Colored Eggs for Easter

We color eggs just for fun - then make them into deviled eggs for Sunday Easter dinner. For the baskets - I treat them kind of like stockings. Before bed, the kids put their baskets filled with empty plastic eggs on the coffee table or dining table. The Easter bunny come at night, takes the plastic eggs and puts a treat in them and hides them and then fills the baskets with goodies! This way we can reuse baskets and plastic eggs every year!

I don't like to hide our real eggs because I prefer to eat them and put them into recipes. But my in-laws have a tradition of hiding them and letting the kids hunt for them, and then the men having an egg hurling contest with the eggs their own children collected.

Yeah, I know. ::rolls eyes::

At our house the bunny is left a note letting him know our colored eggs are in the fridge for lunch the next day. If he thinks they are pretty he hides plastic eggs for us to play with.

Refrigerated boiled eggs should not be out of the fridge for more than 2 hours.

I have always colored real eggs and hunted- as a child or hid- as an adult. Hard boiled eggs do not go bad that quickly. We will be coloring our eggs tonight and refrigerating them. The eggs will be left out Saturday night on the kitchen table for the Easter Bunny. The eggs are fine even if left out over night. They must be hard not soft boiled and no cracks in the shells. I typically get up in the wee hours to hide the eggs and fill the baskets with treats.

Never hide real eggs outside. Bugs or animals can get to them. Our eggs are always limited to the family room, dining room, and foyer (all adjoining), and are typically in plain sight.

We color real hard-boiled eggs and keep them in the fridge. We will eat colored eggs for breakfast since they are refridgerated. We hide plastic eggs.

If you want to find eggs and eat them I'd make a second batch and toss out the ones you hide.

Also, if you hide real eggs outside, animas will eat them.

Serv-Safe (the food safety standard that Health Departments recommend) states that cooked eggs should be stored in temps under 40* for safety. If it will be under 40* outdoors (in Orlando, probably not ;), then you could safely leave them out. Otherwise, food can be left at room temperature (temps in the low 70's) for up to 4 hours. With weather over 90*, the time frame is 1 hour. I hope that helps!

not the night before..they will go bad...
Think of it this way, would you eat a deviled egg for breakfast if someone set them out at 9pm the night before?
I think the rule of thumb is 2 or 3 hours..then you can put back in the fridge...but I would then think about eating them within a few days.
I colored an 18pack of eggs. i plan on hiding 9 of them in the house/yard (weather pending) and the other 9 will be plastic. My MIL would do something else...For the plastic eggs, each will contain a number. Bring her the number and you get a present that matches that number. After all the presents are open (9 of them) let the kids do a trade if they want.

One to two hours out of the fridge depending on the temperature. Longer than that and they need to be thrown away. You can do the hunt, just don't eat the eggs after.

You can only leave the eggs out for 2 hours and they should be eaten within 1 week. I always use plastic eggs, put in some candy and/or money(change), and my son LOVES it!

We used real eggs last year for our hunt and it was a disaster! My toddler thew the eggs and just tossed them in her basket and they broke. I will use plastic eggs from now on. LOL

We don't usually hunt for our real eggs. They are more just for decorating fun. My suggestion would be to take the kids somewhere to play and then have the eggs out for them to hide. I wouldn't trust eggs that were left out all night long, but that's just me!

I hide the plastic eggs at night and set the alarm for about 45 minutes before my kids are going to wake up- mine are late sleepers so usually around 7:30 then I get up and hide the real eggs so they are only out of the fridge for a little while. Also we have dogs and if you hide real eggs around the house at night they will eat real eggs.

The eggs should stay in the fridge. What about hiding the plastic eggs w/ little treats inside?