April 16th, 2011

Growing up my Grandma Coco made this fantastic potato salad she served at Easter and barbecues.  It was a mayonnaise based potato salad with eggs and celery.  She always served it in this yellow bowl with a white interior.  She also served her green salads in the bowl.  I completely forgot about this bowl until I was at an Estate Sale with the girls and saw the exact same yellow bowl for sale and it all came flooding back to me, the many tasty dishes served to me in that bowl.  I almost bought it, but then thought it was possible my Grandpa Coco still had it and would be willing to pass it on to me so I would have THE bowl.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure what happened to it, but if he found it he would gladly give it to me.  Fast forward a couple months and I was at another Estate Sale (I love going to estate sales on Friday afternoon with the girls!) and I found the yellow bowl again!!  AND it came with a little blue bowl with the same style.  I snatched that puppy up and was so excited lightening struck twice!

Saturday was my prep day to get all my Easter meal contributions done.

Grandma’s potato salad!  I found out there’s no written recipe, but Cathy and my mom walked me through it with Grandma’s little tricks. 

And it’s in her (well, not HER’S, but the exact same) yellow bowl.  Seeing it all done was a flashback to my childhood and put a big smile on my face.  Never would I think a bowl could make me so happy.

I also made the deviled eggs. 

I also made Grandma Coco’s recipe for braided easter bread with eggs.  It was my first time making this and I didn’t put the eggs in the dough enough, 2 fell off in the oven.  There wasn’t a recipe for the bread either and I’m not good at coming up with baking recipes on the fly.  But thankfully a couple days ago I found the exact recipe on a blog I love.  Her recipes and pictures are beautiful.  Here’s her Easter Bread:

She does little individual one, aren’t they beautiful and cheery?  She’s also really good at walking you through all the steps with pictures and including a printer ready recipe.

The girls helped me the afternoon and we dyed the eggs for the Easter Bread.

  

We are ready, bring on the Easter fun!

April 17th, 2011

Today was the big day of the Belleville Eckert’s Easter Egg hunt.  We met the Halls, Lamons, and Jerry families there for springtime festivities.  The girls had a great time, which means Trent and I had a great time too.  They had their new country store open, which is HUGE, and all kinds of sampling different treats.  Let’s just say that there was a moment I had with their bacon crab dip and decided some needed to come home with me…..baaaad idea, I think I tore through it in 2 days. 

For the price of the hunt, you also get your face painted, plant a green bean seed to take home, decorate a cookie, get your picture with the Easter bunny, and…the girls absolute favorite….you get to hold chicks and bunnies.  They can’t wait for that part and try to max out their turns as much as possible.

Elizabeth Hall was behind her lense quite a bit.  She got some fantastic pictures of the kids at the petting zoo.

Here is a link to her blog. I just love it.  She’s not only witty and snarky, but she has a knack of capturing life in its natural state and makes it even more beautiful.

When we got home, I rolled up my sleeves and went to town in the kitchen.  My parents and Grandpa Coco were coming over for dinner.  I wanted to make my Aunt Mary’s eggplant parmesan, baked pasta, bread, and salad. 

My Aunt Mary’s recipe written out in paragraph form.  It’s fun, I read it like a story (and she even wrote it with little antidotes, so cute).  Of course I was a bad blogger and didn’t take one picture, I guess I was in “get ‘er done” mode?  It came out looking like this.

I get a blogging demerit again. 

Eckert’s also has a fantastic selection of freshly baked pies.

I decided the blackberry one needed to come home with me and that was dessert and accessorized it with vanilla ice cream.  It was a great end to a great day!

April 13th, 2011

My absolute favorite flower is blooming!

I absolutely LOVE lilacs!  Unfortunately, I haven’t planted a lilac bush in our yard (trying to figure out a good, sunny spot….), so I borrowed requisitioned stole a couple of stems from a neighbor’s bush…..shhhh, don’t tell.

I also absolutely love this spring weather and all the greenery is back!  The girls and I have been enjoying playgrounds, outside, and neighborhood walks.

For dinner Trent’s sister, Michelle, was supposed to come over for dinner.  She was in town for the week for work.  Unfortunately, Trent had a painful scratch on his eye and in no condition to be social, so he called her to do a rain check.  Michelle has Celiac Disease and cannot eat anything with gluten in it.  So I was prepared to go ol’ school with a baked potato bar and already had everything prepped, so potato bar it is.

The topping selection and everyone in the family got to pick what to put on their potato.

The blank canvas.

Lauren’s potato: butter, chives, white cheddar cheese, ham, sour cream, and broccoli on the side.

Sydney’s potato: butter, cheddar cheese, bacon, sour cream, and broccoli on the side.

Trent’s potato: butter, broccoli, bacon, ham, cheddar cheese, sour cream.

Mine: Butter, broccoli, chives, ham, and white cheddar cheese.

It was fun to see what the girls picked for their potatoes and a fun interactive dinner with minimal cooking on my part.  I’m definitely going to revisit family baked potato bar night and hopefully next time with Michelle!

April 10th, 2011

It was the weekend of birthday parties and today was our little niece Noni’s 3rd birthday at Shaw Park.  Apparently the lawn maintenance at Shaw Park haven’t mowed in awhile.  With my girls one big great result of not mowing is dandelions.  Then if someone is REEEALLLY deficient on mowing another fantastic side effect is the WISH dandelions (aka, when dandelion flowers go to seed and you pick them and blow the seeds in the air…then make a wish).  So if you are in charge of mowing and have fallen a little behind, don’t invite us over because the girls will blow out all your wish dandelions and spread the weeds flowers all over your yard.  Unless you dig dandelions, then invite us over and you get dandelion seed spreading free labor.

The other highlight of the party was a piñata….a very, very stubborn piñata.  There was a group of about 7-8 kids ready to tackle it.  But the oldest was 5….and that was Lauren.  Many, many turns were taken.

So Julie had to rip the piñata completely open help the game along.

The kids took the cue from Julie and decided ripping was definitely easier than bat method.

Cha-ching!

Noni specifically requested a green dinosaur cake.  Not a crumb was left, it was quite popular.  I think some kids worked the system and snuck in a second and third helping.

The afternoon was spent outside working in the yard….much needed!!  The kids were a red faced sweaty mess, so while Trent gave them a bath, I grilled dinner outside, with my Sunday Skinnygirl Margarita made by Trent.  I was still grilling and the girls wanted to come outside after bath.

In order to keep them relatively clean and not reverse the effect of the bath, I told them they could pick a couple grape hyacinths.

I cannot believe these shirts are so short on them.

The girls were swimming in them when my dad bought them in Destin June 2009.  So cute!

Sydney at a year and a half!

Okay, okay, back to dinner….

I like to grill the bread, rub a raw peeled garlic clove on the toasted bread, then top with parmesan cheese and put in the grill’s warmer shelf to melt it.

Hot dogs for the girls, grilled garlic bread, and veggies and chicken marinated in balsamic vinegar, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper for Trent and I.

Another fantastic Sunday goes down in the books…and blog!