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!

What I Did for April Fool's Day 2012

I have really enjoyed the inspirations that have come from Pinterest.  I had seen a couple of pictures of eggs and bacon made out of candy.  I learned about it from this website that had been pinned and re-pinned as the original creator.  It looked so cute to me and I just had to make them sometime soon.  Good thing that April Fool's Day was so close.

I used the Baker's Chocolate because it was what I had.  I just followed the directions on the box for melting.  I would recommend separating the M & M's and breaking the pretzels before melting the chocolate.

As I was separating out the yellow M & M's I was wondering if I was going to have enough for the eggs.  And then it hit me!  Use green and color the white chocolate, green!  Green eggs and....ham....what to use for the ham???  The kids had asked for some green eggs and ham for April Fool's Day, but I had said no, I wasn't going to do it.  I had done it about 7 years ago along with the Chicken Not Pie.  But now there was a new way of doing it.  I had to look through the small stash of after holiday candy I had.  I thought I might have some Starburst.  No.  I had some Laffy Taffy.  But, that wouldn't work.  So, I went ahead and made some regular eggs and bacon and some green eggs and bacon. 

However, now that I've thought about the ham, I just have to make some green eggs and ham now.  So, I WILL be posting again this week with a whole tray of Green Eggs and ham!!!

Stay tuned for Green Eggs and Ham!

St. Patrick's Day 2012

Today I wanted to sort of surprise the kids with some new recipes I found on Pinterest and have my usual St. Patty's dinner of corned beef and veggies in the crockpot. So this morning we had Cake Batter Pancakes for breakfast. They enjoyed it, but I have a few changes I'm going to make the next time I make it. You can find the original recipe here. I pretty much followed her recipe, but adjusted a little bit. She uses almond milk, which I'm sure adds some flavor to the pancake. Since we have a tree nut allergy here, I used regular whole milk. I think I'll decrease the amount of milk I used and increase the amount of vanilla next time. I used more milk in the glaze than the recipe called for. Here's my adjustments.

I doubled the recipe except for the eggs, but that was by mistake.

I used 3 cups of milk.


I was looking at the recipe with my phone, so I missed the part of mixing the dry ingredients before adding the eggs, despite my experience telling me that dry and wet are usually separate steps. But then again, my budding baker was playing 20 questions with me at the time.



A picture of the pancake batter:

A picture of the glaze:

Oh, and of course, since it's St. Patty's Day, I colored both the pancakes and glaze green!

It was pretty tasty and the kids liked it, but I think it will be better next time with the changes I need to make for us. Little one enjoyed it and went crazy over it when she discovered the little bit of glaze that I had smeared over hers.

Since the griddle was washed up and out from breakfast, we decided to have grilled cheese for lunch with Shamrock Shakes. As funny as it may sound, we have had the priveledge of introducing two or three people to grilled cheese sandwiches. One of oldest child's friends stayed for lunch. She had never had a grilled cheese sandwich before and asked if it was good. We laughed and she decided after trying, that it was good. She has had a Shamrock Shake before, and apparently I was the only one in our family who has had one before. Some liked it and some didn't. I didn't actually measure everything, but more-or-less eyeballed everything. If I make them again, I may measure so that the peppermint isn't too strong. You can find the recipe for the Shamrock Shakes here. I happened to have green colored sugar crystals (rather my budding baker had them - was given them in a baking kit for Christmas) as well as gold sugar crystals. So I sprinkled green for green sake and gold for the "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow". I giggled to myself about it and the younger kids thought it was a cute idea. The older kids were more like "whatever, Mom."

For dinner we had corned beef that cooked in the crockpot with carrots, red potatoes, onion and cabbage. I love this meal. Little one seemed to like it as well. She was grabbing carrots and potatoes off my plate before I could get it on her tray. I didn't have time to make Irish Soda Bread, because it was an otherwise busy day with errands and other family commitments. All-in-all, a successful St. Patty's Day.

Anticipating St. Patrick's Day

This morning, my children woke up all excited about St. Patrick's Day. Why so early? Because tonight was the St. Patrick's Day party for their 4-H Clogging Club. There sre usually prizes for most shamrocks, wearing the most green, shiniest, most Leprechaun-like and such. I like to try to get clothing items for them after the holiday for the following year. I've done socks, hats, necklaces, suspenders and T-shirts. One year they had temporary tattoos of shamrocks. The families are also encouraged to bring green food for the snacks. And the last 45 minutes or so is dancing for fun, as well as a dance-off. It's a fun evening for them.

So this morning they woke up all excited and got their chosen clothes on. My 12-year-old son was even working his Irish accent. Honestly, he's pretty good with accents and imitations. I had remembered last night that this party was today and hadn't thought about what we were going to take to share for snacks. Pinterest and couponing to the rescue again! Grapes and cucumbers happen to be on sale at my store this week! There's the green healthy food. I found a recipe for 3-2-1 Funfetti Cake Batter Dip through Pinterest, which you can find here. I made it with the help of my 10-year-old assistant (daughter)and we colored it green. We served it with Mini Nilla Wafers, animal crackers and pretzel logs.

After tasting the dip tonight, there are a few changes I would make. I had the whipped cream in a can and I think I'd use the cool whip cream next time. I also used the plain yogurt, but will try vanilla yogurt next time. I'll try to remember to post how the changes taste.


My 12 year-old son won for most Leprechaun-like this year! We all had a good time tonight.

Food Coloring and Colored Sugar

It's been too long since my last post. I will be spending the next few days trying to catch up.

We've been playing with coloring our food around here lately! Yes, playing with our food! Lorianne's birthday was last month and Clarissa wanted to make her cake. I ask the kids for a theme they are interested in for their birthdays (we keep celebrations small and pretty much in the family for my sanity) and do my best to find things with that theme. It's a little challenging, since we can't go to the bakery for the cake, so we do what we can. This time Lorianne wanted polka dots and stripes. Clarissa helped me pick out the plates and napkins. The cake was made and then came the time for the decorating of said cake. We did our best to match the colors of the plates and napkins with the frosting. Now, if you looked at the cake without the plates and napkins, it truly looked odd. But, we were amazed at how good the cake looked on the plates! We couldn't have done a better job matching the colors! This was Clarissa's first time decorating a cake freehand!

After playing with food coloring for Lorianne's birthday, I colored cookies for St. Patrick's Day! We had green sugar cookies with green sugar! I had been on a hunt for a sugar cookie recipe like this one for a while. We love the taste of the famous Lofthouse Cookies, but we can't buy them due to Courtney's nut allergy. I think I finally found a recipe that comes close enough for me! These cookies are sooo good, that they are bad!

I made the same sugar cookie recipe for Easter, separated the dough into two bowls and colored the dough in one bowl rose and the dough in the other bowl orange. I decided to bake the orange dough first and then use the same scoop for the rose colored dough. The result of doing that gave a few of the cookies a sherbet looking color! That was cool! Again, they were sooo good, that they were bad!

So, sometimes it's good to play with your food! It's got me thinking about making some edible play dough in the near future.