Easter's On Its Way

I've had a fun time getting ready for Easter

this year.  On Friday, I made Hot Cross Buns.  I tried

them last year too, but they were a dismal failure.

Me and yeast breads.....we have a love hate relationship.

I searched around for a new recipe and voila!

They turned out perfectly.  They were light and tender

and very delicious. They aren't too sweet and

they have currants in them, which isn't an ingredient

I use very often.  Hot Cross Buns are a traditional 

Easter bread served in England on Good Friday.

I think from now on they will be served in my

house too.  Mark really enjoyed them.

Have you ever heard the little nursery rhyme that

goes with them?

Hot Cross buns!  Hot Cross buns!

One a penny, two a penny,

Hot Cross buns?

If your daughters won't eat them,

Give them to your sons;

But if you have none of those little elves,

Then you must eat them all yourselves!

Hot Cross Buns

3/4 cup warm water (110 degrees)

3 T. butter

1 T. instant powdered milk

1/4 cup white sugar

3/8 t. salt

1 egg

1 egg white

3 cups flour

1 T. active dry yeast

3/4 cup currants

1 t. cinnamon

1 egg yolk

2 T. water

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1/4 t. vanilla extract

2 t. milk

Place warm water, butter, milk powder, 1/4 cup sugar, salt, egg, egg white

flour and yeast in Bosch or bread mixer in that order.  Mix and after a

few minutes add currants and cinnamon.  Mix and knead for about

8 - 10 min.  Place in bowl and cover.  Put in warm place to rise until

double.  Punch down on floured surface. Cover and let rise 10 min.

Shape into 12 - 15 balls and place in greased 9x13 pan.  Cover and 

let rise until double in warm place - about 35 min.

Mix egg yolk and water.  Brush on balls of dough.  Bake at

375 for 20 min.  Remove from pan immediately and cool

on rack.  Mix together sugar, vanilla and milk and put 

glaze in piping bag.  Pipe x's on each roll.

I decided I wanted to dye some eggs and I used

natural dyes instead of  food coloring. It was fun

to see how they turned out.  I mixed up the dye from items

I had in the kitchen and let the eggs soak in mason jars 

most of the day.  

This beautiful yellow egg came from soaking in 

dye made from the spice - turmeric.

I loved the tan color and crackly surface of

the eggs dyed in beet juice.   The dye

was dark purple, but the egg turned out light brown.

This beautiful blue egg was soaked in

dye made from red cabbage.

And this orange egg was the result of 

soaking in a dye made from yellow onion skins.

I thought they were all beautiful.

* Goal # 23 - Try 50 new recipes

Passover Promises

On Monday of this week, our Jewish friends and neighbors began

their celebration of Passover.  This celebration begins 

with a Passover Seder in Jewish homes all over

the world.  I have always been interested in the feasts

and festivals of the Jews.  God commanded his people to 

remember these special days as he tried to prepare

them to receive their Savior.   Jesus, of course,

was a Jew raised in a devout home where he would have 

observed the Passover each year.  Learning about

 the symbolism of the ritual foods teaches us about God's mercy for

 his chosen people, and  how Christ fulfilled all the promises -

becoming the New Covenant.

For our Personal Progress activity this month,

our value was Knowledge and I decided to use this

opportunity to teach the girls about Passover

and the Last Supper.  The timing was perfect, 

as this is the holy week of Easter.

 The New Testament teaches us that the Last Supper

was, in fact, a Passover meal. On the first day of Passover,

the Lord sent two of his disciples to locate and prepare

a place where they could celebrate the Passover.  The two disciples sent

 to prepare for the seder were directed to an upper chamber.

While there, they probably inspected the room to 

make sure it was very clean.  Even today,

as the eve of Passover approaches, spring cleaning

is a part of every faithful Hebrew's home.

As I reviewed the account with the girls from the Old Testament

on which the Passover meal is based, I wanted them to understand

that the Lord himself established the sacred observance, later

to fulfill it and then reestablish it as the sacrament.

The entire story of the Passover is told on the seder plate.

Seder means" order" in Hebrew.  The Passover Seder is a 

strict order of steps that are performed during the seder meal.

Certain foods are eaten at certain times and traditional questions

are asked such as - Why is this night different from all other nights?

Why do we eat bitter herbs tonight at this special meal?

More than 1400 years before the time of Christ, the chosen 

people were suffering in slavery in Egypt.  The prophet Moses

was chosen by God to be the leader that would lead them from

captivity.  Despite the hardships of nine successive plagues that

God sent to them, the Egyptian pharaoh still refused to let

the people go.  Then an angel of the Lord was sent to strike 

down the firstborn of each family; but at God's command, each

Jewish family had sacrificed a lamb and sprinkled it's blood

on their doorposts.  And the angel, seeing the blood, passed over

those homes and their children were spared.  Then pharaoh 

released the people.  In Exodus 12, the Lord commands his

people to make a remembrance of their day of delivery.

