easter 2016

you would think that I'd have been johnny-on-the-spot about getting the current Easter post up on the blog. Or maybe, you know me well enough to NOT think that.

At any rate -- here I am, a week+ afterwards, and just now getting it done. It's not because we didn't enjoy it, because we sure did! Here's a glimpse into our Easter weekend:

We slid egg dying in just under the wire on Saturday night:

We only dyed a dozen eggs .... any more than that would have been overkill for the next day's deviled eggs at dinner.

I didn't grab Easter Sunday dress pictures before we hurried off to church that morning. So, after church, it was photo-time. Emma was fine with taking pictures, but she was in no mood to actually smile for them. I strongly suspect that Cameron had been teasing her just before this, and that brought on the somber expression.

Except she couldn't hold the "sad" look:

So every time she felt a smile coming on, she would either look down, look away, or turn around!

So every time she felt a smile coming on, she would either look down, look away, or turn around!

It had been a damp morning outside.....

So when all the attempts to coax out a smile fail me, I just have her start jumping!

Then we had our Easter Egg Hunt. That silly Easter bunny didn't hide our eggs, so Dad hid them for us. Emma wanted in on the hiding fun, so she took our mini plastic eggs, filled them with jelly beans, and she hid the plastic ones.

While she hunted the real eggs, I hunted the plastic ones. Pretty sure I got the better end of that deal!

Miss having all my kids here .... so I take pictures of just the two that I do have:

And in a couple of weeks, we're going to be at the [scary?] moment when this handsome young man is going to be off to college again, and for the first time since birth, this cute little girl is going to be the ONLY CHILD AT HOME.

(Well, until Darcie comes home for a couple of weeks after her semester is over.)

 I sure am going to miss Cameron when he's gone -- and not just for the occasional babysitting services he provides. It's really been nice having him home. He's been SUCH a huge help to Todd and me while he's been here. Plus, he's an all-around great guy! I've said it before, but some lucky girl is going to find him one of these days............!!

On to our annual Egg-Cracking Contest!! (Once again -- original rules are located HERE in this post. Talk about a blast from the past when you see those YOUNG kids there!!)

And ..... guess who won this year????

(Don't believe anything Todd may say about this year's competition!)

We moved on to other eggs, too .....

That afternoon, the weather turned really nice, and Cameron & Em jumped on the trampoline while dinner cooked (smoked our ham on the pellet grill!). This is probably their last chance playing together before Cameron leaves, so I wanted photos for sure.

(Yes, he's still got flipping skills!)

The sheep in the pasture next door made me smile. 

And reminded me also of the Lamb of God, whose resurrection we celebrate.

This year, I bought this set of Resurrection Eggs, to help remind Emma of the real meaning of Easter. It has a storybook that goes along with it, and each egg contains a small item that helps tell the story of Christ's final hours and His resurrection....... like a donkey, coins, a crown of thorns, a cloth, etc. The final egg in the story -- the white one -- is empty, signifying the tomb.

That evening before dinner, Emma explained them to Grandma:

(Also that evening, I got this awesome guy recorded as he told one of the old family stories -- of an Easter weekend 50 years ago, when the family moved to town here. I love that I've got this recorded on video, with Weld telling the story. It makes me want to get more stories on video, too!)

We were still a small group -- just 10 of us around one table.

Dinner was traditional, and yummy:

For dessert, we had 4 kinds of  pies ......

... and bunny sugar cookies, decorated by Miss Emma:

 Of course, that wasn't all of March.

Time for a month summary post to get caught up!

traditional food...

Although I'm seeing a pile of photos that I haven't added to this blog yet, I'm taking a moment to slip in another recipe. It's not the best time, and certainly not the best photos, but I feel like I need to get more and more of our recipes on the blog for the benefit of my kids who live on their own.

Maybe I have that feeling, because we added one more kid to that list of kids who live on their own: Darcie headed off to college last week!! But that's a post all on its own.

