Easter

Hope everyone had a happy Easter if you celebrate it. Ours was very nice, and seemed to go at a really nice pace this year. Often times I feel like I'm rushing around trying to get things cooked in a timely manner, but this year didn't feel like that. Caitlin and Cyrous came over in the morning for a late breakfast and then dashed back home to get ready. It gave me a chance to switch out the table decor for dinner and start prepping. I chose a simple menu this year, as it was just us four as usual.  We have a local grocery store that has an incredible meat counter, and I was very happy to see that they offered a half of a leg of lamb. I love lamb for Easter, but end up with too much meat afterwards and there is only so much you can consume in a few days time. We aren't huge red meat eaters, so it often times goes to waste. I love how the half of the leg was only 4 pounds and this time no waste! I used a menu from one of my old "Gourmet" cook books. I sure do miss "Gourmet" magazine.  Anyway, the lamb recipe I used this year was an Italian recipe. The lamb marinaded in garlic, rosemary, anchovies, and olive oil. To accompany the lamb, I made a salsa verde out of parsley, mint, anchovies, oil and vinegar. If I ever make this again, I think I would add a bit more vinegar to the sauce. I roasted six bunches of the cutest baby carrots and mixed them with fennel. Steamed potatoes, and salad with a simple lemon vinaigrette rounded out the menu.  Dessert.....as you can see I posted a lot of pictures of the process of this tart. I found this recipe on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try. I loved the crust, which was a very light textured shortbread. I want to use it again for other fruit desserts this summer! I'm a seasoned tart builder, so this was not a difficult recipe like others said on Pinterest, just more time consuming with slicing all the rhubarb on the mandolin and then poaching them in sugar water. The weaving was super fun, since I love to do lattice pies, this was very simple for me. The recipe wanted you to weave the rhubarb on parchment, then flip the whole thing on to the tart. I skipped this and did it directly on the tart instead. I could just see myself trying to flip this carefully woven rhubarb, then it get all mangled in the process!! I think it is far easier to do it the way I did. If I make this again, I would take more time to make all the strips more uniform. The filling was frangipane flavored with rum and vanilla extract.
We bought those cute chocolate rabbits pictured from our favorite chocolate maker in St. Helena called "Woodhouse Chocolates" click here to check this place out!  We ordered two little lady bunnies and two little gentleman bunnies, and Fed Ex guys literally dropped the order on my front door step, shattering them all!  Woodhouse over nighted more to us and luckily those made it intact. They are so good. Of course we still got to keep the broken ones, and we have been munching on those first hahaha.
The top photo with the embroidery bunny is going to be a bib. I decided though that I will not offer this in the shop. The appliqué is a bit too time consuming to produce. I will however embroider the actual bunny onto the bib instead. I love the shape of these little vintage bibs, so I decided I will test out the embroidery only version very soon. I'll be working on some little bonnets and bloomers for babies next. I really want to offer layette type of gifts and I'm still in the process of what I want to include in the set.
Our yard is bursting in blooms and bugs, and bees! The air feels heavy with pollen and floral perfumes. I love it, but the allergy medicine is definitely a must! The peonies are ready to bloom soon, so get ready for flower spam!

Happy spring everyone :)