"Let them hunt spuds," might be today's version of Marie Antoinette's fabled curt dismissal of her subjects' complaints that there was no cake. With eggs still hovering around $10 per carton, the Easter Potato is becoming a widespread, if not wildly popular, substitute.
(Queen Antoinette paid dearly at the guillotine for her uncaring dismissal but such penalties are no longer freely dished out and should not be a concern today.)
I heard families talking about Easter spuds in an airport the other day but thought they were joking. However, research in no less august a source than The New York Times finds that, sure enough, people are dyeing potatoes and hiding them for their children to track down.
Whether the kids are being told the taters come from bunnies we're not sure. But for those who want to get in on the spud rolling derby, here are some tips we found recently on The Pioneer Woman website.
All you need is baby white potatoes, some food coloring and a couple of artists' paint brushes. Unlike eggs, potatoes are quite porous, so you just apply a dab of coloring, either solid or a mixture and the dye will spread rapidly throughout.
Bake the potatoes as normal. Unlike eggs, there's no risk an underdone spud will spill its yolk all over the counter.
After being dyed, the spuds will dry in about ten minutes and that's really all there is to it.
You could eat the dyed potatoes but remember that many food dyes are banned as carcinogenic so it might be better to stick with chocolate bunnies for refreshments.
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