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My Easter Decor Splurge!

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PicMonkey CollageEaster

I love Spring with all of it’s fresh and colorful decorations that speak of new life . . . new beginnings . . .

. . . new purchases?

Yes, I splurged and bought a little something new to enhance my Easter decor.  This was a total impulse buy but really, how could I help myself when I saw THIS little guy over at Little Brags?

Isn’t he the most darling Easter bunny you’ve ever seen?

But no, I didn’t go out and buy myself a real bunny but I found something almost as adorable.

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How could I resist right?  I found this little guy at Drees, one of our local Olympia stores.  I’m on their mailing list and when I received their Easter email and saw a picture of their very real looking bunnies I was smitten.

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Cheesy Potatoes and New Easter Bunny 040And then, how could I let him sit in his Easter basket all alone?  You’re right, I simply couldn’t!

Cheesy Potatoes and New Easter Bunny 020So I bought him a couple of little chicks to keep him company.

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 Drees had several different styles of these hand sewn bunnies to choose from and I had a very difficult time making a choice.  Black tails, lops, jack rabbits, pure white bunnies . . . hmmm . . . I wonder if they’ll be on sale after Easter?

Cheesy Potatoes and New Easter Bunny 018So that’s my big splurge!  Thank you Christine for the inspiration.  Mr. OTN thanks you too (wink, wink)!

Remembering Good Friday today and The Cross.  A sad day to recall but we know the outcome as death is swallowed up in victory!

Blessings,

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Easter Dinner Menu

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I have years of treasured memories of family gatherings around our dining room table.  No matter what the holiday was there was a big meal at our home, and I really wouldn’t have had it any other way . . .  as home is where I want to be for the holidays.

I must say that my memories of those family times together are filled with many different emotions.  When all of the children were young it was often chaotic and loud, especially when the younger cousins were in town.  When Aunt Terry came to visit it was a time of much laughter as she would get the children (and the adults) all riled up and acting silly.  As the children grew up the grandparents grew older . . . and some were lost to us for a time . . . the holiday meals became more sedate and orderly but also a little sad with fewer and fewer people around our dining table.

This weekend we will celebrate Resurrection Sunday or Easter.  We don’t have the same exact menu each year but there are always a couple of menu items that we cannot do without, namely Aunt Gert’s Cheesy Potatoes and Nanny’s Strawberry Torte.  This year, along with these two old standbys, we’re serving a Glazed Holiday Ham and Green Beans With Pecan Butter Topping.  Holidays aren’t a time for counting calories at our house, so be warned . . .  this is comfort food at it’s best!

NOTE: To print recipes click on the PRINT icon on each recipe. When it opens in your computer hit Control and P at the same time to send to your printer.

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Old Things New Glazed Holiday Ham
Recipe Type: Main
Author: Patti@OldThingsNewBlog
Baked, spiral-sliced ham with a sweet finishing glaze.
Ingredients
  • Bone-in spiral sliced pre-cooked ham (8-9 lbs)
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon Hungarian paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 4 tablespoons water
  • WARNING: Since your ham is precooked it can become very dry when reheated too long or at too high a temperature. You may want to place a pan of water on the rack beneath your ham to help maintain moisture in the oven.
Instructions
  1. Wrap your ham in foil (or leave it in the foil wrapper it comes in), set in a large baking pan and place in a preheated 275 degree oven. Heat approximately 10 minutes for each pound of ham or until the inside temperature of the ham reaches 140 degrees.
  2. When ham is fully heated remove from oven set aside. Place the remaining ingredients in a sauce pan and stir to blend thoroughly. Bring the ingredients to a boil stirring constantly as they become the consistency of a syrup. Boil and stir for 1 minute and remove from heat.
  3. Carefully pull the foil away from the top of the ham and baste with the glaze. Turn the oven to broil (500-550 degrees) and place the ham back in the oven. Broil for 2-3 minutes watching very carefully so it doesn’t burn. DO NOT LEAVE UNATTENDED! When the syrup is very bubbly it is ready.
  4. Remove ham, slice and serve.

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Aunt Gert’s Cheesy Potatoes
Recipe Type: Main
Author: Patti@OldThingsNewBlog.com
A cheesy potato casserole with a buttery crisp topping.
Ingredients
  • 4-5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper (optional)
  • 1-1/2 cups milk
  • 15 ounce jar of Cheese Whiz
  • Topping:
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 sleeve Saltine crackers, crushed
Instructions
  1. Peel and cube potatoes and place in a large pot of water. Heat water to a full boil and cook until potatoes can be pierced with a fork but not fully cooked as they will continue cooking in the oven. Remove from heat and drain.
  2. In 2 quart saucepan melt 3 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add flour and pepper and stir with a fork until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Pour in milk. Turn heat to high and heat milk to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 1 minute. Add Cheese Whiz and stir until melted and fully blended.
  3. Spread potatoes in a 9×13 casserole. Pour cheese sauce over all and mix well.
  4. For topping (this can be prepared while potatoes are boiling):
  5. Melt 1/2 cup butter in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add in crushed Saltines and mix to coat with butter. Continue stirring cracker mixture until it begins to brown. Remove from heat and set aside. Sprinkle over potato-cheese mixture.
  6. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 20-25 minutes, or until mixture bubbles.

