Monday, April 13, 2020

Easter in Isolation

My husband and I both have family close by, so holidays usually involve a little driving, a lot of people, and a TON of cooking.  Because of COVID-19, Easter this year looked a lot different (though there was still plenty of cooking!). 

Our tradition is to dye eggs, have a hunt, and do Easter baskets on Saturday with my husband's family.  Since we'd be staying home, I have my daughter the choice of doing all that on Saturday or Sunday.  She chose Saturday and asked how the Easter Bunny would know when to come.  She's 11, but still insisting that she believes.  I don't see how that's possible, but I'm happy to play along in more and more ridiculous ways.  So I told her that the Easter Bunny and I have a telepathic link, and I squeezed my eyes shut tight and sent him a mental message.  After that, I cooked some eggs, we got out the egg dye, and set up our station in the backyard.  It was a beautiful day! 


We did a foam swirl color kit this year.


These eggs looked much cooler before we took the foam off than after!


Once the eggs were dyed, my daughter headed off to her room so she wouldn't disturb the bunny while he hid her eggs.  He put them in some interesting places...

This one was on the wall of the shed, where the clothesline used to connect to the wall.  Oddly enough this was one of the last ones she found and she walked by it about four times!

This one was on the track of the shed's big door, which slides open like a barn door.  The Easter Bunny must have had a big jump to get it up there!

This one was hiding in a stack of bricks for a project we never finished. 
As is his custom, he left her basket once he was done hiding the eggs.
 

The Easter Bunny always brings silly string, and there is typically a silly string fight with the cousins.  Of course that couldn't happen this year, so we had a brief battle and she saved the rest for when she sees her cousins next time. 

That ended our Saturday Easter festivities, as I had to go do a grocery pickup and, while I was out, I got Panda Express for dinner (we've been doing takeout once a week during this time). 

Sunday morning for breakfast we had hot cross buns (minus the crosses), with Craisins and an orange glaze.  It was a new recipe and they were DELICIOUS.  I also made bacon AND sausage, as my family doesn't agree and I happen to like both. 


After breakfast we watched our church service online.  It's strange to be watching our service on a television, but still comforting to have a spot of normalcy (somewhat) in an otherwise very strange time.





My daughter gets a little fidgety, so during the service she made crosses out of fidget snakes she got in her Easter basket, and Tinker Toys on loan from my parents until we see them again.




Since we had a big breakfast, we didn't really want a big lunch, but I didn't want to just eat our usual boring food.  So I made deviled eggs (I don't really use a recipe for this, just dump a bunch of stuff in) and pan de yuca.  It was really good!






I let my daughter basically have unlimited screen time, since it was a holiday.  She did have to mow the lawn, though. 

Not pictured - the eye roll so hard I'm surprised she didn't hurt herself, when my husband told her she needed to mow the lawn.

And then it was time for me to start dinner.  My family doesn't like traditional foods like ham or turkey.  And I had done a grocery pickup order, but couldn't guarantee what I would actually get (they are out of seemingly random weird stuff), so I planned a menu based on what I already had in the house, with food I knew we all loved.  We ended up having Swedish meatballs, spaetzle and green beans. 

It's not pretty, but it is so, so good.

For dessert I made an apple rhubarb crumble with rhubarb from our garden.  I really wanted homemade vanilla ice cream to go with it, but my ice cream maker was not cooperating and it never froze.  I'm not sure if this is a problem with my ice cream maker, my freezer, or a little bit of both.  Fortunately we had a big tub of Cool Whip in the freezer so we had it with that instead!  Still delicious.


After dinner, it was time to get ready for bed.  My daughter has Easter Monday off from school, since she attends a private Christian school, but my husband and I still have to work.  So it was a normal Sunday evening for us!  After watching our usual YouTube videos, my daughter and I finished off the evening with our usual Easter tradition, reading The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes.






If you celebrate, I hope you and yours had a good Easter.  How did you celebrate?  Did you create some new traditions?  Try some new recipes? 

He is risen, he is risen indeed!  Hallelujah!

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Quarantine Menu Planning, Part 2

No, we haven't eaten everything on the original list. But we finally ate the freezers down to the point where I could clean out and rearrange and really get a handle on what we have.  So I counted everything and made a complete list, crossing off each piece of meat as we would use it in a recipe.  Here's the plan moving forward.  Not in the order we'll eat it!  Just what we will do with what we have.  And if I run across a recipe that looks good, I can change it, but I'll have to switch it instead of something here.  I've also held back two logs of breakfast sausage and the last couple packages of bacon for breakfasts.  I shouldn't have to buy meat until the end of May.  We'll still need fresh produce and at some point we'll run out of eggs, I imagine!


  1. Potstickers and Eggrolls (purchased frozen)
  2. Turkey Tenderloin and mashed potatoes
  3. Steak and Pepper Sandwiches
  4. Street Tacos
  5. Chicken and Mushroom Casserole
  6. Corned beef hash
  7. Creamed Tuna on Biscuits
  8. Tuna casserole
  9. "Stuff" (it's a potato and sausage casserole)
  10. Sausages and Crispy Crowns
  11. Homemade chicken noodle soup
  12. Pan-fried steak and potatoes
  13. Hot dogs or chili dogs and oven fries
  14. Baked ziti
  15. Chicken and black bean burritos
  16. Mayo chicken and buttered noodles
  17. Cashew chicken
  18. Naan pizza
  19. Chicken and stovetop
  20. Kale, sausage, and white bean soup
  21. Dirty rice with andouille sausage
  22. Orange chicken (purchased frozen)
  23. Ginger pork and cucumber salad
  24. Spare ribs
  25. Irish sundaes
  26. Tri-tip and potatoes
  27. Sheet pan dinner with flank steak
  28. Pork fried rice
    29.   Scalloped potatoes and ham
    31.   Queso fundido
    32.   Pork chili
    33.   Sheet pan chicken
    35.   Chicken and dumplings
    36.   Beef and mushroom gravy over rice
    37.   Black bean tostadas
    38.   Chicken taquitos
    39.   Minced chicken cutlets
    40.   Chicken spaghetti
    41.   Ham and potato soup
    46.   Greek pasta salad and chicken

    How are you faring?  Are you able to find the groceries you need?  I still can't find buttermilk - it's been four weeks!  Luckily in my freezer cleanout I found some starter packets I'd completely forgotten about - I think I got them as a freebie with an ebook bundle a while back.  I have to make yogurt for smoothies so I'll make some buttermilk at the same time as well.  I'm going to try it with the Nido powdered milk - hopefully it goes well!

    Be well and have a great week!