My Review of The Hunger Games

I finally finished the first book in The Hunger Games Trilogy.  With life not stopping to give me time to read, it took a bit of time for me to finish.  I managed to get about two thirds of the way through the book before taking my oldest and six of her friends to see the movie.  As usual, the book was better, but the movie was pretty good too.  I like the way Katniss's narrative was portrayed through the behind the scenes at the Capitol.  There were some scenes in the book that didn't seem to be present as much in the movie.  But, considering that many times, they just don't have enough time to include all of a book in a movie, I think they stayed fairly true to the book.  There were a few details that were very different from the book and that frustrated the girls.

This poor girl, Katniss has a connection with two different boys that is based on a common life experience with each of them.  A connection that goes very deep in very different areas of her life.  Each boy has very admirable qualities.  They have each stood with her in horrible circumstances brought about by a brutal government. This leads me to say that it seems this series is a romantic political thriller.   At this point, I don't know how I want the story to go.  I can't even imagine where it's going to go, based on what I'm learning about this government and the president.  The government has too much control over it's people.  The president strikes me as sadistic.  It seems like the people who live in the capitol like the way things are.  And then there are the people that live in the "lower" districts that see that the government is too much of a "big brother".

I've been told that once I get going, the books will be hard to put down.  I'm already at that point.  I have to make sure, before I pick up the book to continue reading, that I won't have anything needing my attention before I can set the book down again.  I've found myself re-reading a few sentences when I've been interrupted, because I don't want to miss a detail.  So, if it seems like I'm missing from the blog, I'm not.  I may be engrossed in a book.  I'm sorry if that happens.  But I promise I'll be back to continue my review.

Guacamole BLT Sandwiches

My son had apparently been paying better attention to a Food Network show over the weekend than I had, and told me that he had seen Guy Fieri making a BLT with guacamole.  He started begging me to make them.  He has really enjoyed the guacamole recipe I've been using, almost as much as his father and I have.  It was such a good idea! 

I had held off on giving baby any bacon.  I've been getting into the habit of buying the low sodium bacon in preparation for her tasting as well as to just make a healthier change in our diets.  I happened to have bought large tomatoes in bulk at the warehouse store as well as avocados.  So we had tomatoes sandwiches at lunch because the tomatoes were perfect for eating.  Baby apparently really liked them, because as she saw me prepping everything for the guacamole BLT's, she started to get excited about the tomatoes.  I haven't given her any leafy greens yet, because I still consider them to be a bit of a choking hazard at this age.  So she got some tomato, tortilla chips and her first taste of bacon.  She loved the bacon!

Ingredients

Guacamole
Bacon
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Bread
Mayonnaise


To make the guacamole BLT's, I made this guacamole recipe and let it set in the fridge.  I baked the bacon by placing it on a baking sheet and putting it in a cold oven, then heating to 400 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes.  While the bacon was baking, I sliced the tomatoes and set them aside.  When the bacon was done baking, I toasted the bread.  Don't skip the toasting step.  It is very important to the structure of the sandwich.  If you don't toast the bread, the sandwich will get very soggy and fall apart.  I like mayonnaise on my bread, so I smeared both mayonnaise and guacamole on both pieces of bread and then layered bacon, tomatoes and then lettuce and then second piece of bread.  Slice and enjoy!

Quick Personal Pizzas

I really don't remember where I saw this, or something like this.  But, I know that www.pillsbury.com has a few similar ideas.  I went looking to see if that was where I saw it, but I didn't see exactly the same thing.  Simply put, I used the Grands Biscuits as the pizza dough.  I happened to have "stocked up" on a few cans because they were on sale and I had coupons.  I already had fresh mozzarella on hand from the warehouse store and I had stocked up on pasta sauce when it was on a deep sale and I had coupons.  I buy pepperoni in bulk at the warehouse store.  I needed something quick for lunch.  I had the fixing's for these Quick Personal Pizzas.  Baby liked them too.

