Easter

Ah, Easter. ♥

I love spring therefore it's logical that I love Easter! I wish I had had the time and energy to decorate (crochet pastel eggs, make an Easter tree, grow some wheat grass decor, dye a million eggs), but alas, this just wasn't my year!!

I did make some really tasty food... and these narcissi torment me daily with their beauty... It's like they're yelling "take more photos, take a million more!"... is it just me who hears flowers begging to be photographed? LOL!

So here is the picture tour of my Easter... and we're off!

Appetizers were corn bread (gluten free) with boiled eggs. I tried dying them with carrot tops, but only got this light green color... I need to do more research! 

 

Lunch was lemon garlic chicken with oven roasted potatoes and carrots. Um yes, delicious! 

 

Oh! And the salad! I made a vinaigrette and tossed the salad in that. Perfect! 

My mama brought over those super cute little green hens... Love them! 

 

Dessert was this carrot cake (gluten free)... However, shortly after snapping this picture, I cut the cake up and tossed it in a bowl... 

I was a bit dumb-dumb and totally forgot the even the cake out before stacking and filling etc... I baked this in a 9x13 inch pan because I don't have a circular cake pan (wooot?!) and I just cut it in half and layer to make a 2 layered square cake. Sounds about right, right? Well, wrong when you aren't thinking things through! Argh, the cake ended up being so unstable that it was either cut it up and make a "trifle" or just chance it falling all over the floor when moving it... Trifle it was!

Note: when looking for a recipe to use for the cake, I found this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker. She had a mishap with carrot cake and made a trifle. I stole the idea shamelessly, but in my defense, I think reading about it jinxed me!

That black stuff there is called mämmi, it's a Finnish Easter tradition. I like it with vanilla cream sauce. 

What Easter could be complete without jelly beans?!

 

Ah, Easter, wonderful! 

Spring time walk

This post is about last Sunday when the hubby and I took our dogs out for a walk. It was a gorgeous sunny day, albeit a bit too windy for my liking, but we had a lovely time. We both had to share the camera again to catch all the things that caught our eyes, it was like being in Japan again: "I want the camera, ooh look at that, it's my turn!". Kids...

Shadows of spring branches on the rock wall. Gotta love it!

 It really was THIS windy!

"Leskenlehti", the first flower we see every year...unless the crocus beat them to the punch!

The lake so far, wishing it would melt faster so Koda can try swimming!

Isn't it amazing how year after year, winter after winter, plants just wake up again and keep going?

Hope you have been having a lovely week! I'm off tomorrow and hopefully finding time to crochet as usual. :)

Thanks for reading!!!

The WIP Acorn --- COMPLETED!?

Wowweeeeee INDEED! I sure did, I completed the sock knitter's acorn! Wooohoooo! It's like having a monkey off my back. Believe it or not, I really really dislike having more than one work in progress. Shocking I know, since I never seem to finish anything, lol. But really, it's like a weight off my back finishing the acorn. So without further ah-doo (adieu, a due, help?) here it is!

For the pattern click here - little acorn for sock knitters

(filled with my hat and mittens for full effect, and yes, it was that big!)

What else have I been up to since last time? Well... some of this:

Breakfasting with fresh bread a la butter and cheese with pickles, butter with Bonne Maman jams! Mmmm, love them being on sale right now, I bought 4 fruits and peach! Super yum with tea!

Also had some fun walking on a sunny and SPRING (it just makes my heart leap every time I say/type/think of it! Was in a bit of a rush so I didn't make it a real photo excursion...

Can you see the little birds, they were chirp-chirp-chirping to their heart's content in this rose bush :)

 

 

And I've been enjoying the little fun surprises of life, if you are looking through your rose colored glasses that day and closely enough to see them...

Like the pepper being a heart 

In the oven, my spaghetti casserole is baking away, crisping the cheese on the top. 

 How do you make that you ask? Well it's super easy! Cook spaghetti or any pasta, fry some ground beef with onion and spices like pepper, oregano, rosemary etc, add a vegetable or two(we used mushrooms, you could use anything your heart desires). Then in a buttered oven dish you like, place the pasta with a layer of tomato sauce, then the beef, then the rest of your jar of pasta sauce. Slice a tomato and add it to the top followed by some cheese. I'd recommend grating it, but we're lazy so we just tore up some sliced cheese. Hahaha, it's all about convenience and speed. Bake at the whereabouts of 200C or 375F until the cheese is golden and melty and scrumptious. Something like this:

 Ok so I cheated like they do on cooking shows and "some" time elapsed in the writing of this post :D

It was worth making and a nice change to the usual pasta and ground beef tomato sauce. It was a great Sunday dinner for two (and Monday with our leftovers!) By the way, why does everything baked in the oven taste so much better?

So no, I haven't crocheted from the book of dreams (see my last post) and no I haven't worked on the wraplet. But I've been busy catching up with friends, eating good food, doing a bit of spring cleaning, splashing in puddles, soaking up the sunshine and looooving SPRING *skippity hop!* 

Thanks  for reading, hope you have a nice SPRING-y week!