All about Easter Eggs

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

When Chris was little, he drew a picture of a bunny in mid-flight, dropping colored eggs like a bombardier. I think of that picture every year when I am inundated with eggs after Easter.

Even with the kids grown, I continue to cook and color eggs for Easter – they make a beautiful table centerpiece. (And, truth be told, I love a few leftover eggs for breakfast the rest of the week.)

First step, of course, is to cook the eggs perfectly. For that we turn to Ben, our cooking newbie blogger, and his first post. Tip: if you haven’t bought your eggs yet, go out and get them now, because older eggs will peel better.

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Bread Machine Makes Quick Work of Hot Cross Buns

By Sandy Hu

Do you have a bread machine gathering dust in your garage? I do. It was given to me when I first joined the Fleischmann’s Yeast brand in the heyday of the electric bread maker.

Shortly after, I wrote and co-produced a bread machine cookbook, working with the company’s skilled home economists, who created a wide variety of recipes that they tested in all makes and models of bread machines in the company’s test kitchens.

I’ve baked bread from scratch for many years so I didn’t really need a bread machine. But I’ve kept that old machine, and every Easter, I dust it off and return it to the kitchen to make hot cross buns.

Why the bread machine? These days, I really don’t have time to mix up dough, knead it, let it rise, shape it, let it rise again and bake. With the bread machine, I dump the ingredients in at once, set it to the dough cycle, then take out the dough, already kneaded and risen. I just shape, let rise for 10 minutes, and bake! How easy is that?

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Easter Ham

By Andrew Hunter

Easter symbolizes the dawn of spring – the sweetest season of the year. It’s a time when families gather together for a feast. The centerpiece of our feast is always a traditional Easter ham.

Other dishes we like to make are boiled red potatoes, because they look like eggs, tossed in a little butter, salt and dill, and bright green sugar snap peas because they’re the boys’ favorite veggie. Whatever you do though, try to make most of dinner in advance, so you’ll have time to hide colored eggs for the festive hunt.

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Rhubarb Chutney for your Easter Feast

By Lori Powell

So, officially spring has arrived in my neck of the woods. Tulips, hyacinths and the ubiquitous forsythia that bloom everywhere at this time of the year are flourishing.

The birds are singing up some sweet tunes every morning. Two Mourning Doves showed up on my back porch during that horrendous rainstorm last Saturday, which I took as a token of good luck! Apparently they establish their territory in early spring.

I was hoping that they would consider my back porch as their home. They mate for life and these two were huddled together on a shelf, safe under the back porch away from the high winds and torrential rain.

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