Quick Personal Pizzas

Ingredients

2 cans of Pillsbury Grand Biscuits
16 oz. of fresh mozzarella (the soft round stuff is better than the brick stuff, but use what you can)
Pizza sauce or pasta sauce
Pepperoni
Or what ever toppings you like

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease your cookie sheet.  Slice the mozzarella and set aside. Press biscuits flat on the cookie sheet.  I was able to fit 5 - 6 biscuits per cookie sheet.  Top with sauce, cheese, pepperoni, or your favorite toppings.  Fresh mozzarella melts and spreads, so don't be too generous with your slicing, unless you like cheese crisps too.  Bake for approximately 18 minutes.  Check after 15 minutes though, since ovens are different.  Let the pizzas rest for about 5 minutes before eating.  You want the cheese to cool down so that you don't burn your mouth - or have to comfort a child who burned their mouth.

Making Yogurt in My Crock Pot

I've made my own yogurt before, when I was making my own baby food with the past two babies.  I only made it a few times though, because it took time and I had to babysit it.  I had three cookbooks that I used for making my own baby food.  The method I used was in this cookbook.  I used sterilized tools, jars and such and had to let it sit in a cooler.  I wanted to make yogurt again, but wasn't interested in the process I had used back then.  Recently I saw making yogurt in the crock pot on Pinterest.  Interest piqued!  So I decided to give it a try.  It is sooo much easier!

This was my third time with this method from Stephanie O'Dea at A Year of Slow Cooking.  The first attempt I didn't have a thick enough towel wrapped around my crock pot, so the temperature dropped really quickly and the yogurt didn't thicken up.  The second attempt, I remembered about the thermal carrier that came with my crock pot and wrapped a towel around that.  It worked!  This third time, my timing was just a little off on getting the crock pot wrapped up for the night, but that was because we were eating our dinner at the same time.  It was a little thinner, but still thickened yogurt! 



Wrapped up in the thermal carrier to incubate for the night.

A heavy beach towel wrapped around the thermal carrier for more insulation.

Yogurt in the morning!

My kids don't eat plain yogurt, but like a bit of flavor, so we had tried putting frozen blueberries in it, but that didn't exactly work. So this time I had purchased some fruit preserves. Voila! It's a hit with those of us who decided to try it! Baby couldn't get enough and she couldn't get it fast enough! That means I'll be doing this a lot now, especially since I have a Naan recipe that calls for yogurt.

The process:

Put 1/2 gallon of milk in the crock pot on low for 2 1/2 hours.  Turn the crock pot off and let it set covered for 3 hours.  At that point, put 1/2 cup of yogurt starter in a bowl and add 1 - 2 cups of the yogurt you are making to it and mix well.  This tempers the starter so it doesn't curdle.  Add the starter mixture to the yogurt in the crock pot and gently mix well.  Cover the crock pot with a heavy towel or two or an insulated carrier with an extra towel.  Let it set for 8 hours or for the night!  Don't bake bread the day you make the yogurt or the day before.  Don't want the yogurt to taste like bread!

I'm going to try using a gallon of milk next time.

Grilled Chicken Bruschetta Pasta with Balsamic Glaze

This idea was inspired by a dish I had at a restaurant a few years ago.  I don't remember which restaurant it was or what the dish was called.  But, I tried to re-create it or at least come somewhat close to it a few days later at home.  I've done it a few times since.  Missing from the pictures is the balsamic glaze that I bought from Costco.  I need to try and make my own, because they don't carry it anymore and half of us love it.  That chunk that's wrapped in plastic in the first picture is what is left of my fresh Parmesan.  Almost to the rind.  Pretty much ready to use as flavoring in a soup now.  I only had enough to shave a little bit for the picture.  The rest of us had already grated Parmesan, which wasn't bad, but shaved Parmesan is just so much more elegant and fresh tasting.  I need to get some on my next Costco run.  I buy my bruschetta at Costco, because it's cheaper there than at the grocery store.

Because Steve was grilling over the weekend, I had him put some chicken thighs on for this meal.  That made it so much quicker to assemble the night I was ready to serve this.  I have bought the "grilled chicken strips" at the warehouse store before, but they didn't have the frozen ones and the fresh ones were just too expensive.  Truth be told, looking at the label on the fresh ones, there were things added that lead me to believe that they were preservatives, since expiration date on the package was a month from now.  I didn't feel like paying for that when we could just grill our own ahead of time.  The charcoal was smoldering by the time the chicken finished grilling, so it ended up being half grilled and half smoked.  It added an incredible flavor, flavor that certainly can't be matched by pre-packaged "grilled" chicken.  If you decide to grill your own chicken ahead of time, keep the pieces whole, so they don't dry out when you reheat them.