The Passover Seder is about remembering.  The most important

verse in the seder is "and you shall tell your children on this day."

At the festival table , it is customary to wash the

 hands of all present.

The Feast of the Passover begins and ends with the drinking

of a cup of wine.  The cup of wine is the cup of salvation.

When the Israelites were in Egypt, God made four promises,

all of which were kept immediately.  The promises were;

I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and

deliver you from bondage.  I will redeem you with an 

outstretched arm and I will take you to be my people.

In remembrance of this fourfold redemption, at a 

traditional Seder the wine cup would be filled four times.

We, of course, drank grape juice.

The haroset on the seder plate represents the mortar

that was used by the Israelites to build the Egyptian

cities of pleasure.  It is a fruit and nut mixture and 

is eaten with romaine lettuce.

Bitter herbs are dipped in salt water and remind the people of

their fathers who were slaves in Egypt and whose lives were

made bitter by bondage.  The salt water represents the 

tears that were shed.  Other items on the plate are an egg,

symbolizing new life and lamb or a lambshank.   We had 

lamb on our seder plate and some of the girls were brave

enough to try it.   The lamb is a reminder to Jews of the

sacrificial lamb and the blood on their doorposts that saved

their children.  Followers of Christ know this was done in 

similitude of Jesus' sacrifice.  The Savior who is also called

 the Lamb of God was perfect in spirit and body.  

Just as the blood on their doors "saved" them from the destroying

 angel, through the  blood of Jesus Christ we can be saved from our sin.

We also had unleavened bread which represented the bread

the Israelites ate as they left Egypt in haste and had no time to let

their bread rise.  The sun beat down on the dough as they

carried it on their heads and baked it into a flat bread.

The matzoh means "bread of affliction."

The girls read Psalms

and learned about Elijah and how a place is set

at each Passover meal for him.  The Jews look to

Elijah to return to the Earth, bringing with him the

Messiah.

At the end of the Seder, we talked about the timeline

of Easter week and the final hours of Jesus' life.

The Last Supper is called last because it was the last supper

Jesus had as a mortal and because it was the final Passover to

be recognized  by God.  A new ordinance had been introduced

to take its place.  Christ is the new covenant.

Understanding the symbols of Passover helps us to see how

Christ fulfilled all the promises and that only the sinless,

unblemished Messiah could redeem us from our sins.  Like

the children of Israel, we too, can be saved from the

destroyer by the blood of the Lamb if we will but

"strike it upon the lintel and upon the doorposts"

of our lives through repentance.

The scriptures indicate that before Jesus went out into

the mount of Olives, he and his disciples sang

hymns. We concluded our evening by singing  

joyous Easter hymns about our resurrected Lord.

We enjoyed Easter cookies for refreshments 

which are made with ingredients that tell the Easter story and 

when bitten into are hollow like the empty tomb was

on Easter morning.

I hope this evening will help the girls feel closer to their 

Lord this Easter and have a greater appreciation of his

sacrifice for each of us.  He loved us enough to die for us.

This weekend we celebrate His resurrection  Hallelujah! 

*Goal #22 - Study the New Testament.

Goal #44 - Give 50 hours of service.

Stuffed Shells

Since we are on a pasta roll here, I thought I would

share a recipe for stuffed shells.  The spinach filling

is the same that we used for the ravioli we made here

as well as the garden tomato sauce. My sister Cindy, 

suggested using the filling to stuff shells and I thought

it was a great idea.   Although you could use fresh 

spinach if you have it,  the frozen works perfectly.

Thaw the frozen spinach.  You can do it

in a microwave if you forget to take it out

of the freezer in time.

Then put the spinach in a clean dishtowel

And twist it until all the liquid comes out.  You will be surprised

how much water will still be in the spinach.

Finely chop a little onion and break apart the spinach.

Saute the onion in butter and when softened, add the spinach 

and salt and pepper to taste.

In a medium sized bowl, add ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese

and egg yolk.  Mix all together.

Add the spinach mixture and stir.

That's the filling. Set aside until your ready to stuff the shells.

Now to make the pasta sauce.

Chop onions, carrots and garlic. Ideally you would do all the

chopping at one time - for the filling and the sauce.

Saute in saucepan in butter and when vegetables are tender add

two cans of crushed tomatoes.  San Marzona tomatoes are the

best, but I was out, so I used what I had.

Simmer with lid on for about an hour, stirring every so often.

When it is done, add cream and fresh basil.

That's it!  A very easy and delicious pasta sauce.  

Cook jumbo shells according to package directions. Drain 

and cool (so you don't burn your fingers!) and then

fill those babies up.

Top with that wonderful fresh pasta sauce.  You will have

leftover sauce to freeze and use another time.