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Green Beans with Pecan Butter Topping
Recipe Type: Main
Author: Patti@OldThingsNewBlog.com
Steamed Green Beans drizzled with butter, pecans and freshly ground nutmeg.
Ingredients
  • 1-1/2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 tablespoons crushed pecans
  • 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground whole nutmeg
Instructions
  1. Place beans in a large sauce pan and bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes, remove from heat and place in colander to drain.
  2. Wipe out sauce pan, place over medium heat and add butter to melt. Add pecans and cook, stirring constantly for one minute (be careful that they do not burn). Stir in salt and nutmeg. Add green beans and toss to coat with butter mixture. Cook for one minute more.

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Nanny’s Strawberry Torte
Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Patti@OldThingsNewBlog.com
A light and fresh strawberry torte with a buttery Vanilla Wafer crust
Ingredients
  • 2-1/2 pounds strawberries
  • 12 ounce package Vanilla Wafers
  • 1/2 cup (or a little more as needed) butter
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 pint heavy whipping cream
Instructions
  1. Crush vanilla wafers in a blender or food processor. Place two cups of the wafers in the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. Set remaining wafers aside. Melt butter and stir in sugar and vanilla. Add to the wafers in the pan and stir to combine ingredients. Pat down the mixture to form the crust for the torte.
  2. Wash and drain strawberries. Slice berries and sweeten with a little sugar if desired. Lay berries over the crust in the pan.
  3. Whip cream until soft peeks form and add sugar to desired sweetness. Spread over the berries in the pan.
  4. Sprinkle remaining crushed vanilla wafers over all.

 It won’t be a large family gathering this year with family members spread across the country but we will still hold with the traditional foods and it will be a time of remembering .  .  .

. . . remembering fun times with family . . .

 . . . and remembering the main reason we celebrate this holiday.

He is risen!

Do you have special family recipes that are always a part of your holiday tradition?  How do you prefer to celebrate holiday dinners, at home or where someone else does the cooking?

Happy Passover week to my Jewish friends and wishes for a blessed Easter to those of you who are Christ followers,

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A Junky, Mossy, Lacy, Easter Centerpiece!

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Easter Centerpiece 009Fresh Spring flowers.  A mix of hydrangeas, tulips and heather.

For an Easter Centerpiece does it get any better than that?

Easter Centerpiece 019Maybe . . . if you add in some wonderful vintage “junk” . . .

. . .  like old lace, a faded children’s book, an ironstone bowl and an old wooden strawberry crate.

Easter Centerpiece 045Then gather up some other items from Easter’s past, like decoupaged eggs . . .

Easter Centerpiece 007. . . and these adorable nesting bunnies.

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Easter Centerpiece 001Easter Centerpiece 029I wish I could say the flowers were from my yard but the only thing blooming this early is my heather.  I gathered together an assortment of my favorite blooms from the floral department of my local grocery store and created a custom arrangement.

Easter Centerpiece 035For a period of time (when my kids were at home) I was doing this every week.  Somehow I got out of the habit.

Easter Centerpiece 036  It is an inexpensive way of treating oneself and I think I need to reestablish this old routine.  Flowers for Mr. OTN!  Yes, I’m sure he would agree 🙂

Easter Table Centerpiece 004As a final touch I added a couple of crystal candlesticks . . .

Easter Table Centerpiece 003. . . and placed it all atop a table runner made of moss.

Easter Centerpiece 056Here is one final view looking down from above through my “Wreathed” Chandy.

Isaiah 43:19 KJV – “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?”

Awww . . . the season of Spring.  New things on the horizon.  I wonder what they will be?

Blessings,

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Colored Angel Eggs

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We had a get together at our house last night for our Freedom Session facilitators.  If you haven’t heard me talk about Freedom Session before, it is a 9 month long class that Mr. OTN and I direct at our church.  It is basically a healing/discipleship journey that  uncovers the roots of pain in our lives and invites Jesus Christ to heal those areas of our hearts (if you are interested in knowing more you can view the Vimeo of Mr. OTN’s and my personal story on my ABOUT page, where you’ll also find a link to the Freedom Session website).

Anyhoo, one thing you’ve probably heard about us “church folk” is that whenever we get together we have plenty of food!  So while I was wondering what I might prepare for last night’s gathering I popped on over to Pinterest and found these darling colored Deviled Eggs.  I’ve decided to rename them Angel Eggs in honor of our dear facilitators who are real life angels (Mr. OTN and I teach the large group portion of FS each week but our facilitators lead the small groups and pour their lives into each of their participants all year long – so they are angels indeed).

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These are so simple to make and the pictures really tell the story of how to make colored Angel Eggs.  However, for those of you who have never boiled an egg I’ll share the “how to”:

Place eggs in a stainless steel pan and cover with cold water.