Top the cooked pasta with warm bruschetta and grilled chicken.  Shave Parmesan over top.

Drizzle with balsamic glaze.  I'm telling you, the flavor is insane!

Somehow, I missed getting a  picture of baby eating this, but she absolutely loved it.  Oh wait, that's right, I was also working on yogurt in my crock pot.

Grilled Chicken Bruschetta Pasta with Balsamic Glaze

Ingredients

1 lb. pasta (I use Angel Hair because it just makes it seem more elegant)
Bruchetta, desired amount warmed up
Grilled chicken (I used thighs this time, but boneless, skinless breast slices nicely)
Big chunk of fresh Parmesan cheese for shaving (pre-grated will work in a pinch)
Balsamic glaze

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Top cooked pasta with desired amount of warm bruschetta.  Top with slices or chunks or shredded grilled chicken.  Shave fresh Parmesan over top (I use a vegetable peeler).  Drizzle with balsamic glaze.  Enjoy!

Cilantro Lime Butter

Have you ever had a compound butter?  Chances are, if you have ever gotten a steak at a restaurant in the past two or three years, you probably have.  I tried making my first compound butter when I got my Julia Child cookbook.  I served it on grilled steak and fell in love. 

It had been a while since we had grilled steak or even compound butter.  I decided to make some since we had good enough weather to get in a chance to grill some steaks for dinner, over the weekend.  Here's what I did.

Cilantro Lime Butter

Ingredients

1/4 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
Approximately 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Approximately 1/4 tsp. lime zest
juice of 1/2 lime
salt, to taste

Directions

Mix ingredients well and then refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.  Serve over grilled steak.  Could even work over vegetables.  Maybe even grilled chicken or fish.

I'm going to try it over green beans soon.

More Baby-Led Weaning AKA Self-Feeding Baby

I've had six babies and now I finally have one that begs to eat the food that I'm eating.  She gets excited to try something new.  She asks to try something new off my plate and if I don't notice or give her some to try she gets upset or sad.  Can you imagine that?  I think it's all because of Baby-Led Weaning too.  I wish I had known about this with the other babies.  I was happy to make my own baby food with the last two babies, because it was saving money and I knew what was in the food.  But, had I known how easy and safe it was to actually feed them from my plate, I would have done that.  Last week I was eating some hot cereal and I put a little bit in a small cup to cool for her to try.  She went crazy over it and kept asking for more.  When she finished what I had put aside for her, she got upset when I tried to put more in the fridge to cool down.  She didn't want to wait for it!  Turned out it was cool enough to not put in the fridge.

Day one of hot cereal.  I've been pre-loading spoons for her and she is learning how to use them.  She's getting better.

Oh, that's good!  She needed a bath when she was done.  She had it all over her and in her hair and it wasn't coming out when I tried to wipe her up.

Day two of hot cereal.  This time she had footed pj's on, so clean up was much easier!  Not so much in the hair either.

Signing for more.

Oh so happy about the hot cereal!

Oh so sad that she finished it!

Baby-led weaning is so worth it!  I highly recommend it!

An Edible Spoon?

I saw this on Google + this morning.  An edible spoon.  I think it's an interesting concept, for sure.  It could replace plastic disposable spoons.  But it makes me wonder, what about the people who are allergic to corn or wheat or milk?  I know that corn is in paper products.  I don't know if it is in plastic silverware.  Maybe the people with these allergies just will use other alternatives, like packing actual silverware for an outing.

This spoon is suppose to be 100% edible and 100% biodegradable.  It has scored marks to make it easier to eat after using and to facilitate decomposing.  It comes in three flavors, sweet, spicy and plain.  So, you can use the spoon to flavor your food too.

It looks like it is making its way to the marketplace now in Austria.  What about you?  If this made it to your area, would you buy it?  What do you think of the concept?

Skin Cancer Prevention - Foods That Help, Yes!

