Easter Prep Projects

I've been chained to the kitchen all day.  Well, that isn't exactly the case.  Chained is too strong a word.  I do love being in the kitchen so it would be more accurate to say I've been busy, in a happy kind of way, in the kitchen.  It takes a few days for me to make everything for the "feast" as my son calls it. 

You've gotta have dyed eggs.  The one in the far back corner is one of our Aracauna eggs - naturally a light green color so I didn't dye that one.  I did dye another one of the green ones though - in the teal color.  The rest of the dyed eggs started brown.  I read that they dye a deeper richer color than white eggs -- and it was true!  Although, I think the blue (not teal) one came out black.  Hmmm.  Brown egg + blue dye = black egg.  Note to next Easter.  I also hard boiled some extras to make deviled eggs.

I am making two kinds of bread to go with the ham.  Wheat and brioche.  I made the wheat and started the brioche.  It will sit in the refrigerator overnight for a long rise and then I will bake it in the morning. 

I also made one of the desserts.  My mother always made this for Easter and it reminds me of the Easters we spent in Africa (I think that must be when she got the recipe).  It's a pie dough base with eclair batter on top.  Tomorrow I will add chocolate frosting and nuts.

 

Meanwhile, Brett was busy outside with projects of his own.  He put gravel by the entry to the goat corral and in the base of the goat shed. 

He will add a sand layer above the gravel base and then top it off with the stall mats in the lower right of the photo.  He ran out of gravel and had to go down the hill and get more.  So, he spent the day with his two favorite toys: his red trailer and his tractor.

At one point, he knocked on the kitchen window to show me what he had found in the pool skimmer: a bird's nest.  The silly birds did this last year too.  The second picture didn't come out too well but there are eggs in the nest. 

Happy Easter feasting everyone!