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Bohemian Easter Eggs (This recipe is approximated by inspecting Nana's Easter eggs and observations from long ago. If you have suggestions, please comment.)

Ingredients / Supplies A bag full of yellow (Spanish) onion skins - One or two days take of skins from the local grocery store will be enough. Most stores will stock the onions once a day at a particular time. Whenever stocking them, they always end up with a lot of loose skins that they throw away. Just ask the produce manager what time they stock onions so you can drop by and pick them up or if they can save them for you. It might take a couple of trips to coordinate, so plan early. Bee's wax - I ran across some at a farmer's market. Any honey producer will have bee's wax. Bee's wax candles can be obtained from a specialty store. They used to be pretty common in the Catholic church, so you could try there. shallow metal container - Nana used an aluminum margarine container. Try a tuna can or soda can cut in half. Large kitchen matchsticks - Light the match and extinguish immediately. The larger black end is used for application of the wax. Eggs - white ones are a good idea so there is a contrast. Prepare the dye - In a large (6-8 quart) pot bring water and onion skins to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, continuing to reduce the liquid and adding more water as needed for 3 hours or so. You will want enough liquid to cover all of your eggs completely. Strain removing the onion skins, saving the reddish-brown liquid. Be careful to remove all onion skin residue from the liquid. Allow the liquid to cool to room temperature. Decorate the eggs - Place the bee's wax in a small metal container on very low heat. The wax should be liquid, but should be prevented from boiling. Decorate the raw eggs by dipping the burnt end of the kitchen match into the liquid wax and quickly dragging the end of the match across the egg. There's only one way to learn the timing and strokes necessary to leave the right amount of wax on the egg. Practice makes perfect. Boil the eggs - Follow standard recipe for hard-boiled eggs. History - As far as I know, there are courses in "craslice" making in the Czech republic..."Eugene Svoboda" <e_svoboda@isc-queens.co.uk> [could not find hits on "crasilce" on the web -pjk] Tips - At first, use vinegar to clean the eggs, wipe off the oily spots on the shell (and finger marks); they would show up because the dye wouldn't cover these places. Try using the round end of a pin (inserted in a shaft of wood) instead of matchstick. "Eugene Svoboda" Try using a "pen" made of goose feather" Eugene Svoboda" No need to use bee wax, use normal candle wax "Eugene Svoboda" Bessie (Bozena Kuchynka) Koktavy