We all know that skin cancer is prevalent in our society today.  We also know that it is important to use sunscreen.  I know that many doctors have talked about Vitamin D3 as an important vitamin that our bodies seem to be lacking.  It makes me wonder, how much Vitamin D are we not getting from the sun due the need to use sunscreen?  I wonder how much of the increase in skin cancer has to do with the belief of tanning beds being safe?  Dermatologists are telling us that the tanning beds are not safe.  I have a few friends who have had to change their lifestyles due to skin cancer.  This has made me more aware of steps to take to help prevent skin cancer.

I've recently been trying to make sure that my family is getting their Vitamin D3, especially since it helps fight colds and may help with asthma.  As far as how often we actually use sunscreen, we make sure the kids are slathered when we know we are going to be poolside or out in direct sunlight.  My facial moisturizer has SPF of 15 and the foundation I am currently using has an SPF of 20.  I happened to slather my facial moisturizer this morning, because I didn't spend a fortune on it.  Truth be told, it made the foundation easier to apply too.

This was on the news this morning.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So if tomatoes and chocolate and coffee help to prevent skin cancer, I'm all for it!  The food that is, not the cancer.  I'll take tomatoes in soup, sandwiches, salads, drizzled with balsamic vinegar glaze, on a plate with a dollop of mayo and sprinkle of salt. I drink 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day (except during pregnancy).  I'll take chocolate anything!  I wonder if slathering chocolate on my skin would help?  Just kidding!  But you get the idea, right?  I won't complain about eating foods that may help prevent cancer, especially if they are yummy foods.

What are you doing to protect your health and the health of your loved ones?

San Marzano Sauce - Revisited

Yesterday was a day of reviewing school supplies and seeing what needs to be purchased, what can be borrowed from the library, finally felting my wool dryer balls...well, it was a busy day.  A good time to revisit the San Marzano Sauce recipe.  This time I only had 1 onion on hand and I had whole grain linguine.   I decided to go ahead with it anyway.  There was enough onion, but having that second onion would have been nice.  I like the flavor of the sauce.  I'm not sure what I think about the whole grain pasta though.  It's not bad, just different.  It makes a heavier pasta.  I admittedly like a softer pasta that is more delicate in texture and flavor.  When making the sauce, I would recommend not rinsing the cans of tomatoes into the sauce, but rather use a spatula to scrape the residual sauce from the can into the pan.  Rinsing just waters down the sauce too much.  I also recommend making sure you cut the root off well.  If some of the root is still left there, the onion will stick together and won't separate after stirring.

 I had gotten the whole grain pasta on sale and with a coupon, ending up paying about $.40 for the box.  San Marzano tomatoes run $2 - $3 a can.  I don't remember what I spent on the onion.  The stick of butter was around $.40.  That makes less than $7 for this main dish to feed a family of 8.  Not bad!  The baby certainly liked it.  She kept handing her fork back to me for more until Steve pulled out some Italian ice for her to try.  I bought that on sale, a package of 6 servings for $1.99.  For some reason, we have a green vegetable on occasion with pasta, but not always.  I figure it's okay, because we are eating tomatoes and canned tomatoes are just as good as fresh.  I think I heard that canned tomatoes are higher in antioxidants.  Good enough for me!

Southwest Hamburgers

I went to the fridge yesterday to see what I had available for dinner.  I had some ground beef that needed to be used soon and avocados that were ripe and needed to be used.   I also had tomatoes that needed to be used and some red onion.  I had a container of bread crumbs nearing expiration.  I had half a bunch of cilantro and bacon leftover from the 3/4 lb that I used to wrap the chicken legs.  The makings for Southwest Hamburgers! I made the guacamole recipe I had found on Pinterest, putting the 3 avocado pits back in to prevent oxidization, wrapped tightly with plastic wrap pressed to touching the surface and put it in the fridge.  When it came time to make dinner, here's what I did.

Southwest Hamburgers

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef
2 eggs
1-2 Tablespoons of yellow mustard
2 - 4 Tablespoons of ketchup
Approx. 3/4 cups of breadcrumbs (I had Italian flavored and it was just fine)
Approx. 1/4 lb bacon
Guacamole
Sour cream
Extra ketchup and mustard for topping, if desired

Directions

Mix beef, eggs, yellow mustard, ketchup, and breadcrumbs gently, until well mixed without over mixing.  Shape into patties and make an indentation in the center.  Place in hot oiled or buttered pan and fry for approximately 8 minutes on each side.  While burgers are cooking, fry bacon in another pan.  Serve on your favorite buns and top with guacamole, sour cream, bacon and ketchup or mustard, if desired.

