Egg Wars! (Creamy Herb Deviled Eggs Recipe)

For Easter this year we went down to Southern Wisconsin, where my parents live. It is a long drive, compounded by traveling with a baby and two dogs. It was definitely worth it though. We had a blast seeing all of my family and catching up.

Great Grandma (Gigi) and Little K

Though Little K ended up getting two top teeth (yay for balancing out his smile!) and a terrible fever along with them, we did come home with some pretty fun goodies. Little K got some fun toys from the Easter Bunny and his very own adirondack chair.

Silly bunny hid Little K’s basket under his pack and play!

Mmm, Peeps! (For mommy and daddy…)

I fared ok too. First of all my mom gave me this beautiful deviled eggs plate that she had gotten as a wedding gift:

Ooo, shiny. And secondly, purdy eggs:

Do you decorate your eggs as intricately as this? That’s Little K’s egg (Rachel’s handiwork) with the big red tractor. We decorate eggs every year. And we’re serious about this project. This year we decorated seven dozen eggs. Don’t worry, only a mild cholesterol spike for us, each family only took about a dozen home.

What does any sane person do with all those eggs? Well, first you have an egg war.

After a couple eggs have sparred one another and been defeated, you make deviled eggs. What other option did I have?!

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Creamy Herb Deviled Eggs Recipe

Overall:

I made these as the main recipe calls for, and I made some that I “greek-ifyed.” The magazine has a bonus tip that says to add lemon, mint, and cucumber to give a Greek flair (I didn’t have cucumbers, so I used kalamata olives). Either way, I didn’t like them. E would give them a better rating than I would, but in my book I’d pick the traditional deviled eggs with mayo and mustard 99 times out of 100. However, if you’re looking for something a little healthier, this is the way to go! (Recipe here, from Taste of Home.)

Sinuses Revolt! (Chocolate Chip Banana Bread)

For the love of all things furry, when will I be able to breathe through my right nostril again?! I need balance in my life and thereby, balance in my nose. Either both nostrils need to be plugged or neither. If you hear about some madwoman on the news tonight screaming about “equality for all nostrils”, that was me.

Fortunately I do have some relief when I’m sleeping:

Think I could lay down on my desk and work? Totally acceptable, am I right?

Since I haven’t been feeling great for the past couple of days, I haven’t been in the mood to cook much. I did get around to making some comfort food for myself, though – sadly – I couldn’t taste much of it.

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Judy’s Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Overall:

We have another “total package” recipe on our hands! A very easy quick bread to make, but a nice added sweetness with the chocolate chips. I would say you could even serve this as a dessert with some coffee. (Recipe here, from Taste of Home.)

Pie on Pi (Five Fruit Pie)

Because I’m incredibly original, I give you pie. On March 14th. Which is 3.14, which is also known as pi. Complex stuff.

I have a thing for pie. I love pecan pie, cherry pie, strawberry rhubarb pie, and my Grandma D’s pumpkin pie. (Well really any pie she wants to make, I’ll love. But that’s one of her best.) I love pie so much E and I served it at our wedding. I don’t mean that in an offhanded way. We skipped wedding cake all together and bought 30 some pies from our favorite little pie shop in Wisconsin: the Norske Nook. (Note: I’m not endorsing their food – that’s kind of a mixed bag. But their pies are phenomenal!) It was amazing. I think I had like three pieces of pie that night.

I think most everyone loved having something a little different to choose from and I know people really got into trying the different flavors. E definitely was on board with the pie decision.

If you’re wondering, it’s strawberry rhubarb pie. Now wonder no more. If E has a grin this big, it’s because he’s eating strawberry rhubarb pie.

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Five Fruit Pie

Overall:

See? The grin isn’t quite as substantial for this pie. It’s still there – there is rhubarb and strawberries – but those damn blueberries and raspberries got in the way!

A great recipe for the indecisive. It has a mixture of berries, rhubarb and apples. The berries kind of all blend together and you can’t pick out a distinct flavor, the rhubarb gives it all a tartness, and the apples are a nice crunch. All together, tasty! (Recipe here, from Taste of Home Magazine.)

