Week 98: Easter Weekend

It would have been an interesting project to take a picture this morning of the lemon meringue pie that my grandma left here yesterday, and then take pictures intermittently throughout the day to chronicle the disappearance of said pie. And perhaps the chronicles of another particular rhubarb pie that she also left. Such a chronicle would capture me eating pie not only for breakfast but also for second breakfast and lunch. Certainly a mid-afternoon snack will consist of pie. Perhaps dinner too. Sydney, never one to eat what we are eating, has not decided to jump onto the pie eating bandwagon, so I'm left to myself to see how much of the pies I can eat before Jason comes home. It would be especially clever of me to take pictures of the pie to show you, but to get near to the pies is to be tempted to eat them, so it's better for my caloric intake if you just imagine them.

So, yes, we had pie for dessert for yesterday's Easter dinner. I, ever mindful of putting my china to good use, invited Jason's parents, my parents, and my grandma down for Easter. It was nice to have them over, and I had quite the exciting time preparing the meal. My big choice was what meat to prepare. I've never cooked a turkey, and wasn't willing to invest the research into finding out how. Lamb was out because even though I don't care if other people eat lamb, I have issues with eating poor little lambies. I had pretty much decided on ham, but then saw this recipe for stuffed chicken and had to make that. It's hard to go wrong with zucchini and red peppers. I was not disappointed. (I just typed out everything else that I served and then realized that probably no one except me would find that interesting...) (Confession: I mirrored the above picture so that the table setting looks correct. What can I say? We are an entertaining work-in-progress.)

For place cards I blew out eggs (8 eggs which became chocolate cake, waffles and scrambled eggs), and calligraphied everyone's name on the shell. Then I cut a hole large enough for a tulip, filled a little votive holder with grass, and voila. I had to go to four grocery stores to find tulips with small stems, but it was worth it. I just love having flowers on the table.

Even though we had pie for dessert, I had wanted to include something chocolatey because yesterday was the end of Lent (ie: the end of my chocolate fast). I didn't know that there would be three pies, so on Saturday I prepped these molten chocolate cakes so there would be something waiting for me at the end of those long chocolate-free weeks. I only baked one cup yesterday for everyone to snack on, so I still have three cups in the fridge, and 2 pies (well, 2 half pies) just hanging out in the house. At this point, I'm willing to share because my tummy kind of hurts.

In case you're beginning to think that my weekend centered around food, I did have lots of other wonderful things going on. Saturday we met Jason's parents, grandparents, and uncle for breakfast at Elmer's (mmm...crepes...), then spent most of the day cleaning cleaning cleaning. Jason's parents decided to stay the day (and night) with us (the overnight pop-in, you might say), so they watched Sydney while I scrubbed the bathrooms top to bottom, and Jason took care of the piles of laundry. His remark: "We don't have enough room for all our clothes when they're all clean!" Fortunately, that doesn't happen very often. Then we put his parents to work, and had them watch both Sydney and Livi, while Jason and I went out to a movie with Rachel and Jason. We girls wanted to see "Thank You For Smoking," but the guys voted for "Inside Man." The movie was okay...but we should have pushed harder for "Smoking."

Of course, the most important part about the weekend wasn't the clean house, or the movie, or the food, or chocolate, or even time spent with our family. The most important part about the weekend was the celebration of Easter. As a Christian, I wish I could write something profound or meaningful about Easter, why the Resurrection is so important to me. But today I don't have the words. Only that I'm thankful. Thankful that death is not eternal, nor my mistakes unforgiven. Thankful that, as Martin Luther said, the promise of the resurrection is not in books alone, but in every leaf in the springtime. Hope you had a wonderful Easter!

Comments

[ally bean]

Your table looks so pretty. And I love the egg/tulip place card thing. I'll have to remember that one.

Your lemon meringue and rhubarb pies sound delicious. They're two of my favs.

Sounds like you had a really nice weekend. Good for you.

[john]

Those place cards are pretty cool. One of these days I will have an opportunity to impress guests with clever ideas like that. Mine would probably involve fire in some way, though; maybe melt wax around the eggs, with a wick on either side. And something to keep the flowers from going up in flames.

Glad to hear you had a great holiday! David came out from school, so that was fun.

[Heather]

Love the place cards! Great idea! Mmmm... you've made me hungry for pie!

[Raehan]

I made Lemon Meringue Pie, Apple Pie, Roast Beef, scalloped potatoes....but you totally outdid me on the table decorations and the Easter post!

[Jen]

I'm quite impressed with your blown-out eggs/calligraphy/tulips. If I were Martha Stewart, I'd call them a "Good Thing" and put pretty pictures of them in my fancy magazine.

[Amy]

Wow, your name cards are mighty impressive. I almost slunk away, too embarrased to even leave a comment, I was so impressed. Glad you had a wonderful Easter--also I'd love to hear your musings on religion--as a non-religious person I'm kind of fascinated by the whole thing. I keep thinking there's something I"m missing . .

[Jess]

Your table is so pretty! I love the egg place cards. And the stuffed chicken sounds delicious; I'm totally going to try that recipe.

[Nancy]

Boy, I need to take lessons from you on how to set a nice table. Your settings look gorgeous!

Those pies sounds tremendous. You should see me drooling all over my keyboard...

[mopsy]

How lovely, all around.

[Giao]

I agree 100% with Mopsy! Happy Easter!

ps, I'm tagging you for the Five meme. Hope you can play!

[Muley]

If writing about sinfully delicious food got ratings like movies do, this would be triple XXX. Lemon meringue! Molten chocolate! Chicken! Can you hear my heavy breathing yet?

[violetismycolor]

I think your idea for place cards was brilliant! And what a lot of work, too...Everyone must have loved it. And pie...don't even get me started. I just love it...any kind of pie; I'm not picky. If I had it in the house, I would be eating it for all meals and snacks as well. So glad you had a good Easter...we laid low and went to Grandma Calhoun's for lunch and then just hung out and did stuff at home. Enjoy the chocolate!

[kristen]

Very impressed with the place cards -- their design and also that you had energy to do something that creative and lovely after cooking a fabulous meal for everyone (I stopped at the meal).

[jes]

Steph...I JUST LOVE THOSE PLACE SETTINGS! you are such a talent!

I've been catching up on my reading, and the photos of Sydney are just so beautiful! And the 2 of you in the tulip patch *sigh...she'll treasure that photo years from now!

I'm trying to get the new journal finished up...things keep getting in the way! But I'll let you know soon!! xoxox

[Suzanne]

Just green over here about your gorgeous table and place settings. I am just so impressed with creative people!

[Dale]

Hi. Just popped in for a visit. Your blog is highly recommended by Heather at Fumbling For Words. She knows quality when she sees it! Congrats on a great site. I love the pics of your daughter. She's adorable!! And now I've got this craving for pie ...