Easter

Easter is a time when family gets together to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ Easter bunny. The past couple of years, it has bothered me to not be with my family during this holiday. We use to decorate eggs and watch with excitement as the kids searched for them in the yard. We sat around the table to enjoy a nice meal and eat deviled eggs until our hearts content.

This was the first Easter that I was not sad about not sitting around the table with my family. I think that I am finally coming to the understanding that they are going to do as they please whether it hurts my feelings or not. I have to move on and do what makes me happy. For once. Before allowing myself to sit around and wonder whether or not I was going to get an invite to a family gathering, I decided to make my own plans. The best friend was gone out of town, so it was just the husband and I. I got busy on making a menu for the special day.

-Ham
-Mashed Potatoes
-Corn
-Rolls
-Deviled Eggs
-Cream Cheese Filled Olives
-Dessert

I am pretty sure that my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I was only needing to cook for two people!

I had never purchased a ham before and was not quite sure what to pick out. After standing hopelessly in front of the cooler at the grocery store, the butcher has offered his assistance. He explained to me the ins and outs of cooking a ham and helped me choose the perfect one. It was big enough to feed the entire city. I ended up throwing it in the crock pot with some pineapple slices and a little brown sugar. It was super moist, one of the best hams that I have ever had. We ended up eating ham for the next four nights. For lunch AND dinner. We had to toss the rest as we were hammed out.

*Side note* See that cute "Yum!" on the above picture? That was done using the app Beautiful mess for iPhone. If you are wanting to spice up your cell phone photos for the small price of ninety-nine cents, I encourage you to download the app. You will not regret it.

My favorite part of Easter is the dying of the eggs. Because we have no need to make eggs pretty and hide them in the yard, I came up with an alternative. I would dye my deviled eggs! I found a tutorial online and it looked simple enough. The directions were to prepare the deviled eggs as you would normally. Once you have removed the yolks, place the egg whites in 1 cup of cold water with the color dye of your choosing. Let sit for 5 minutes and Whalla!! You have colored deviled eggs. Hold on to your aprons ladies. I learned the hard way that gel food coloring does NOT work. It was all I had in the house and I did not want to have to run to the store. The gel clumped in the water and did not adhere well to the eggs. I managed to get a hint of color on a few, but not the effect that I was hoping for. Lesson learned, will try again next year.

For the dessert portion, we made bird's nest treats. They were simple AND required no baking, my kind of cooking.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, for greasing the muffin pan

6 ounces (1/2 bag) of semi-sweet chocolate chips

6 ounces (1/2 bag) of butterscotch chips

1 cup creamy peanut butter

6 ounces (1/2 of a large bag) of chow mein noodles

36 mini Cadbury eggs

Instructions

1. Generously grease the wells of a muffin pan with the butter (this will help later when you are taking out the chilled nests).

2. In a large microwave-proof bowl, heat the chocolate and butterscotch chips in 30 second intervals until thoroughly melted, stirring after each increment.

3. Once melted, add the peanut butter to the chocolate/butterscotch mixture, mixing well until smooth and completely combined.

4. Carefully add the chow mein noodles, stirring with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, until completely coated.

5. Using a large spoon, mold the mixture into the wells of your muffin tin, indenting the tops slightly with the back of the spoon.

6.  Chill the nests until hardened, about 1 hour or so.

7.  Once chilled, gently remove the nests from the muffin tin.

8.  Place three eggs (or colored jelly beans!) on the tops of each nest.

We ended up eating entirely way too much food, but we had a great time spending the day together.

P.S. While I was looking around on the internet for some fun Easter recipes, I saw some recipes calling for carrot cake flavored M&M's. My heart jumped out of my chest with excitement. I would not rest until I found out where to purchase these bad boys from.  Luckily, Walmart has a handy little tool on their website that helps to locate an item of your choice. There was ONE store in all of Washington State that had some of the M&M's in stock. Could you believe that it just so happened to be a Walmart store near where the best friend was traveling to??! She brought me home four bags. FOUR! And wouldn't you know, they actually taste like carrot cake. Easter complete.

P.S.S. I apologize that I am posting a blog about a holiday that happened roughly two months ago. I am trying to catch up as best I can. Hang tight!