I threw some sweet potatoes fries in the oven while all this was cooking.

My 12-year-old son got a look at this as I was taking the picture and exclaimed, "oh my gosh!  That looks awesome!"  And then he proceeded to make one just like this for himself.  As he ate it he was gushing over it and he is already asking for it to be part of his birthday meal choices!  He said, "move over jambalaya!  Meet Mom's hamburgers!"  Funny boy!

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Legs and Fingerling Potatoes

Chicken Legs were on sale again and I bought 2 packages.  I was trying to think of what to make for dinner and it hit me.  Wrap the chicken legs in bacon!  It's not bacon wrapped chicken breast, but it IS bacon wrapped chicken.  Just as good!  I used 2 pieces of bacon for each leg.  Approximately 3/4 lb. of bacon.  I took the skin off, because I just don't like the skin.  There will be enough fat with what is left on the chicken and what is in the bacon.  And the bacon provides that crisp factor.

We haven't prepared the grill for grilling season yet, so I wasn't sure if there was enough propane and I haven't used the charcoal side yet.  I need to have Steve show me how to do that again.  So, instead of grilling the chicken (which would have been nice since it's 80 degrees outside) I decided to attempt broiling it inside. 

After wrapping the bacon around the chicken, I covered the pan with foil and let it sit to warm up a bit.  One thing I have learned from Food Network, is that it is a very good thing to let your meat warm up a bit before cooking or grilling, so that it cooks more evenly.  I did not season the chicken because the bacon had seasoning in it already.  I used low-sodium bacon so that the baby could eat it too.  I preheated the broiler and put the broiler pan in with the foil still on it for about 20 minutes.  Then I took the foil off and continued broiling for about 20 more minutes.  The chicken came out with a pinkish color, but that's what happens with meat that's been smoked, so I'm assuming that's just the result of wrapping with bacon.

Don't you wish this was scratch 'n sniff?

I decided to serve pan-fried fingerling potatoes.  Aren't they beautiful?  I love fingerling potatoes.  Sometimes there are some pretty purple ones.

Here I've put them cut side down in a hot pan with butter and olive oil and 2 smashed cloves of garlic.

After frying for about 5 minutes, or until the cut side was nicely browned, I flip them over and continued frying for another 5 minutes, or until they were fork tender.

After the potatoes were done, I sauteed some zucchini with shallot and minced garlic  Why smashed cloves with the potatoes and minced with the zucchini?  Because the potatoes need to cook longer than the zucchini and minced garlic would have burned.

What did baby think of all this?  She kept handing her fork back to me to reload for her.  She couldn't get enough!  Until she saw that chocolate cookies were for dessert.  Then she was ready for chocolate!  The chicken was a hit with everyone in the family.  Definitely a keeper!  We are going to have to try it on the charcoal side of the grill this season.

 So to recap:

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Legs

Ingredients

1 Family pack of chicken legs (mine turned out to be 5 legs)
3/4 lb. of bacon (I used low-sodium)

Directions

Wrap chicken legs with 2 pieces of bacon.  Cover with foil and let sit out for about 30 minutes to warm up.  While the chicken is sitting, preheat broiler.  I left the oven rack at it's regular location.  Broil with foil on for about 20 minutes.  Take foil off and continue to broil for about 20 more minutes.  Check the temperature of the chicken to make sure it is fully cooked.

Pan Fried Fingerling Potatoes

Ingredients

Approximately 2 lbs of fingerling potatoes, cut in half
2 Tablespoons olive oil per round of frying - basically to your taste
2 - 4 Tablespoons butter per round of frying - basically to your taste
2 Garlic cloves, smashed, per round of frying - again, basically to your taste

Directions

Heat pan.  Add butter and olive oil.  The olive oil is suppose to help prevent the butter from burning, but I found I needed to drain and add fresh butter, oil and garlic for each round of frying.  When butter has melted, add the potatoes, cut side down.  Fry for approximately 5 minutes, or until the cut side is golden brown.  Turn the potatoes over and continue frying another 5 minutes, or until fork tender.

