I had promised a part 2, deux, zwei, dos… but I had really hoped for a gallery of Easter photos to be published by the DH. He does that better, well really it is because he took so many gosh darn great photos and I was overwhelmed in the choosing. But I got stuff to say, so I am plunging in with a recap and one or two photos and hopefully by weekend’s end there will be a few galleries posted. (although NHL playoffs  have begun, so I would not bet the farm on it.)

After church, we came home and finished up cooking… EmmyG made the most delish mini lemon meringue tarts…

Katherine made a bucket load of our homemade salsa…  Jenni made the über-famous Jenni curried egg dip to be eaten with Black Pepper and Olive Oil triscuits. We already had in the oven, a gajillion thinly sliced potatoes nestled in a heavy cream, garlic and parmesan sauce courtesy of my mom. There was spiral sliced ham, barely steamed green beans (trimmed by Jenni,) my whipped cream biscuits. Hannah was cutting circles and adhering them to lollipops. I had made a cherry jello salad which I am happy I did. It was the perfect counterpoint to the rest of the meal, and I am definitely not a jello salad fan. But I might be converted after this.

George came over. Bethany, Sarah and Amanda also. Tony, George and I walked to Vickers Park and hid plastic candy-filled eggs amid slush and ice. A five year old appeared with his Dad and giant dog. I thought “uh-oh,this little guy is not going to understand that this isn’t for him.” WRONG! he had no interest in the eggs I offered him, he wanted to help hide eggs.

A teenage boy however stumbled upon a cache of eggs as we were hiding more eggs and got all excited. I asked please not to take them all, he could have one. He walked away slightly crestfallen.

We telephoned the girls, telling them to wear their Wellies and foul weather gear. They had formed teams… one of which was Hannah and Amanda. Amanda is intense. She tore through the park, shaking trees, inspecting trash cans (we did not hide any there,) Hannah picked up an egg of the monkey bars and got distracted climbing and swinging. Amanda filled two bags for them to share, I exaggerate but only slightly. Bethany scouted out eggs for other sisters while picking up some randomly for herself.

The walk back to the house was delightful. George, Jenni and I took up the rear while the others scampered ahead with Tony running ahead repeatedly to get photos of the group.

Back at the house there was a serious inspection of the loot.

While waiting for Trevor to get off work and for him to pick up Joel, we snacked on salsa and egg dip.

The ham buffet was a huge hit with everyone going back for seconds, or thirds. After supper, Tony picked up the guitar and I brought a craft for the kids… oh how much fun. I thought they would have a good time, but even I didn’t know what a hit it would be. I gave them each a bit of fimo clay and told them to make animals.

Now my tiny goof ball, Hannah slipped in some contraband clay, not fimo, and when we finished baking the animals, we discovered her platypus had turned into a pink puddle, with a rock hard orange fimo tail.  enlarge to see how stinking cute these critters are.

Katherine cracked me up with her blog today. The end lines about the way she and Emily react to body fluids.

My mom remembers from her childhood fresh coconut cake, of course growing up in Hawaii she had fresh coconut, and I was able to recreate it in Florida, but not in Canada… and my attempt on Sunday was doubly lame. The cake was dry, the filling lumpy, the icing not the 7 minute icing my mother considers de rigueur, rather European buttercream.  I needed to make this right.

I took a bit of Angie’s recipe and a bit of Cake Mix Doctor and made an amazing cake yesterday, which Mother  proclaimed a hit. You take your basic white cake mix, three eggs, 1 stick butter, melted, 1 tablespoon vanilla, 1 cup of coconut milk and beat the daylights out of it with the mixer. Pour into 2 floured cake pans, and bake at 350 until done. cool.

Make a custard in the microwave by putting 3/4 c sugar and 1/4 c cornstarch in a pyrex measuring cup, whisk  in  2 c milk until smooth. Put 2 tablespoons butter in cup. Pop in microwave for 3-4 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add vanilla to taste. Keep cooking until thick and smooth. Whisk in 2 beaten egg yolks. Let sit, stirring every now and then while making frosting.

Frosting: Get another pyrex cup with 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 tablespoon corn syrup, and 1/3 cup water. Stir til smooth. Put in microwave for 5 minutes. Stop at 3 minutes to stir with fork. Lift fork from cup, does the syrup drip off and run together? It’s done. Beat 2 egg whites in mixer until peaks form. Slowly pour in sugar syrup,. beating until fluffy frosting emerges.

Edited portion: ooops I also forgot that I add vanilla to almost everything.

1 1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

DIRECTIONS
Combine sugar, water, corn syrup, and salt in a saucepan; stir until well blended. Boil slowly without stirring until mixture will spin a long thread when a little is dropped from a spoon (hold the spoon high above saucepan), or reaches 238 – 242 degrees F (114 – 117 degrees C).
In a large bowl, beat egg whites with a mixer until they are stiff, but still moist. Pour hot syrup slowly over egg whites while beating. Continue until mixture is very fluffy, and will hold its shape. Add vanilla, and beat until blended. If icing does not seem stiff enough, beat in 2 or 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until stiff enough to hold its shape.

Assemble cake with filling, frost, pat on coconut. I only patted onto one half of cake because of fussy children  .

Amanda has math Olympics this weekend. Tony and I have Gordon Lightfoot. And turkey for dinner tonight as the stores had sales on turkeys from Easter. Yum!

Tags: Food, Hockey, Music

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 10:57 am and is filed under Easter, Food, Hockey, Kids, Scrapbooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.