we're celebrating our first real holiday in the pacific northwest!
this was our first stab at easter eggs dyed by natural methods - we used red cabbage to create the turquoise hued eggs shown above, stippled with edible gold paint. i adore the results, however the whole "simmer red cabbage to make egg dye" thing made our home smell like farts. [it might be somewhat common sense - but i thought it was interesting none of the articles i read on this subject mentioned that very relevant fact.] next year i'm going to have to try beets or coffee or something, or heaven forbid resort back to paas. although it was fortuitous that a) the weather here means i can open some windows to air this place out and b) i decided to go natural this year, given this was also the year my dog realized hard boiled eggs were edible...she counter surfs, and this whole pnw "microwaves-are-so-last-decade" attitude means i have one less place to hide things from her. [we use our microwave as a food vault.] it's been a fun few days.
on a more pleasant note, we've also filled our home with the scent of freshly baked carrot cake and sugar cookies. i always seem to have an abundance of desserts on easter, because i can't decide between carrot cake, key lime pie, lemon bars, coconut cake, etc. etc. i usually land on carrot cake because i reason the other desserts have places elsewhere throughout spring and summer, while carrot cake is just so quintessentially easter.
i used this carrot cake recipe from style sweet ca, minus the walnuts/almonds/almond flour and with pineapple, not applesauce. #teampineapple
in lieu of cream cheese frosting, we used the lemon buttercream, featured here.
it's another beautiful day here in kitsap (i feel like the weather finally decided to cooperate for this holiday weekend) - so we'll be enjoying our easter feast and the gorgeous outdoors today.
happy [hoppy] easter!