Sauteed Zucchini

Ingredients

2 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 - 2 shallots, sliced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 - 4 Tablespoons butter

Directions

Add butter and olive oil to heated pan.  Once butter is melted, add zucchini, shallots and garlic.  Saute for about 7 minutes, or until tender, stirring frequently.

Ham Soup

I have my friend Bev to thank for this inspiration.  When we visited her and her family about a year and a half ago, she made a ham soup and Steve and I absolutely loved it.  So I've made ham soup a couple times since, each time turning out different, depending on what I had on hand.  I had leftover ham from Easter, so I wanted to make a soup and some quiche.

I put the ham bone, with some ham still on it, in a big pot of water.  Brought it to a boil and then covered it and let it simmer for at least an hour and a half, a bit more if desired, till the ham is falling off the bone.  I then ended up cooling and putting it in the fridge, because I had started too late that afternoon to finish for dinner.  So I pulled it all out today to make the soup.  The fat had settled on the top, so I left some of it in the container, but used some too.  The gelatinous stuff left after baking the ham adds tremendous flavor to the broth.


INGREDIENTS:

Ham broth
Leftover ham, cubed
1/4 c butter
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
2 stalks of celery, chopped (I like to peel the stringy side to make it easier to eat)
2 handfuls of baby carrots sliced
5-6 baby red potatoes, cubed
8 oz. pasta of your choice
1 - 15 oz. can butter beans
Approx. 4 cups of water


To make the soup, before heating the broth, I chopped up the garlic, onion, celery and carrots while the butter melted in the pot.

 Then I added all the veggies except the baby red potatoes to the melted butter and let them sweat or soften up a bit. Before the veggies caramelized, I added the ham broth and the water. 

 Then I brought the broth to a boil and added the baby red potatoes.  After letting the potatoes cook for about 5 minutes, I added about 8 oz. of pasta (3/4 of a 12 oz. box).

I also made 2 ham quiches.  I'd love to share the recipes with you for the crust and the quiche, but they are from 2 of my cookbooks and I am learning about copyrights.  I tweaked the quiche recipe to fit what I was doing, but I always go back to this recipe when I forget the measurements.  If I can get permission to share these recipes, I will in the future.  This pie crust is one of my favorites.  It's from The Beverly Lewis Amish Heritage Cookbook.  It goes well with quiche, Shoo fly Pie, Blueberry Custard Pie...well, you get the idea, it's a very good recipe!  I'm going to ask my friend who shared the Blueberry Custard Pie recipe with me if I can share it with you.  I haven't mastered the art of rolling out a perfectly round pie crust yet.  And, I like the rustic look.  It's not that I don't like the perfectly pinched crust, it's just that I like the crust so much, that I don't want to take the extra off to make it look perfect and then hope that I end up with a piece with the extra crust.  Are you smiling with me about that?  I love a good pie crust.  Here the quiches are ready to go in the oven.

Fresh from the oven, ham quiche goodness!  Can you smell that?  Oh, I'm sorry!  I bet you wish you could!

And voila!  Ham soup and ham quiche.  Yum!

Homemade Tartar Sauce

Yesterday was a busy day of moving laundry, clipping and organizing coupons, medicating sick children,managing children with no desire to clean their rooms, clogging practice...well it was just one of those days that I didn't get the pie crust made for the quiche I wanted to make and I was late getting the ham bone in the pot of water to make broth for ham soup.  It was a day for pulling the tilapia fish from the warehouse store out of the freezer.  But we were out of tartar sauce.  Time to look for a recipe. 

For this kind of thing I usually look at a few different recipes for ideas and get the gist and then do my own thing.  I had most of the ingredients on hand but had to wing it a bit.  Many of the recipes called for mayonnaise, relish, sweet or dill, chopped onion and sugar.  I didn't have any relish on hand, but I had sweet gherkins and I didn't feel like chopping up an onion so I used onion powder. 

Here's the approximates that I used.

Ingredients:

About 1 cup of mayonnaise
8 sweet gherkins, chopped
splash of pickle juice, to taste
1-2 tsp of onion powder
1 tsp sugar
salt, to taste

Mix well.  Probably a good idea to refrigerate, but it worked just fine at the last minute for me without refrigerating.  I'm going to try this again and actually chop up and onion and maybe purposely stock up on relish.  It was nice to have homemade tartar sauce and I like being able to throw something like this together when I need it.

