Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Easter weekend

We've had a bit of a crazy weekend due to illness and getting ready for the holiday. I was able to run errands on Saturday and put out some Easter decorations. I found this nest on the sidewalk at some point during my childhood in Irvington and have been saving it all these years. I haven't used it to decorate in almost as long, but decided it would look cute in the Longaberger wreath basket filed with some moss. I added some faux birds and eggs to complete the spring scene and some tulips from the garden. It has been raining so much recently I was a little afraid the tulips would all be destroyed before Easter.On Saturday night I made a quiche for Easter breakfast and the lamb cake for dinner. I used the quiche Lorraine recipe from Mr. W's Glorious French Food by James Peterson and it was much more of a white custard than the mini quiches from Costco et al that I'm accustomed to being served. I added Canadian bacon and asparagus to the recipe. Since I made it the night before, we were able to reheated it briefly in the oven giving us ample time to get to 11 o'clock Mass.After Mass and brunch with the family at my uncle's house we returned home and Mr. W set about preparing our Easter feast. Rack of lamb with, potatoes fried in goose fat, and sauteed asparagus. Again I think all the recipes are found in Peterson's French cookbook. I set the table with my great aunt Frances' pale green lily of the valley table cloth and her Lu Ray dishes. The pastel colors seem so very appropriate for the spring. Most of the pieces I inherited from her, but I filled in a few of the serving pieces thanks to ebay. We were too full to touch the cake after our day of continuous feasting.There was a plastic Easter egg hunt that my aunt put together after brunch, but last year I decided that it would be best to have our own egg hunt on Easter Monday. Easter Sunday is such a busy day as it is and since I hope to send our children to parochial school, I know they'll always have Easter Monday off. For simplicity, I dyed the eggs myself Sunday night and then hid them in the garden so the littlest W could do his hunting. He enjoys it so much and both years I have been able to get it accomplished between rain showers. Then we have colorful egg salad sandwiches for lunch. The only downside is that Mr. W doesn't get to watch both egg hunts. Maybe in the future he'll decide to take Easter Monday off too.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Catching up to Holy week

I've been a little remiss in updating. Between all my nervousness about infertility injections and illness running through the house I have been preoccupied. Last weekend we went to the Lincoln City for a surprise 75th birthday party for my great aunt. (There was an 80th birthday party for my other great aunt this month too.) I'm so grateful that we went, not only was it nice to visit with cousins I don't often see, but also because the boy and I spent a little time on the beach before hand. It was a gorgeous day! It was warm at the coast in March!! I ought to have headed down earlier in the day so we could have spent more time playing in the sand. As it was I had to bribe him with the promise of cake at the birthday party.
It's a good thing we did have our moment in the sun because we've been cooped up the rest of the week with illness. Mr. W has been sick for two weeks now and the littlest W got his first 100+ degree fever which lasted for 3 days. We're still not feeling better, but thankfully his temperatures have returned to normal.
Mine on the other hand are high. I hope that is a good sign. In addition to all the injectables I did this month, I was also prescribed progesterone suppositories. Fun. Hopefully these will help encourage some growth in my ute. My first beta will be Monday. I will not be taking a hpt before then; I don't want to deal with disappointment over Easter weekend.
Which brings me to my light Holy Thursday supper. I read in Feast Day Cookbook by Katherine Burton that it was traditional to have greens for Holy Thursday. Perhaps a bit of a nod to the bitter herbs of the Passover meal, or perhaps because life was finally returning to the earth and there were green things to eat again. The cookbook mentioned the Germans ate spinach and dandelions and included a 1950s type recipe which didn't sound great to me. I decided to instead make a salad with it because I knew I would find dandelions in my yard. I threw in cherry tomatoes, and since I had them on hand, croutons and shelled some sesame seeds.
Since today is Good Friday I am fasting but will be making Hot Cross Buns. I am using a recipe from The Tasha Tudor Cookbook. It calls for currants but not saffron. Hopefully they will still turn out even though I substituted soy milk and margarine for the milk and butter so they'd be vegan. Can I tell you how excited I am for Lent to be over? Delicious animal fats are just two days away!