Holy eggs

Yeah I know. Eggs two weeks in a row. First, plastic ones for our anti-bored jar and now real ones! With easter right around the corner tis the season. A staple to every holiday and easter growing up has been deviled eggs. Just the thought of saying deviled eggs makes me laugh as growing up my mom (bless her heart) made us refer to them as "angel" eggs. For real. But for now I will be a heathen and call them what they are. Let's pretend for a moment that I cook all the time, enjoy cooking, and have the patience for it ok? As much as you strained to imagine this as I, your moment is up. I have just enough patience to boil water and even that's pushing it. I'm working on it. In the realm of cooking I'm super excited to begin sharing John's recipes and food ventures here and there with you guys whether you have a passion for cooking like he does or simply want to learn...Someday I just might.

Anyhoo, his twist on traditional deviled eggs is so over the top and amazingly tasty I had to share it! We started out by snagging some great fresh produce like beets, blueberries, radishes, and cucumbers.

The beets were coarsely chopped while the blueberries were kept whole while boiling.

  (1 beet per 1 cup of water & 1 pint of blueberries per 1 cup of water)

After several minutes (boil to desired color), they were strained and the natural "dye" that was left over was placed in bowls to cool.

 Soak your boiled eggs AFTER you remove the shells until you have the desired color. The longer they soak of course the brighter the hues. Now your ready to make the filling!

Holy Cheesy Deviled Eggs

3/4 Cup Mayo

1 TBS Mustard (stone ground)

1 TBS Gorgonzola Cheese (or blue cheese as substitute)

1 Tsp Sea Salt

* Mix key ingredients and preferably, use a piping bag to distribute the filling. This recipe is good for a dozen eggs

Ingredients for NERDY GARNISHES

Radishes 
Olives
Cucumbers
Paprika
Parsley

Radish Flowers

 Cut fine slits in the top of the radish lengthwise

 then turn the radish around halfway and repeat.

The "flowers" were then soaked in 1 1/2 TBS of vinegar & 1 1/2 TBS of Sugar to soften them and bring out their natural colors


Bunny Olives

Cut a slice off the bottom of the olive

Then cut out a v to create the ears

After making a slit in the top of the olive, insert your "ears"

Grass

Lastly, use the cucumbers to create your bed of "grass" by cutting them up finely. Assemble your eggs and garnishes as you wish & sprinkle your smoked paprika, parsley, and gorgonzala cheese crumbles as a finishing touch.

Your easter platter of cheesy holy angel deviled eggs are now ready!

The Anti-bored jar

It is officially spring (Insert large question mark here ?). With the snow and rain the last few weeks that is in question but what is not is how easily it is for kids to get bored when stuck indoors. The same old toys and books no longer seem as enticing to the youngsters as watching tv (think yo gabba gabba and bob the builder. think netflix. think plucking them away from these shows is like trying to yank a baby kitten off her mothers teet. less offensive then other analogies I came up with). Which meant it was time for a little creativity to get us all excited about fun activities for everyday days.

Meet our adventure jar. (bored jar)

Granted the quote was to make mommy happy and it does!

We made a list of a bunch of free and everyday activities for at or near the home for whether we are stuck in doors for a sick day, snow day, or the littles are just plain bored. We threw in some fun ones such as having a squirt gun fight or to "camp" indoors as the idea is to change it up a bit. First I printed and laminated the list so they would last and could be re-used.

To pay tribute to "spring", I used plastic eggs to hold each surprise activity.

Who doesn't love little surprises?

After a long spiffy day in the snow...

We put it to the test and it was even funner and more practical then we thought. Sweet!

Here's to life's many adventures and misadventures =)

Toddler Bday Bash

 Planning our youngest daughter's (Ruby Rox) soon to be birthday party brings flashbacks to each stage she's gone through thus far. She is going to be 2. A toddler. You know, a preteen in diapers. Last year we did a ballet sushi party (didn't you know ballet and sushi go together?). . .

Of course she was too busy eating treats to join in most of the twirling action.

The girls had wands and tutus to choose from

along with sparkly pink and silver cupcakes.

As for the adults, we munched on real sushi and sipped bubbly (a necessity for a 1st birthday party). But the biggest hit was this candy sushi!

I would show a full "tutorial" but the reality is these are too easy to make for that!

Small Rice Krispies Treats

+

Fruit Roll ups (green apple resembles seaweed the closest) cut to strips

+

Swedish Fish

 

& Haribo raspberry candies cut in half (red and black)

=

Candy Sushi Goodness

Now back to planning a yo gabba gabba rainbow dancey dance party (which of course all goes together too!).

Love Deeply & Create Freely

How rad is it to be able to foster creativity in our children? It's profound to just sit back and watch as them in their world of discovery and imagination.

 

 This is especially true when it comes to how they express themselves artistically. Which is probably why I'm such a sucker for my kiddos artwork and can't help but keep every scribble and drawing they have done since they were in diapers (not too offensive beings that one Picasso is still in diapers).

After going through the gigantic totes of art in the garage, we narrowed it down to a few faves that we wanted to frame.

 

Next was creating an art wall to display their creations. Why not designate a whole wall like this one? 

Since I'm obsessed with stripes it got a dose of character with some good ol' gray and white stripes (with the help of my big 5 yr old). The best part is we already had the paint leftover from when we transformed our laundry room not too long ago.

Progress...

And the final art wall!

Yes I am a dork and I am smiling =)

For the largest frame, we got all of our favorite pieces downsized and printed into 4x6 sizes on glossy paper to fit the matting (thanks to office depot for just over 3 bucks).

My favorite part is the saying that my hubby and I brainstormed up and had printed out on 8x10 (rainbow and sparkly paper for the girly girl in me shhhh). I already had the perfect frame but it was black so I spray painted it yellow to give it some color.

 Unlike the other frame, this one did not have matting so I improvised by creating my own by using the cardboard backing and my fabric cutter.  Did I mention I was improvising?

 Next, I painted the "matting" black. It was a touch that added dimension and it doesn't hurt that it didn't cost anything to do!

So if you see me aimlessly staring at the wall...you will know why! Reminds me to be a little more childlike and embrace the scribbles and imperfections that make us who we are. Ok that was cheesy. But true.