Nesting instincts: create a fresh backdrop for a spring dessert with ornamental grasses and decorative eggs

Sunset, April, 1999 by Ann Bertelsen

* To celebrate the season of new growth, put all your eggs in special baskets. Scoop ice cream "eggs" into crisp, golden filo nests for a festive dessert (see photo at right). Then extend the theme to the tabletop with an arrangement of decorated true eggs nestled with wheatgrass.

The brilliant light green of this grass creates a particularly striking and springlike backdrop. It's available from a surprising number of sources, including health food stores, pet food stores, selected grocery stores, and even juice bars, where the grass is mixed into drinks. Usually sold sprouting from soil in large flats priced from $15 to $20, wheatgrass can be cut to fit almost any type of shallow container. At right, we show it in a terra-cotta saucer set in a metal florist's frame covered with moss.

Choose a container that suits your table - for example, a rectangular platter for a rectangular table, or a round vegetable steamer on a round table. Or simply use a decorative plate. Place a plastic liner in the container and insert the wheatgrass. With a daily spray of water, the grass will last about a week.

Conventionally dyed eggs will look fine with the wheatgrass. Here are three alternatives: For a simple, natural look, nestle large brown eggs, raw or hard-cooked, in or around the grass. For an elegant, understated effect, paint white eggs in pastel shades (directions on page 144). For a little more drama, decorate eggs by the wax-resist method, using vivid dyes available from mail-order catalogs (directions on page 144). They are a variation of Ukrainian-style Easter eggs, which are noted for their richly saturated colors and intricate patterns.

1. Pastel eggs

The charm of these eggs is in their subtle colors and marbleized appearance, produced by blending two and sometimes three colors together while the paint is wet.

TIME: About 1 hour

MATERIALS

* Acrylic paint in pastel shades of celadon, duck egg blue, pale green, yellow, and peach

* Plastic saucers

* Foam paintbrush

* A dozen large white eggs, pumped

* Cheesecloth

* Artist's brush

* Varnish

* Plastic sandwich bag

DIRECTIONS

1. Squeeze a small amount of paint into a saucer. Use a foam brush to coat an entire egg with this base color (a).

2. Squeeze a dollop of a contrasting or deeper shade of paint into a saucer. Dip a wad of cheesecloth into the second color and pat it onto the egg to produce a mottled look (b).

3. You can add a third color for a deeper texture, rotating the egg within the cheesecloth. This will produce a more even, less mottled effect. You can also use a fine brush to paint contrasting dots on the egg.

4. When the egg is thoroughly dry, coat it with varnish. For varnishing technique, see egg-decorating suggestions below.

2. Ukrainian-style Easter eggs

These eggs are dipped in nonedible, water-soluble dyes sold in kits costing $5 to $21 (Ukrainian Gift Shop, St, Anthony, MN; 612/788-2545). The basic kit includes three dyes (yellow, scarlet, and light blue), a cake of beeswax, and a kistka - a pencil-thin writing tool with an attached funnel to hold the wax. Kits usually include patterns for making the decorative egg pysanky.

TIME: About half a day

MATERIALS

* A dozen large white eggs

* Pencil

* Ukrainian egg-decorating kit

* Pint-size glass or plastic containers

* Large pillar candle

* Plastic spoons

* Drying rack

* Plastic sandwich bag

* Paper towels

* Varnish

DIRECTIONS

(Note: The weight of unpumped eggs helps them sink into liquid dyes, so decorate these eggs before pumping.)

1. Use a pencil to draw a design on an egg. Hold the egg on the table with one hand and draw with the other, rotating the egg as you work. The pencil mark is a guide and will not show on the completed egg.

2. Choose colors. Following the manufacturer's instructions, pour the powdered dyes from the kit into the containers and mix with water. Remember that the beeswax will prevent dye from reaching the egg: unless you dip the egg into a color beforehand, the first wax lines you make will always be white, and any area of the egg not covered with wax will change color each time it is dipped. Always dye the egg first with the lightest color and last with the darkest.

3. Heat the head of the kistka in the candle flame (a), then scoop a little beeswax into the tool's funnel.

4. Use the kistka to apply wax to the white or dyed egg, using the pencil lines as a guide. Keep the toot at right angles to the egg and allow the wax to flow evenly, (Note: As you work, the wax will blacken; this will not harm the egg. However, overheating the kistka and using too much wax will result in drips.) When the kistka stops working smoothly, reheat, add more wax, and continue with the design.

5. Place the egg on a spoon and lower it into the first dye (light blue for our egg). When the desired shade is obtained (in 5 to 15 minutes), remove the egg and pat it dry with a paper towel.

6. Heat the kistka and apply the wax over the parts of the egg that are to remain their present color (b). Dip the egg into the second dye (c). Repeat, drying the egg after each time it is dyed, until you have completed the design (d).