Crafty bunny

I was never the kind of person who vigorously celebrated Easter in all its eggy glory, but having little girls in the house has changed things.

I remember being very excited about “Lucy’s due date”:/news/2006/due-date/ on Easter Sunday 2006 — an especially hopeful day after our series of miscarriages. And of course, I’m definitely in favor of the Jesus aspect of the holiday. But Jon is really the one who convinced me, several years ago, that Easter baskets are worth putting some effort into. So this year, we have been going whole hog (or, one might say, “whole bunny”). Take a peek at the fun things the girls and I have been up to!

h3. Marbleized Easter Eggs

Lucy and Rosie have been longing to paint Easter eggs, after spending several years enjoying the drawings of the decorating process in this sweet illustrated version of “_Jesus Loves Me_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1416900659/octothorppres-20. So this year, I looked up a great way to hard-boil eggs, took a peek at Martha’s website, and got cooking. Decorating a dozen eggs took us only about 10 minutes, but the girls had lots of fun! We followed “Martha’s instructions”:http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/marbelized-eggs?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/kids-easter-crafts#slide_3 for marbleizing the eggs, which are super-easy. (Basically, just add some olive oil to dye and dip again.) They didn’t turn out exactly as I had expected (not enough dye? too deep a bowl? too many little fingers in too many colors?) but I’m pretty pleased. That day, I think Lucy ate four eggs — just the whites, please. Who knew that she loved hard-boiled eggs so much?

h3. Chocolate Birds Nests

Lucy and I have been looking for several weeks at a recipe from Nigella Lawson’s “_How to Be a Domestic Goddess_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786886811/octothorppres-20. The basic idea is to melt chocolate and butter together, then mix in a lot of pulverized shredded-wheat cereal. I didn’t think these were going to work while we were making them: I overheated the chocolate and it started to seize, and then the mixture seemed just way too dry to solidify into a pleasing form. But they turned out to be very cute and pretty easy, not to mention providing a healthy dose of your daily fiber needs.

h3. Not-Chocolate Birds Nests

For two years now, one of Lucy’s favorite books has been Clare Crespo’s “_The Secret Life of Food_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786808462/octothorppres-20, where we’ve found such fabulous recipes as our favorite “Halloween spider cookies”:/news/2009/spider-cookies/. This year, we tried out Clare’s recipe for birds nests. These are essentially just rice krispie treats made with chow mein noodles and shaped into nests. These turned out very yummy but extremely sticky. (She is serious when she recommends buttering your hands before shaping these little nests.) And with our glorious warm spell in Chicago, I’m not sure they’ll ever really set up. But in terms of ease, taste, and adorability, we give them a high rating!

The whole family is looking forward to this Easter weekend of friends, family, food, and bunnies — plus as Lucy has been saying, the glorious proclamation: “The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!”