Bring the water to a boil and then set the timer for 10 minutes.

When the timer sounds remove pan from stove,  drain off the hot water and run cold water over the eggs until they are cooled.

Crack and peel eggs.

Cut eggs in half lengthwise.

Remove yolk and set aside in a separate bowl.

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 Drop halved eggs into colored water (you can either use food coloring to color your water or an Easter egg coloring kit from the store).  When your eggs have reached the desired color remove and drain on a paper towel.

Meanwhile, mash your egg yolks, add mayonnaise (to desired fluffiness), dry mustard and a little salt to taste.  You can do some other add-ins like bacon, chives, baby shrimp, etc.  Place drained egg halves on a plate, top each will egg yolk filling (if you have a cake decorating kit you can make it look fancy-schmancy . . . but I didn’t . . .  and I was in a hurry . . . so what you see is what you get!).  Sprinkle a little paprika, or any type of garnish you’d prefer on top of each egg.

There you have it!  Bee-u-tee-ful colored Angel Eggs!

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 Of course we had a lot more food than just our Angel Eggs by the time all of our facilitators arrived.  It was GRAND!

You can’t begin know how much we love these people that we get to direct in Freedom Session (tears of joy as I write).  As we draw near the end of another year together, and graduation for our FS participants, I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for these caring and generous men and women who have overcome pain in their own lives and have chosen to be people who GIVE BACK to others what God has given them.

So, what do you think of these colored Angel Eggs?  Cute, yes?  I also saw some eggs on Pinterest that were cracked before dyeing with their shells still on.  After the shells were removed the dye was darker in the area where the shell was cracked.  You can see these and other Spring/Easter Decorating ideas on my Pinterest board.  I also have some Spring and Easter Recipes on my Food Glorious Food and Appetizers Pinterest pages.  As I’m sending you over there I’m thinkin’ that I really need to get those boards more organized!  “Someday” I will find the time.

Do you dye Easter eggs at your house?  What different types of dyeing techniques have you tried?  Which is your favorite?  I love hearing new ideas!

Blessings,

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Mossing Around With Baskets

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Do you have any old baskets hanging around your house that you don’t know what to do with?

You know, the kind that came to you all wrapped in pretty cellophane and filled with yummy treats . . . but now sit empty on a closet floor.

Or perhaps you still have some of those baskets that used to hang in decorative groupings on your kitchen walls . . . or marched across the top of your kitchen cabinets!

(I’m thinking back to the country decor of the late 70’s, early 80’s here and I hope I don’t offend anyone if your baskets are still adorning your walls or your cabinets.  As far as I know that may even be back in style)!

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Perhaps you have a stray basket like this one.  It’s cute but not big enough to hold swags of flowers, or to use as a laundry basket, or sit on top of an armoire.

This little basket has been sitting out on my front porch for the past year.  At times it’s been filled with a few seashells that came home with me from the beach, or moss and sticks and other treasures picked up while out walking the neighborhood.  In Winter it held a few pinecones and red berries.

So now it’s Spring and time to add something new to my basket.  When I saw that it was growing a bit of it’s own moss I decided why not help it out?  Thus, the birth of an idea:  Mossing Around With Baskets!

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Now if you live in a place like I do, you can take a walk through the neighborhood to collect your moss.  It is on the trees and the sidewalks.  It is on deck railings and patios.

1-Moss 002I actually found the greatest moss ever on top of this outhouse!  Oh how I wanted to trespass and do some moss collecting.

Haha! I feel a joke coming on here . . . You know you’re a redneck if . . . your neighbor doesn’t have the moss cleaned off the roof of his outhouse!

(Just to clarify, we live on a lake that used to be mostly summer cottages and this is a remnant of that time.  We ourselves don’t have an outhouse . . . but hmmm . . .  we do live on a gravel road . . .)

ANYHOO, if you live in a drier climate you can always head down to your local craft store and pick up a bag of moss.

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This is such a simple project and it takes about ten minutes to complete.  You simply begin by pulling your moss apart into strips like this.

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Then start poking it into the sides of your basket.  I actually had my glue gun out and ready to go but I found that this basket had large enough gaps that the moss held firm when poked into the holes with my thumbnail.

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I just kept adding moss wherever there were holes to poke it into.

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And that was it!

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The bonus is that even the inside of the basket has a little moss peeking through.

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10-Mossy Basket 026So what do you think?  Cute yes?

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When you’re finished you can fill your basket with whatever Easter or other Spring décor you have around the house.  Here I’ve added some Spanish moss and eggs that I decoupaged last year.  The tutorial can be found for the large egg HERE and for the smaller eggs HERE.

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My old basket is back out on my front porch, sitting on an old chair.  I tucked in a few sprigs of heather cut from my yard.

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I absolutely love simple projects like this one and I think my old leftover basket looks so happy now that it is all filled up and made new again!

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What ideas do you have for using old baskets?  I’d really love to hear!

If you liked this post please share it with a friend 🙂

Blessings,

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I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!

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