In the mean time, ......

I changed my mind. This is going to be a picture-less post. I took photos, really I did. But they turned out pretty poorly, Well, that's an understatement. They turned out pretty bad. So, without adding more excuses, .... no pictures. Maybe one day I'll add decent photos to this post.

In the mean time .......

When I was a kid, I remember my mom making creamed vegetables. Most commonly, it was creamed corn, creamed peas, or creamed asparagus. To this day, I passionately detest creamed corn that comes in a can. That stuff should be relegated to hog feed. Homemade creamed vegetables can land on varying places on the yummy spectrum, but they're never as bad as the canned nastiness. You just have to do it *right*, (meaning: don't overcook them!!), so that it turns out on the good side!

And this is certainly a food from yesteryear. Pinterest isn't exactly exploding these days with recipes for creamed vegetables! Let's agree to call it Comfort Food, ok?

When I married Todd, I was introduced to the Huffakers' take on creamed vegetables: Creamed Peas and New Potatoes. I learned way back then, that it's a fairly common go-to dish for Sundays and some holidays -- especially Easter -- and we have this somewhat regularly, including back HERE, and at our famed Holiday-Feast-to-End-All-Holiday-Feasts.

So, once again for my grown-up kids ..... here's how you make it!!


Creamed Peas and New Potatoes

Baby Red Potatoes
Fresh or Frozen Peas (NOT canned!!)
Milk
Cornstarch
Butter
Salt & Pepper

You can use regular russet potatoes for this dish, but the little reds are what we use. You may choose to peel them, but usually we just scrub them and leave the skins on. Unless I'm feeding the pickiest 6-year-old in the world, and then it's actually easier to peel them first.

Please, please, please, PLEASE do yourself a huge favor, and don't use canned peas for this. Just don't go there. It's very, very wrong. The food police will find you. And I will have failed, as a mother, to teach you properly. And the angels will weep for you. (Name that movie line?) Have I made myself clear?? (I usually keep a big bag of frozen baby peas on hand, ready for this at any time.)

You could make the cream sauce with flour, too ...... and then it's really a bechamel sauce. There are many online recipes for that, so I'm going to share our typical method, which uses cornstarch instead of flour as the thickening agent.

Proportions vary, so you want to prepare enough to feed however many people you have for the meal. Maybe about 6-8 baby potatoes for 4 average-appetite people. Scrub the potatoes, and cut them into bite-size pieces. Make them kind of bigger-bites, but not stuff-your-mouth-bites.  Really small potatoes, we just cut in quarters. Keep the size consistent so they will cook evenly. Boil in salted water for about 20 minutes, or until done. Potatoes test done when you can stick a sharp knife into a piece easily. Try not to overcook these babies. Drain in a colander.

Get the peas ready to cook now. I usually microwave them, but they can be done on the stovetop, too. You want them done and hot when the potatoes are done, so delay starting them until the final 5-6 minutes of potato-cooking-time. Drain the peas, too.

In the mean time, let's make the creamy sauce.

In a pot on the stove, heat 2 cups of milk to scalding. Stir constantly so it won't burn on the bottom. Add a couple of tablespoons of butter, and salt and pepper to taste. Make a slurry with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and some water. I describe how (and why) to do this BACK HERE.

Add the slurry to the hot milk, still stirring constantly, and bring to a boil. Boil gently for one minute, so it can thicken. Remove from heat. (Now is a good time to taste the sauce to make sure there's enough salt & pepper in it.)

Now, if you've been coordinating all three parts to this dish (the potatoes, the peas, and the sauce), you'll add them to a large bowl. You want the bowl to be a bit bigger than you "need", so you have room to stir it all together. Potatoes first, then peas (so they don't get crushed by the potatoes), and then pour the white sauce over them both. I use a silicone scraper to get all the sauce out of the pan.

Stir VERY gently together, so you don't moosh up the cooked potatoes. You can also add a couple of pats of butter to melt gently in, as it's sitting on the table.

