using these never worked out quite the way we wanted, but they were fun to play around with nonetheless. When we finished dying an egg, we left it to dry in the punched-out holes of the cardboard egg-dying kit boxes. Soon, we had three boxes full of eggs colored in beautiful hues of purple, pink, blue, and more.
The next morning, our parents woke up early to hide Easter eggs around my grandparents’ house. At no later than seven am, all the kids woke up, and the Easter egg hunt began. We searched the house from top to bottom, making sure we had all 36 eggs. As we got older, our parents got more creative with the hiding spots, putting eggs inside kitchen appliances and my grandpa’s shoes.
Ever since I can remember, my dad has always made breakfast in bed for Mother’s Day, with help from my siblings and I. My mom’s favorite breakfast dish is eggs Benedict, so every May, my dad takes out the special pan with the little egg-poaching cups and gets to work. Making a perfect poached egg is no easy feat, but my dad seems to have mastered it, cooking a deliciously runny yolk each time. While my dad worked on the eggs and the Canadian bacon, my siblings and I were tasked with toasting English muffins and making the hollandaise sauce. We squeezed lemons endlessly, then stirred the sauce until our arms were falling off. Hollandaise is a finicky sauce, but it is inarguably the best part of eggs Benedict.
Once all the ingredients were prepared, my dad assembled the meal: half an English muffin stacked with the ham, poached egg, and sauce. My siblings and I arranged the food on a platter and brought it up to my mom in bed. She reacted with surprise every time, even though we made her the exact same meal each year.
Eggs Benedict are quite messy, so the breakfast in bed part was really just for show. To avoid ruining her sheets, my mom took the platter back down to the kitchen, where the whole family ate breakfast together. There is nothing quite as satisfying as cutting into your eggs Benedict and watching the yolk run out, except, of course, that first bite.
Deviled Eggs for Family Gatherings
Deviled eggs are an ideal appetizer. They’re bite-sized, flavorful, and so pretty on the plate. Whenever my family is asked to make appetizers for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any other gathering, we almost always choose deviled eggs.
The first time we made deviled eggs, we tried to scoop the mashed yolks back into the egg white halves with a spoon. This proved to be difficult, messy, and not very presentable. My sister, who loves baking, got the idea to pipe in the mashed yoke like frosting. She scoops the egg mash into a piping bag and uses a specialized tip to make a pretty flower shape as she refills the egg whites with yolk. We then dust the deviled eggs with paprika for a pop of color and arrange them on the platter for serving. A total hit at any family event.
Sunday Morning Omelettes
If it wasn’t clear by now, my dad is the master of eggs in my house, and of breakfast more generally. During the week, our breakfasts are pretty simple: cereal, toast, or yogurt. But on the weekend, when we have more time on our hands, we tend to make some rather decadent meals. Pancakes and waffles are classics, but nothing beats an omelet served piping hot on a lazy Sunday morning.
Omelettes were never planned in advance in my house. They were always decided upon moment-of and made with whatever ingredients we had lying around. Onions, peppers, ham, scallions, shredded cheese… simply ask and it shall be added. My dad even took specialized orders, adding in different ingredients to each omelet to suit each family member’s taste. Regardless of what was added, the omelets turned out fluffy and delicious every time.