Easter

Here are some pics of the Easter festivities. Do you like the Peep Bunny garland above? I saw one made of felt and decided paper would be easier, faster, and cheaper: http://www.thesweetestoccasion.com/2010/03/felt-peeps-bunny-shaped-easter-craft-decoration-ideas/

Easter eggs!

These eggs are a little...different. More about them later.

Dinner was chicken meatballs with sweet potato, zucchini, and summer squash pasta. My sister was inspired by the sweet potato pasta made by Richard Blais on Top Chef All-Stars. The vegetables are peeled very thin and then cooked very quickly in a skillet with just a little liquid. Delicious!

Almond cupcake frosted with sweetened whipped cream and garnished with chocolate-covered almond.

I'm not sure what kind of plant this is exactly. Isn't it beautiful? My mom brought it over for us for Easter.

The aftermath of the cascarones! I had heard of these confetti-filled eggs before and was thrilled to find some at the local Walgreens for only three bucks. I had read that people often crack them over each other's heads to break them open. Unfortunately, these were quite a bit harder than I had imagined and I just ended up hitting my sister in the head with an egg; it didn't even bust open! I think it's because both the inside and outside were painted, which made them a little too...sturdy...for cracking over heads! If I make them at home at some point then I'll just paint the outside.

Here's more info on cascarones: http://www.highlightskids.com/Stories/NonFiction/NF0302_cascarones.asp

Rainbow Bright

Top o' the mornin' to ya! Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm not in the least bit Irish but I do enjoy the color green, loved the four days I spent in Dublin a million years ago, like cute boys with Irish accents, and love the idea of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

I couldn't resist making these rainbow cupcakes, even though they have been done so many times in blogs all over the place. They are a lot of fun, but take a while to layer all of the different color batters into the cupcake liner. I would recommend using cheap white liners because then the rainbow pattern will show through (for once, those cheapies come in handy! don't waste the pretty, expensive ones you have. Unless you have gold liners, which would be pretty awesome)

I also think it might be a good idea to put the different color batters in ziploc bags with a hole cut in the corner so that you can control the amount of batter in your cupcake liner. I used a spoon and it was somewhat challenging. I also used cake mix and I think a runnier cake batter might work better for these, giving you more even layers.

Above is my cupcake display, each cupcake topped with sprinkles and jelly beans in the appropriate colors. The candy at the end is the gold at the end of my rainbow. Also, I had this sparkly container below so decided that would be my pot o' gold. No ugly black cauldrons for any leprechaun of mine!

No Fireplace? No Problem!

Do you like our new "fireplace"? Okay, so it doesn't give out much warmth (or any) but I wanted to have a mantel where we can hang our stockings When it isn't The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, this is three bookcases placed side by side. The bricks are two pieces of decorated foamboard (I used Sharpie to draw the brick pattern). I didn't have black posterboard so painted a piece of cardboard and cut out the flame shape with an exacto knife. It is backed with a piece of translucent paper ( vellum that was painted orange and red, in this case, but tissue paper could work). The red and yellow flames and the logs on the front were cut out of cardstock and taped on. The finishing touch is the light of the "fire" shining through - a string of battery-operated lights place on the empty shelf behind the cut out.