The amounts listed here should result in a Medium White Sauce. We like ours a little thicker, but often the starch of the potatoes helps thicken it even more. Less draining of the potatoes or peas will make the sauce thinner. Like I said, we prefer it on the thick side. If yours turned out thinner than you want it, adjust with more cornstarch the next time.

Serve these babies with either a large ladle, or a big serving spoon. They go great with ham -- which is part of the reason they're big with us for Easter. They are also good with meat loaf, or other meat main dishes that don't have gravy with them. (Gravy + white sauce in one meal is overkill.)

Enjoy!!

Fleeting Days of Spring

Turn around and look away for a a tiny little moment, and life will slip quickly by you. That's the lesson that I'm being taught. And apparently, I haven't learned this lesson yet, because I keep getting the lesson over and over again.

Usually, I get that lesson when I purposefully slow down. I am at that point now -- deliberately slowed down. It's rather nice, and it's the reason why I absolutely love summertime. Sure, the gorgeous weather is a great bonus. But nothing beats the freedom of unscheduled days! It's my favorite part of summer.

So in my deliciously unscheduled time, I'm catching up on the days that have slipped so quickly by me. Yep, I'm still learning that lesson! Here comes some of what's been happening around here .....

Easter happened in those fleeting days!

The "spin factor" helps make Emma's Easter dress one of her favorites. Sometimes, she'll slow down long enough to get a photo, standing still.

The week before Easter brought us a full house of college kids -- and we absolutely loved having them here! Alyssa came to support Darcie in her DYW - Junior Miss - evening. Cameron and his roommates came along for the ride, having nothing better to do. No worries, since we put them to work, and they ate food like we haven't seen happen around here in a long time! And it was so worth every moment, to have some noise again in the house and laughter filling the rooms!

So, with a week off from college courses, they had an unofficial facial hair contest. This is what Cameron looked like after a week without using a razor:

And I think you might agree that Bon (in the center) was the winner of the beard contest:

We smoked a big bone-in ham for our Easter dinner. Oh. My. Goodness...... there is serious yum factor happening here:

And while Kerry was here for several days, she cooked some Texas favorites for us as well.

SO good!

And we couldn't skip our Egg-Cracking contest -- an expanded version, since we included the college kids and another friend with good timing!

And, the winner is ......

Miss Alys!

Once more, here's a link to the rules for our Egg-Cracking Contest. Or, you might find it also in the list of most popular posts in the margin on the right.

Emma has absolutely loved preschool this year. And she especially loves field trip days. (Who doesn't, right?)  One of their trips was visiting a fire station:

Switching gears now, ...... Darcie wrapped up her high school softball season. She's been hitting really well and has done very well at catcher, working with our less-experienced pitchers this year.

We loved having the team over for a Carb Feed -- pizza is always a winner, right? It's so good when Todd cooks it on the smoker, because it gets an extra crisp to the crust and tastes like it's been cooked in a wood-fired pizza oven. Seriously, SO good!!

Emma loves being right in there with the big girls.

I think the girls have come to expect some softball shortbread cookies, too:

(I think I like shortbread better than sugar cookies. Just my opinion.)

Darcie has also had some great throwdowns this season:

Her coach usually pulls in a courtesy runner for Darcie after she bats. At the end of the season, she actually ran bases during a game, though. The opposing team's catcher thought she might catch Darcie off the base, but here's Darcie's dive back:

She had a great cheering section show up for one of her games (while they were in town!):

And still had enough energy to play at the playground after the game was done. Oh to be young again! (You can hardly see it, but she's got ice on her arm from the game)

And finally, .....

Miss Emma has learned how to pump herself on the swings, too:

Oh, happy day!! (for all of us!)

Although she still loves for someone to come along and take away all the hard work, and push for her. And though she's not quite big enough to start herself, she can usually keep herself going pretty darn well. Success!!