A Very Non-Traditional Easter for Us

I mentioned in my previous post that we have been fighting a nasty cold virus around here.  It was bad enough to keep the whole family home from church on Easter Sunday.  That was a first.  I've stayed home with a sick child once or twice before on Easter Sunday, but this was the first time the whole family was home.  We did not want to share this virus with our church family.  So instead of going to church we did some Easter activities at home. 

First of all, the kids and I watched The Animated Passion of the Christ on Good Friday.  Then Saturday night, Steve and I watched the original Passion of the Christ with our oldest.  Then Sunday morning we watched The Animated Passion of the Christ again as a family.

We also dyed some eggs.  I have a confession to make.  In 16 years of parenting, I can't remember ever dyeing eggs.  Ever.  Seriously.  I really don't know why.  I was inspired by Pinterest.  I had seen ideas for spider web eggs, kool-eggs and dyed deviled eggs.  And so, I present to you...kool-marbled deviled eggs.


First of all, I boiled the eggs in 2 pots.  Why 2 pots?  Well, I had some eggs that were old enough to boil and peel without much trouble, and I had newer eggs.  I boiled them separately with 2 different methods.  I wasn't sure how the newer eggs were going to turn out because I've had difficulty with new eggs before.  But, I had read about another method, so I gave it a try.  The older eggs I brought to a boil, covered, removed from the heat and let set for 10 min.  The newer eggs I added 1 tsp of salt to the water, brought to a boil, covered, removed from the heat and let set for 15 minutes.  Both methods worked!  Now I can boil new eggs and know they will peel just fine! 


Here are the packages of Kool-Aid I was able to find at my regular stores, mixed with 2/3 cup of water in each cup.  Not a lot of color options outside of the range of pinks and reds.  Vinegar is not needed because of the citric acid in Kool-Aid. 

It's a little hard to see here, but the eggs are gently cracked to allow some of the coloring to seep through.

The colors are pretty, even though we don't have any blues or greens.

This picture is larger to show the pretty designs on the shells.  The shells need to dry.

They peeled well and I love the marbling effect!

If you've never made deviled eggs before, it is rather simple.  I don't use measurements but go by feel and taste.  I'll try to give a general guide though.  Cut the eggs in half and put the yolks in a medium sized bowl.  Crumble the yolks with a fork.  Add approximately 1 cup of mayonnaise, 1 - 2 Tablespoons of mustard, a dash of salt and a dash of sugar to the yolks and blend well.  It should be a little pasty at this point.  Next, add a splash of either vinegar (white or apple cider - both work) or pickle juice (if you happen to have it on hand) to make a creamier texture.  Taste and make sure you like the seasoning.  Adjust if necessary.  Depending on how many eggs you've used, you may need more or less of the mayonnaise and mustard.

When you have a creamy texture, it is time to fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture.  You can use a spoon or you can use a pastry bag with a tip to make it look fancier.  Or, if you don't like washing out pastry bags and tips, you can fill a Ziploc bag and cut off a corner to fill the whites.  I like to use Ziploc bags, because you can make it ahead of time and assemble at your destination, if you are taking them somewhere, and not get that dried out look on the yolks.  Using a container to hold your bag makes it easier to fill.

Once you have your yolk mixture in the bag, seal it and make sure to eliminate as much air as possible.  At this point you can store the egg white and yolk filling in the fridge until you are ready to travel or serve, but don't snip the corner until you are ready to fill the whites.

When you are ready to fill the whites, snip off a corner and then pipe the yolk filling into the whites.  It was a challenge to pipe and take the picture at the same time.

Just loving that marbled effect!

If desired, sprinkle a little paprika on the yolk filling.

Baby tried her first deviled egg and was intrigued by the texture and taste.

Later on, after some had naps, we made "Empty Tomb Rolls".  The symbolism was a good way to finish the day, especially since we had watched The Passion of the Christ, so everything was fresh in every one's minds.  The 4 middle kids thought it turned out pretty neat.  Here's a close up of one of the rolls fresh from the oven.  See the empty tomb?  They taste really good.  We will definitely make them again.

I hope your Easter was an enjoyable one!