Easter egg decorations

Spring has sprung early here in Minnesota. Normally we're still under a foot of snow at this time and checking for airfare deals to Florida. 

With the warm weather we decided to do some outside decorations. 

The girls decided the tree was too prickly and tall, so they decorated an old raspberry twig. 

They had a lot of fun helping me make these. I swear I got 10 minutes of undivided attention!

Look at that look of concentration!
We got the eggs at Target in their Easter section. They are the cheap ones with 2 holes in each section for the pipe cleaners to go through. 

Paella you say?

Here's looking at you squid.


For starters, do you have any idea how hard it is to find good seafood in the land of 10,000 lakes?! I think I married one of the few men in this whole state who doesn't fish. I got to know the fish monger at my local grocery store quite well as I was talking with him 3 times in one week about getting some squid. Honestly, at one point I think he was flirting with me. Now that's good salesmanship right there!

I've been wanting to make this dish for years but never found an appropriate time until recently. I had all of D's little friends over and their Moms this last week. I wanted to make something simple yet impressive and I had some saffron to use up which Hubby had given me for Christmas. The finished product was delish! I'll be making this again but next time I'll be making the chicken and chorizo sausage version, lest I wish to endure more advances from a fish monger.

Paella: 

• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 lbs chicken breast tenderloins cut into one inch cubes
• 1 lb calamari (squid) cleaned and sliced into rings
• Medium grain rice
• 4-6 cups chicken broth
• 1 large pinch Saffron
• 1 red pepper seeded and sliced
• 1 10 oz. pkg frozen peas
• Olive Oil, Salt to Taste

I didn't have a paella pan so I improved and used a hotel pan over 2 burners. This would have worked perfectly had I not forgotten about the oil I was heating and smoked the oil and slightly warped the pan. (Darn my tiny attention span)

Chop onion and tomatoes and saute in heated oil. Bloom the crushed saffron in one cup of heated broth. Add peppers to pan and saute. Add chicken and cook through. Add rice, about one pound, give or take, depending on the size of your pan. Stir and heat for a few minutes then add broth and saffron. Add squid, cook until the rice has absorbed the broth and add peas. Turn off heat and cover with foil for 5 minutes. Serve warm. 

Beer and Bacon Meatloaf, and curly hair.

First a run through of the meal. I had some lovely ground beef and a plan. I had about 4oz of bacon leftover in the fridge. I chopped it and slow simmered it to render out much of the fat without burning it. I scooped out all the bacon and drained it on a paper towel and then slowly carmelized some chopped onion in the bacon fat. I Placed the onions and bacon in a bowl and added some bread crumbs, an egg, some Worchestershire sauce, the meat, and some beer. I combined all that by hand, (remind me to clean my rings) and then made a loaf shape on a glass pan, covered the loaf with seasoned breadcrumbs and baked at 375F until an internal temperature of 165-170F was reached. Very, very good. You should try this!

D had been wearing her hair in a top knot for the last 2 days because she had a ballet recital on Thursday. (We were lucky she was feeling well enough to attend. I was afraid her cold would cancel our plans.) When I took her hair down for her bath, I was amazed at the volume of flowing curls. She looked stunning! (Remember now, Mommy has alopecia and anything to do with hair is a new learning experience for me!) I was sad to see her curls dissappear in her bath, so right before bed I put her hair in another top knot with some mousse and I'll leave it like that until we go out in public again.

She had gymnastics class this morning so the hairstyle was perfect. Later, she was practicing her hand stands on the sofa while watching TV with Daddy.
As for the alopecia, there's a movie out called, "HappyThankYouMorePlease" where one of the main characters has alopecia. It was a wonderful movie and hit the nail on the head. Everyone should see it.