Palm Sunday

We celebrate Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem today as we begin the week of Easter.
It also happens to be April Fools Day. Did you play a trick? Have a little fun? Hope so. My sister had her husband peeking behind bushes looking for a deer that wasn't there. I was all set to drop a spider from the ceiling but woke up to snow, a joke on it's own. The weather went from worse to bad to good, ending with a lovely clear and mainly sunny day. Cool enough to have shepherd's pie for dinner and munch on a deluxe peanut butter, chocolate chip, pb cup cookie for dessert.
Had my favorite cutie girls here for a day and we made up a few batches of Easter bark. Oh my, so pretty and so many possibilities. We kept it simple with lovely Spring colors and pastel m&m's, but you could add pretzels, vanilla or chocolate oreos and drizzle white chocolate overall. For that matter, you could use dark chocolate as well, but I love the paleness of this one. Tomorrow I will break it up, put it in little clear bags and wrap it with Easter ribbon I picked up at Michael's. Then I'll try and save it until next weekend....
Easter Bark
3 or 4 bags of melting chocolate (I used white,pink, yellow, lilac and turquoise)
2 bags of Spring colored m&m's (I also plan to use the speckled egg m&m's)
-Melt each color separately about 40 sec in the microwave (being careful to not quite melt them and then stir like crazy while they finish melting)
-Pour random blobs on a wax paper lined large cookie sheet making sure to have some of each color on all areas
-Sprinkle with m&m's (add cookies and pretzel sticks, if using)
-Swirl with a toothpick to make all those lovely paisley patterns
-Cool in the fridge about 10 minutes
-Break into chunks

Cinco de Mayo

I Twittered earlier about eating an entire bag of tortilla chips from Fresh Is Best and honestly I could barely manage dinner tonight. I had all good intentions of preparing a Mexican inspired feast, but my heart just wasn't in it. I could imagine myself sitting on the beach in Puerto Vallarta at sunset, sipping on my second Margarita with no problem. In fact, I had my white gauze shirt and short shorts on, a cute straw hat and big smoky sunglasses and my skinned was bronzed from a day at the pool. Oh yes, this part is easy.
So what can be done to get through the day without celebrating the 5? How about a trip down memory lane? I was being all nostalgic thinking of how our family centered every occasion around food. I never ever wanted to miss a meal at home, even as a teenager. My mom was a remarkable cook, still is actually. I remember the macaroni with bran muffins, the vinegar marinated beef made into stew with heaps of mashed potatoes on the side, the rich tomato gravy smothering the Swiss steak loaded with peppers and onions , walnut butter horns, molasses brown bread, butter tarts and apple pies. Seriously, every single meal was home made, from scratch, no shortcuts. Who in their right mind would miss a meal? Exactly. Even the days, maybe weeks, I hardly communicated with my parents more than a grunt, I was home for dinner.
One of the recipes was not so homemade, but I do remember it well and always called it Mom's Casserole. In a way it was a relief to have this dinner and take her off the pedestal for just a brief moment. Silly to think of that just now.

Mom's Common Casserole
1 tin cream of mushroom soup
1 tin cream of chicken soup
1 c sour cream
1 c drained corn or frozen niblets
1/2 tsp pepper and paprika
3 c cooked med wide egg noodles
2 lb hamburger
1 c chopped onion
1 c buttered breadcrumbs
Fry and drain the hamburger and onion
Mix the 4 ingredients together and add pepper and paprika
Add hamburger, sauce and noodles, mix well and put in buttered casserole. Top with buttered breadcrumbs.
Bake at 350 degrees for approx 30 minutes

Since I'm on the oldies but goodies kick, whenever I make bran muffins I always go back to my tried and true recipe from Roger's Foods, simple and perfectly bran.

Classic Bran Muffins
1 1/2 c Rogers Wheat Bran
1 c buttermilk
1/3 c veg oil
1 egg
2/3 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c Rogers all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda and baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c raisins or dates, optional
375 degree oven, greased muffin tin, makes 1 dozen. Cook 15-20 minutes
Mix together bran and buttermilk and let sit. Combine oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and add to bran mixture. Combine flour, b soda, b powder, and salt and stir well. Add this to the first mixture and stir until just blended.

So the '5' is almost over, it's early evening. I wish you all a colorful, musical fiesta evening!

Here's lookin' at you!