Ever EVER!

Hey kids,

Here's some Easter morning pictures for you. I had to try and make it a decent holiday for you two, as you usually stay with your Cali grandparents for Easter break, and hunt eggs in their enormous, meandering yard, but your grandma had to go to Arkansas to be with *her* parents (your great-grandparents) for the past few weeks, because her dad is feeling poorly. He's 95 years old! That's a helluva long time to be alive.

Anyway, camera-wise, I stayed pretty tight on you, as I don't need people to see just how un-pretty and junky our back yard looks right now. We are sooooo not ready for spring.



So yeah, I got you this ant farm, but I am returning it as soon as I can. After I bought it and brought it home, I looked up reviews of the darned thing on the internets. Hardly one person had anything nice to say about this particular model. In fact, many talked about how dag-nasty it is, how the ants are quick to die and get moldy, and how they are miserable and eventually become crazy and suicidal, and mostly how the ants refuse to build tunnels. So I bought you a different, more highly regarded model of ant farm on amazon.com which will hopefully be here by the weekend. Sorry, sweetie. My bad.



I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Real ones! Not out of a tube! I actually had to find a warm place for them to rise. Then it was time to start making dinner.

Easter menu that was deceptively simple looking, yet had me in the kitchen from the moment the breakfast dishes were done until dinner time at 5:30 pm:

1) Cranberry-mustard glazed spiral-cut ham
Of course this was the easiest part of the whole meal. Just a can of whole cranberry sauce mixed with a cup of brown sugar and approx. quarter cup of spicy brown mustard. Baste liberally. I've only made a couple or so hams in my life, but this was was hands-down the best. The glaze caramelized the outside of the ham and I jammed a bunch of glaze in between the spiral-cut slices and it was just divine.

2) Gruyere gratin potatoes
The most sinfully decadent potatoes ever. Can't go wrong when there are THREE cups of heavy cream involved. And Gruyere.

3) Deviled eggs
Wavy enjoyed the hell out of these.

4) Asparagus
Steamed in the microwave for a few minutes, dressed up with a bit of butter and lemon. I even got Jakob to eat the heads off of a few of them.

5) Cheesy garlic monkey bread
An amalgam of different monkey bread recipes, cuz I couldn't find just one that suited my needs. This one was thawed frozen bread dough divided into 24 balls, rolled in parmesan, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with cheddar and garlic and baked for 30 minutes. Daddy didn't believe that I didn't get this at the grocery store bakery. It was pretty damn good.

6) For dessert, individual sticky toffee puddings
They weren't as sticky as I would've liked them to be, cuz I didn't make enough of the toffee, but it was very good with a spritz of whip cream on it. The next day (tonight, that is) however, the toffee had a chance to soak through the entire puddings, and after about 15 seconds in the microwave, I think they tasted the way they were supposed to.

Yes, yes, I realize that this meal is a most righteous artery clogger, but it's a holiday, and we'll go for extra walks this week and eat a bit more carefully for a while.

I'm thinking this Easter might have been a success, because Jakob murmured as he was drifting off to sleep: "This was the best Easter ever!" Ever ever, Jakob? In all your six years you've never had a better Easter? Ha! Take THAT, grandma and grandpa! Heh.

Good night. Love you.