We’re big fans of the hard-boiled egg in this house. I mostly eat them over the sink, with liberal doses of Kosher salt. Larry gets more creative and will incorporate them into a meal somehow.

He’s been obsessed with the beet-pickled deviled eggs we had at Gruner when we were in Portland a few months ago. They arrived at our table on a plate, strikingly pink, and the sweetness of the beets came through when we tried them.

The last time I roasted beets, Larry saved the juice, and a week later he set forth to make the pickling liquid. It was all pretty simple. We made a half batch since it was our first time, but I’d love to make these for a party.

The whites will get very firm in the pickling liquid so they can’t be left in there for more than six hours. At six hours, our eggs were decidedly firm.

We tasted the yolks before mixing up the filling – they’re a little sweet, and tinged pink. The beet juice really penetrates through the entire egg. The rest of the filling is simple – mostly just a standard deviled egg filling. Horseradish stands in for mustard to give it a little bite.

Our eggs turned out really beautiful. I love the contrast of the pink and yellow. And they’re addicting – we couldn’t stop eating them.

• Beet-Pickled Hard-Boiled Eggs ( Gruner Portland)