Happy 1st and 4th!

I may have mentioned this before: holidays in the US generally seem to be a bigger deal than they are in Canada, and this has been really apparent to me in the Independence Day celebrations I've seen throughout my life.
I have an uncle in Chapel Hill (1.5 hours away) who likes to make sure that Brian and I have company for the holidays, so he has invited us down to spend the 4th of July with him and his family. He mentioned something about having a pool and fireworks, so I knew that my regular baked goods wouldn't do. I'd have to step up my festivity game a notch or two. Here was my solution:

Independence eggs! And of course, I had to make up a plate for my home and native land:

Making these was really easy. I hard boiled a dozen eggs, left them in the fridge overnight (this seemed to help with peeling a lot), peeled them in the morning, and sliced each one in half lengthwise. Then I scooped out the yolks into a separate bowl and washed off the egg whites.
To colour them, I got out two 2-cup measuring cups. In each one, I put 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 40-50 drops of food colouring, and filled them to the 2 cup mark with boiling water. I put the measuring cups in the sink in case adding the egg halves caused overflow (which it did).
I placed 8 halves in the blue cup, and 8 halves in the red cup, and left them for 30 minutes (sloshing around occasionally).
To the yolks, I added 1 tbsp mustard, 1 tsp horseradish, 6 tbsp mayo, 2 tsp lime juice, 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, and 2 green onions finely chopped. I pulsed the mixture in the food processor to get it smooth, and transferred it to a zip lock bag with a corner cut out of it in order to pipe it into the whites (and reds and blues).
The piping activity gave me a newfound respect and admiration for my mother, who used to professionally decorate cakes. Let's just say I won't be quitting my job (hahaha!) to decorate cakes any time soon.
And if you'll excuse me now, I'm off to scrounge around in my closet for clothes that are red, white, and blue.