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

Photos

There is just so much to learn as we blog and I am realizing that my food pictures are not as good as some of my favorite bloggers. Perhaps it's my camera but I think it's that I am not using all the functions on my camera to the best advantage. Do you have this problem as well? I can't tell the food to 'smile' or 'change that pose' or 'I think it would look better with the blue sweater'. Food is there, waiting, plated and ready for me to make the most of it. My camera lacks 'smell-o-vision', which would help immensely! So, I must learn more from my fellow bloggers.
This is entirely different than cooking. Cooking is fun, relaxing, invigorating, an excuse to try new spices, new serving dishes, new arrangements. 
I made a lovely chicken strata for dinner and hope you can tell by my pictures just how tasty it was.

Chicken Strata ( based on an Anna Olson recipe for Rockwell Bake)
350 degree oven, greased 9 inch springform pan or 9x13 or bundt pan
2 T olive oil
1 c finely diced onion
1 c finely diced celery (I used lovage as well)
1/2 c finely diced carrot
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 apple grated
1 T crumbled sage
2 t fresh thyme
1 t poultry seasoning or rosemary
1 c dried cranberries
1/4 c dry vermouth (I used half vermouth, half chicken broth)
5 large eggs (my gf chickens eggs are smallish so I used 6)
3 c milk (I use skim, your choice)
1 T dijon mustard
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
8 c diced day old bread (I used French but you can mix white and wheat) 1 inch cubes
3 c chicken breast, cooked, 1/2 inch diced
2 1/2 c grated cheese (recipe calls for Swiss (not my fave) I used Gruyere and cheddar mixed

In a saute pan add oil and saute onion, celery and carrot about 4 minutes, add garlic and herbs and continue cooking another minute. Add cranberries and vermouth and simmer another minute or so until most of the liquid has evaporated. Cool to lukewarm.
In a large bowl, while veg mix cools, whisk eggs and milk and add mustard, salt and pepper. Add bread cubes and toss to coat well and let sit for about 15 minutes.
Stir the veg and diced chicken in the bread mix, add 2 c cheese. Spoon into prepared baking pan and sprinkle with 1/2 c remaining cheese. Bake for 1 hour or until the top is golden brown and center springs back when pressed. In the bundt pan I cooked 1 hour 15 minutes as it was thicker.
Let rest at least 15 minutes before serving. If using springform pan, remove side ring after 15 minutes.
This served 6 with a side salad and sweet potatoes. We had cranberry sauce on the side.

Of course all this eating of the savory strata meant I would be craving something sweet to balance the meal. I had baked a Lazy Daisy cake earlier in the day. You remember the old hot milk standby cake with the lovely coconut, brown sugar topping that is put under the broiler at the last minute to 'candify' the topping.
However, I had also made a chocolate self-saucing pudding cake and knowing how dh loves his Reese peanut butter cup ice cream, I thought the chocolate would be the better combination. I like my cake warmed a little first so the pudding layer melts a little more and softens the ice cream.
What I really mean is that I wanted whipping cream but I didn't have any.