Cleanup

A houseful of stuff was reduced to seven boxes to be saved--boxes of photos and other memorabilia that my parents had collected over their lifetimes. They fell into my hands late last August after my brother gleaned them from my father's house.

I stacked them in my bedroom, promising to get to them when we returned from vacation. Then morning sickness visited with its companion, fatigue, and so the boxes remained in several stacks, out in the open so that I wouldn't forget about them.

Today was the day. I opened each box and found photos, yearbooks, greeting cards, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, postcards, letters and books.

I removed photos from their frames, and freed others from their "magnetic" albums. Most everything else got tossed or donated. Now I have stacks upon stacks of photos that someday I expect to sort through and scan...someday when I have 4,582 hours to spare.

Seven boxes became two. These will get packed away until some far away day after the baby arrives; after we've settled into a new house.

It was bittersweet to see beloved people from my past--people I won't see again in this lifetime.

Easter 2009

I hope you all had a wonderful celebration! Happy Easter :)

Holly made these 3-D paper eggs last year. She made the basket, too--she's very crafty!

Chocolate Coconut Easter Candy

This is a recipe from my childhood. Mom made these at Easter only, and I remember vividly sitting perched on a kitchen stool next to the stove watching her dip them. She wasn't fond of working with melted chocolate, to say the least. I remember hearing a lot of French phrases during these candy-making sessions. That was never a good sign. But, these eggs were so good that I'm sure she thought that they were worth the effort.

The recipe couldn't be more simple.  All you need is:

The Creamy Centers
1.5 lbs powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 oz shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened--your choice)

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly by hand. It should look like this when you're done.

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about two hours.

Remove from fridge and form into egg-shapes. These can be any size you wish. I used a teaspoon to try to get them uniform, but a candy mold would do a much better job.  Work quickly--this stuff will get sticky in a hurry.

Cover and return to the refrigerator while you prepare your double-broiler to melt some chocolate. Any chocolate will do. Here I am using Nestle's Toll House Morsels.  When I have it, I use Scharffen Berger dark chocolate.

Dip each egg-shaped center into the chocolate and place on a wax paper-lined baking sheet to dry.

As you can see, I'm no Jacques Torres.

Mom used to pipe frosting rosebuds and leaves onto her candies, making them even more special, but I don't like working with frosting at all so mine remain plain.

My husband, the coconut-hater, suggests replacing the coconut with oatmeal.  Maybe next year.  If you try that, let me know how it works out.

I had a watcher, too, who also likes to perch from the kitchen stool.

Egg Hunt

Our friends' daughter turned five last Sunday. For her birthday, she didn't want presents. She wanted an Egg Hunt. Sweet!

Our hostess went overboard and provided many dozens of eggs for the three little kids to find.

Liam caught on pretty quickly, with some help from Laurel. He still doesn't know there's stuff inside the eggs. That's fine by me!

Baking

Baking for Easter Sunday brunch. After last year's brunch, none of us got hungry until about 7pm. I will not be planning a large dinner!
The menu: muffins. Lots of muffins (banana, carrot, and apple), omelets, waffles with homemade strawberry sauce, sausage links, mini bagels, berries, cantaloupe, and candy, candy, candy. More on that later.

Here's a Laurel-drawing for the fun of it. Dig the pristine kitchen? Yeah, not in this lifetime.