The Moon Egg

Moon Egg, originally uploaded by miss.mallory.

Happy Easter!

I really wanted to get an Easter post up earlier, but I've been out at the property and their internet here is incredibly slow, frustratingly so. I actually held the computer over my head to get the photos to transfer from uploadr to flickr. argh! the frustrations of being somewhere that isn't home, am I right?

We kept it simple. I'm not huge on Easter, it's never a big holiday for me. I don't ever do much. I think the weather really inspired me though. For nearly a week we had incredibly gorgeous, sunny weather here in the Northwest. I took advantage of it and headed down to my favorite nursery with one of my favorite friends. While there I found a fun little food item, a dried ear of corn which you put in the microwave to make popcorn with; corn that pops off the cob. The boyfriend loves popcorn. It was upon the discovery of this novelty item that I realized I had to do at least one basket this year. So, he got a basket filled with popcorn related items, alongside the ear of corn I added a thick bar of dark chocolate laden with caramel corn, a hippo chip clip and a few other tiny items. The easter bunny was good to him this year.

Last night I had a couple of girlfriends over for some easter egg dying fun. I do enjoy that. I still make silly, brightly colored eggs with funky patterns drawn on them. I'm not clever enough to create anything incredible like Ms. Martha Stewart. No decoupaged eggs in my kitchen, as much as I wish I'd had enough forethought this year to plan something uber fantastic and mind blowing in the egg decorating department, I reverted back to my childhood standard of PAAS tablets.

I served the girls a puff pastry gruyere asparagus tart, and a carrot vichyssoise. I may not have followed in Marthas egg decorating footsteps, but I can thank her for those incredible recipes. Very simple, chic and spring. Not to mention, delicious. I tripled each recipe because this morning I handed out baskets filled to the brim with jars of soup, parchment wrapped asparagus tart, a bushel of daffodils and a handful of cookie 'nests'. Needless to say, the recipients were thrilled.

So, enjoy the pictures for now. Tomorrow I will post links to the recipes for the tart, soup, and cookies!

Chocolate Cookie 'Nests', originally uploaded by miss.mallory.

For cookie recipe head over here. Super simple, super yummy, wonderful flavors and textures. Now, I just have to figure out what to do with the leftover ganache and toasted coconut. . .hmm. . . .

Asparagus Gruyere Tart, originally uploaded by miss.mallory.

For tart recipe, check out this page. It truly is perfect (and again, oh-so simple).

Carrot Vichyssoise recipe right over here. Something about bunnies, carrots and Easter, just made sense to me. It was a Martha filled evening for sure. . . minus the technicolor eggs of course.

Birds Eye View Nests, originally uploaded by miss.mallory.

Y, originally uploaded by miss.mallory.