Beet Eggs

Well, it's the weekend and I'm only able to access 3 or 4 of my brain cells. See, the thing is, you've only got so much storage in your brain, and after 50 years or so, what with the inevitable death of many brain cells do to blunt force trauma, champagne consumption, stress and menopause, I figure that at any given time, I've only got small bank of about 13 or 14 brain cells at my disposal that are not being used for vital life sustaining tasks like breathing, napping, and awareness. Lately, the awareness category is the one getting the short-shrift!


So, due to the lack of functioning brain cells, I'm going to post a recipe for one of my favorite 'old-timey' homestyle foods. This dish was originally an old German one, but over the years it's gotten the reputation as being from the Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch. But they got it from the Germans. I picked this recipe because I was in the mood to make them and because as I was gazing at my fridge and looking at my home-made egg basket, I thought it would be fun to post about it.

Cousin Deets made this basket for me with her own hands! I love it! It is just amazing to me that she took up basketweaving and got really quite good at it! She brought this to me while she was on vacation one time and I've used it as my egg basket every since. It stays in the fridge and every time I see it, I always say, "Don't keep all your eggs in one basket!" Or, as I'm putting a new carton of eggs into the basket, I will say, "Here I go again, putting ALL my eggs into ONE basket! Tsk! Tsk!" This is the kind of thing I choose to use my dwindling brain cells for! Useless sayings and comforting old adages that give me a little bit of giddy glee to repeat.

When I saw that I had more eggs than space in my egg basket, I decided it was time to get out the canned beets, the vinegar, and the sugar.

First, you are going to Hard boil some eggs. I did about 8 eggs this time. On another burner, put One Cup of vinegar (white or cider, it makes no difference) and one Half Cup of sugar. I also add a good heaping tablespoon of salt. Bring that vinegar/sugar mix to a quick boil, just enough to melt the sugar, and remove it from the heat. .

Add a can or two of beets, with the juice. I prefer the sliced ones because they take up less room, but some people like the whole ones. For this batch I only had one can of beets on hand and I can see that it wasn't enough to cover the tops of the eggs.

Today, because of the aforementioned brain cell deficit, I forgot to PEEL the boiled eggs, and I put them right into the beet juice with the shells on. But you aren't going to do that! You are going to drain and cool your boiled eggs and peel the shells off before you put them into the pan with the eggs/sugar/salt/beets and beet juice!

Pour the whole mixture into a deep bowl or you can put them into your canning jars. Into the fridge and let them marinate for a week or so. the longer they marinate, the deeper the beet color and flavor will penetrate into the egg. I don't like to let mine go for more than a week because I don't want that strong sugary beet flavor, I like it to be just a hint of it.

Enjoy!