Paying Our Babysitter in Groceries: Candy Cane Snowballs

Remember the weekend? Yeah, me either.

Waaay, back during the weekend we asked my sister, Rachel, to babysit Little K while E and I went out to a friend’s house for dinner, drinks, and board games (cuz we’re cool like that, yo.). I knew I wanted to bring a dessert along to share and make another to give to Rachel and her boyfriend as a “thank you for babysitting and putting up with our ridiculous dogs.” I didn’t have all the ingredients I needed and didn’t feel like going to the grocery store myself (because I have a 6 month old baby. Do you need more explanation?), so I asked E to go out for groceries and breakfast right away on Saturday morning. When he got home and brought the groceries in the house I started unpacking. In addition to the list I had given him, he bought a dozen eggs, two gallons of milk, two avocados, and a loaf of bread. Normally I’d say, “Thanks E!” Except I had went to the grocery store not two days before and gotten the staples. In our fridge we now have six avocados, four gallons of milk, two dozen eggs, a four loaves of bread. Hmm, is it me or does that seem like a little much for two people to eat? I stashed all the bread in the freezer, planned to make guac for us (review coming soon!), and started boiling some eggs for an easy weekday breakfast. But what to do with all that milk… I know! We’ll pay our babysitters with it!

So when Rachel and Brandon left that evening, they left with Candy Cane Snowballs and a gallon of milk (plus the half gallon they drank with their pizza that night). You might think, “Krystal, you still have two and a half gallons left to drink. That’s too much!” To which I’d reply, “Reader, I drink an exorbitant amount of milk. (Don’t worry, it’s skim.) It won’t be a problem.” And, I can tell you, four days later we’re down to a gallon and a quarter or so. BAM.

P.S. After we got home that evening Rachel and I got into a very serious discussion about the quality of milk found at the popular store with a big red bullseye. We agreed the flavor of it is a little “off” and decided it had to do with the type of pasteurization they do. The boys sat in silence during this discussion until E said, “When I imagined my Saturday night, I didn’t imagine taking part in a in-depth discussion on the quality of milk at our local grocery stores. I must’ve forgotten that I married a Wisconsin farm girl.” Yep, and you’re stuck with me, sweetie!

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Candy Cane Snowballs

Overall:

I found this recipe by chance, after searching around for a way to use up some leftover candy canes. They are a sweet treat and go really well with a cup of coffee. We loved them! My sister said they’re a minty version of Russian tea cakes.

This is where cranberries go to heaven: Cranberry Pudding

I ripped this recipe out of my Taste of Home magazine months ago and decided that I’d make this when 1) I had some cranberries to use up and 2) I had a springform pan. I like to buy up a dozen or so bags of cranberries from the produce section in my grocery store just after Christmas or Thanksgiving (it usually goes on sale then and you can get them cheap) and just store them in the freezer. Whole cranberries freeze like nobody’s business. Then you can throw them into a berry pie, breads, or make a fancy cranberry pudding.

The PushPan.

Cranberries? Check.

Now all I needed was a springform pan. E and I went shopping over the weekend and stumbled in to my favorite kitchen store. I was looking through their springform pans when I saw the PushPan. (I feel like we could be talking about someone’s idea of a lame push present. “You just had a baby? I know, you need a Push Pan! Tahdah!”) It’s basically a metal plate with a gasket around it that you push down into a ring. It doesn’t say it exactly, and the staff at the kitchen store couldn’t say for sure, but it works in lieu of a springform pan. It also works fine as a regular cake pan – you can even push the pan up or down to change the depth of your cake. The gasket is a nice touch since it prevents leaks. I figured I’d take it home and see if I could make it work for the cranberry recipe. If I couldn’t, at least I’d still have a neat cake pan.

Springform-ish pan? Check. Lets get baking!

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Baked Cranberry Pudding

Overall:

This traditional recipe, from Taste of Home Magazine, is very good – just a ton of clean up!