Growing up in Southern California, our Easter egg hunts were always outside in the gloriously warm sunshine. In fact, there was often a bit of hurriedness to our egg collecting fueled by concern over finding all of the chocolate eggs before they melted in the sun. Here on Vancouver Island we’ve learned that early Spring time might be cool and sunny, or it might be dreary and wet, or it could be any number of different temperatures and dampness factors changing every quarter hour or so. It’s best to be prepared for anything, and simply to enjoy whatever weather comes your way.
While Easter dawned sunny, it was still quite frosty in the shade and a good jacket was required.
We all enjoyed bunny bum pancakes. The tail is made from a dollop of butter topped with shredded coconut.
Little Man decided that his bunny needed eyes and a nose as well. I think he was just lobbying for more chocolate chips.
We were mentally prepared for just about any kind of weather for this Easter, while having all fingers and toes crossed for sunshine since we were having five families over for a lunchtime potluck and egg hunt. We knew that we could all crush into the house and have the egg hunt downstairs if need be, but it would be so much nicer outside! In the end, we were blessed with one of the most beautiful Easter afternoons that we’ve had in years. While it wasn’t So Cal warm, we could be outside without jackets, sunglasses were needed to not be squinting into the dazzling light, and the grass was dry enough for the kiddos to roll around with reckless abandon. It was fantastic, and we hadn’t even gotten to the food yet.
The kiddos are diving into their Easter potluck feast. Bunny ears and sunglasses abound.
After the kiddos got to run around a bit, we gathered them together on the back deck to get them started eating and then the adults joined in. Our table was overflowing with food. We provided pulled pork sandwiches, a green tea punch, and a chocolate cake for dessert. Our friends also contributed a seven layer dip with chips (they did it as a five plus two layer dip, thoughtfully leaving the two dairy items on the side for those with dairy intolerances), a sun dried tomato pasta salad, Easter Bunny white chocolate bark, stuffed potato skins with cheese and bacon (some graciously set aside for vegan cheese), black bean dip with veges, a Thai peanut broccoli salad, and other Easter treats. To say the least, no one left hungry and even the adults looked like we could all use an Easter nap.
Our amazing Easter spread! Pulled Pork sandwiches, coleslaw, dips, chips, salads, Easter treats, it was a wonderful lunch. See below for recipes for the things that we brought to the table.
Please ignore the messy kitchen, and focus instead on the handsome pastry chef and the amazing cake he is decorating.
Yes, indeed… A chocolate cake layered with homemade chocolate rice crispies and topped with a chocolate coconut frosting that tastes better than chocolate mousse. Life is tough.
Before we could get to napping, however, we had the Easter egg hunt. After the adults finished eating, we sequestered the kiddos in our living room with the curtains drawn while half of the adults went outside to the front yard to hide the loot. Each family brought filled eggs to share, so the front yard glittering with plastic eggs. Then we released the hounds… I mean the kids… to fill their baskets. Since some of the kiddos were older and faster than the others, we had a parent-led redistribution after the egg hunt to be sure that everyone had a good collection of booty.
Then the kiddos and adults got to play in the sunshine or wander over to meet the pigs, sheep and chickens at our landlords’ farm. The trees were blossoming, the kids were laughing, the sheep were bleating, and it was one of the best Easter moments I’ve had in a long time.
If you want to share in some of the food we had for Easter, here are recipes for those items that we brought to the party. The recipes for this post are a bit different since I was “in the party prep zone” when cooking and completely forgot to take any pictures while I was making the food. Doh! If there are any steps in the recipes that are hard to follow since there aren’t any pictures, or you simply aren’t sure about something, please send me a comment at the end of this post and I’ll get back to you asap. Have fun!
Gluten Free Rolls – this recipe is not my own. I followed the directions for soft rolls made with a Challah dough from the Gluten-Free Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. If you are getting into gluten-free baking, I highly recommend this book. It makes the best tasting gluten-free bread that I’ve found to date. Their bread has great texture and mouth feel without being grainy, and without using an obscene amount of corn starch. Love it! Click here for a link to recipes for rolls from their book.
Chocolate Celebration Cake – This recipe is also not my own, but came from Jamie Oliver’s excellent Comfort Food cookbook. The main differences for what I did was that I used spelt flour instead of all purpose, and I used an organic, puffed brown rice for the home made chocolate crispies. I also used the same Chocolate Coconut frosting that I wrote about with Little Man’s birthday cupcakes from school. Next time I think I’ll triple the frosting batch so that I can have some between the layers as well.
Any of these items (or all of them) would make for a fantastic outdoor picnic. In fact, we will likely do a smoked version of a pulled pork sandwich for an outdoor party later this August. I’m also toying with making cupcake versions of the chocolate celebration cake… Stay tuned. I hope you all are enjoying sunshine! Our sunshine just went away for a couple of days, but I’m already plotting more outdoor fun as soon as the sun is back. Or we’ll likely go outside to play in the wet anyway. We’ve been cooped up inside for too long as it is.
The Sheep Are Out... 