Layer on more parmesan cheese and some mozzerella or

any grated Italian blend.

Bake until everything is hot and bubbly.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but 

you can imagine it, all gooey and melty on top, right?

Really good......

I had enough to make an extra small dish to freeze

and I used the leftover filling for omelets the next evening,

with a simple green salad with viniagrette.  This was our

first salad of the season with my garden lettuce.

Isn't it pretty?

Spinach Filling

1 box frozen chopped spinach, drained

1/2 medium onion, minced fine

1 cup ricotta cheese

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 large egg yolk

3 T. butter

Saute onion in butter. Add spinach when

onion is soft.  Salt and pepper to taste.

In med. bowl, mix ricotta cheese, egg yolk

and parmesan cheese.  Stir in spinach mixture.

Garden Vegetable Pasta Sauce

1 medium onion, chopped

2 medium carrots, chopped fine

2 large cloves garlic, minced

4 T. butter

2 cans crushed tomatoes

1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy cream

fresh basil, shredded

Saute onion, carrots and garlic in butter

until vegetables are tender.  Do not brown

garlic.  Add canned tomatoes.  Cover and

simmer for about an hour.  Add cream and

basil before serving.

Inspired by recipe in The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook

*Goal # 10 - Eat 3 meatless meals a week

*Goal #23  - Try 50 new recipes

*Goal #43 - Expand my vegetable gardens

Mia Cucina Italiana

When my friend asked me what kind of party I wanted to have

for my birthday, it didn't take me long to come up with an answer.

As we sat on a log in the woods (we were hiking), she took notes as I
explained how much fun I thought it would be to have a small group
of friends over and make an Italian meal together, using my new
 pasta machine.  We would make fresh pasta,cook and eat and
 have a wonderful time in the kitchen.  I don't think this is what
 she expected, but she took my ideas and ran with it.

  With Italian music playing in the background and apron clad friends 

 to help me, my kitchen became mia cucina italiana (my Italian kitchen).
I'm pretty sure there is some Italian blood running through my body.

First thing we did was make an amazing array of appetizers.

This was our antipasti platter with cheeses, meats, olives,

vegetables and breadsticks.

Sherri rolled little balls of fresh mozzerella in breadcrumbs

and fried them to perfection to serve with marinara sauce. 

We also had a warm mushroom dip and prosciutto wrapped asparagus.

We had these Italian sodas to drink..I'm a big fan

of the lemon flavor.  

It was all so good, we had to force ourselves to save room for the rest

of the meal.  The best was yet to come.

A little serenading by Tara.

This evening was especially fun for me to have both of

my sisters with me to help celebrate.

After clearing away the appetizers, we started in on making

the pasta.  I received my pasta machine as a Christmas gift

and I have been waiting for a chance to try it out.  

This was a perfect thing to do with a group.

  We were like little kids with a new toy.

I made the dough in a food processor.  Who 

ever knew that something so good as pasta 

would come from three such humble ingredients as

 flour, egg, and a little water. 

Putting the dough in the press and watching it flatten out was

the first step. Cindy said it was like playing with a playdough factory.

She was very efficient with the handle and keeping the dough at the

proper thickness.

Like I said, it was really exciting.

We made the ravioli first- it was the trickiest.

We filled it with spinach, ricotta and parmesan cheese.

Put the filling in the machine and presto

out came little spinach ravioli.

Then we had to cut them apart

and they were ready to be cooked.

After the ravioli, we made fettuccine.

It's so fun having these perfect strips of pasta come off in your hand.

Kathy said she couldn't remember when she had so 

much fun playing with food!

Here is a mound of fettuccine ready to be cooked.

While I made the sauces for the pasta

another crew worked on assembling the salads.

Tara created this lovely salad of mixed greens, pancetta, walnuts,

  and shaved parmesan with a balsamic viniagrette.

Fresh pasta cooks really fast.

 We had to taste test to see if it was done.

I tested the noodles and Sherri tested the sauce.

Tough job, but someone has to do it.

A few fresh herbs to go on the top of the fettucine.

Plating the ravioli

It's almost time to eat....

Enjoying the fruits of our labor....

and we all agreed that fresh pasta really is a

million times better than the stuff you get from a box!

This crowd has great taste and I was gifted with

wonderful things.

But wait - it's not over yet!

LaWren made a fabulous dessert.

It's so nice to have a friend who is a french

pastry chef. :)

These are called religieuse au chocolat

and are supposed to look like fat, little

French nuns.  Use your imagination -

can you see it?  Here's a fun link with more

examples...... aren't they cute?

Chocolate mousse inside pastry shells with

chocolate ganache drizzled down the sides

and over the top.  Heaven.......

What an amazing celebration! 

Wonderful food created and shared with people

I love.  Life is good at 50!

* Goal #11 - Learn to make pasta with my new pasta machine.

* Goal #23 - Try 50 new recipes.