Monday 21 April 2014

Easter chick crackers, salt dough easter eggs, and an egg hunt

It has been a fun Easter.  We have made chocolate easter egg nests, painted salt dough eggs, baked (and eaten) lots of sourdough hot cross buns, made easter chick crackers for a lunch and had a fun colour coded egg hunt.  Having a 5 year old about is fun.  Sylvia has been very excited about the Easter bunny and eager to go to church to hear stories about Jesus.  So here is a rundown.

On Good Friday, we stayed at home and kept ourselves busy.  Too many hot cross buns were eaten.  At lunchtime I decided to make a light lunch of crackers and cheese.  For a few years I have admired some cute cheese and cracker chicks.  Finally I made them myself.

The chicks were made of garlic crackers, cheddar cheese, black sesame seed eyes and carrots for beaks, feet and hair.  They were easy and yummy.  We also snacked on some smoked almonds so I had fun making them into a nest.

We enjoy chocolate Easter eggs but I love some alternatives, especially when home made.  I decided it would be fun to make salt dough egg cut outs with Sylvia.  I didn't have an egg shaped cutter but we found a cap off a doll's baby drinking cup that seemed about the right shape.  We had also thought about doing flowers.  Any shape would do, especially at other times of year.

Despite following a recipe, the eggs were a little puffy and soft when they came out of the oven.  Not unusual for my oven to be slower than others.  We managed to paint one side of the eggs before Sylvia went to bed.  I painted the other side while she was refusing to sleep.

We took the salt dough eggs to my parents' place when we went there for Easter.  They have a little seasonal tree on the sideboard.  My mum had also made some dough eggs with my nieces.  They had rolled out a dough of flour and water and made decorations on them by colouring some leftover dough and sticking it on the eggs before baking.  All the eggs were strung from the tree and made a very striking centrepiece on the table on Easter Sunday.  And we gave some with Easter eggs to Sylvia's cousins.

As always we ate well when at my parents' house.  On Saturday we had burgers for dinner before going to mass.  Everyone else had meat burgers but my mum grilled some saganaki for me.  It was so good with the charred edges in toasted buns with fried red capsicum. lettuce, onions, tomato and sauce.  Reminded me of the ones we had when I was a child.  Or perhaps it tasted so good after an afternoon swim in Geelong.

I also took along a golden beetroot nut roast for the roast dinner on Sunday.  Plus some chocolate cake (that I will write about later.)  I loved the Toblerone cheesecake my mum made for dessert on Sunday.  And there were hot cross buns galore.

Sylvia had made a special basket for Easter bunny to put eggs into.  She was also very excited about an Easter egg hunt.  I had seen an easter egg hunt with colour coordinated easter eggs.   My dad organises the easter egg hunt and embraced the idea of each child collecting a different colour.  Below you can see his colour chart.

The egg hunt was great fun.  My dad had done a great job of hiding the eggs.  Almost too good, in some cases.  Colour coding the eggs meant there wasn't the mad scramble to be the kid to find the most and there was some interesting cooperation between the kids.  The only drawback was having an extra child unexpectedly turning up.  Fortunately one of the toddlers hadn't turned up yet and never missed it.

Above is another sneak peak of my chocolate cake and just some of the Easter eggs lined up.  E gave me a Koko Black easter egg.  He said he had to queue for it.  Having sampled it tonight, I can understand why you might queue for it.  The chocolate was far superior to many Easter eggs I have tasted.  And that is just the way I want my Easter to end.  With some great chocolate.

I am sending the Easter chick crackers to Louisa from Eat Your Veg for the Family Foodies event which focuses on Healthy Snacks in April. It is hosted on alternate months with Vanesther from Bangers and Mash.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago: WSC Chocolate Chip and Honey Scones
Two years ago: Zucchini Layer Cake plus random thoughts
Three years ago: Marzipan choc chip cookies
Four years ago: Curried Paneer and Birthday Cheer
Five years ago: Easter Nut Roast and Feasting
Six years ago: NCR Moody Mushroom Stew

Salt Dough Easter Eggs
From Design Mom

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water
egg shaped cutter
chopstick
paint
string

Mix flour, salt and water.  Knead briefly until you have a smooth dough.  (It was slightly tacky but didn't really need extra flour).  Roll dough out on baking paper to about 0.5cm thick.  (I am not sure this is essential but it keeps the work surface clean.)  Cut out egg shapes (I used one of Sylvia's toys because we don't have cutters).  Transfer to lined baking tray.

Use a chopstick to poke holes towards the top of the eggs.  Bake at 120 C for 2 hours.  (Mine were not quite done after this so - some had some softness still but I didn't have the time to leave it longer.)  Cool the eggs.

Paint eggs on one side, let dry, turn over over paint other side.  When both sides are dry, threat a piece of string through each egg and tie a knot.

On the Stereo:
Blonde on Blonde: Bob Dylan

25 comments:

  1. Salt dough easter eggs are such a great idea! I didn't hunt for anything vegan we could paint this year but I am saving this for next year! Sounds like a fun thing to do.

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    1. Thanks Mihl - it is a nice alternative to real eggs

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  2. Sounds like a perfect Easter weekend. Those cheese easter chick crackers are so cute. Your mums meals sound delicious too

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    1. Thanks Katie - yes mum made some great food over the weekend

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  3. I love the idea of a colour coded egg hunt, and your dough egg centre piece looks great. In fact, everything looks great! It sounds like a lovely weekend.

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    1. Thanks Kari - I was quite impressed with the egg centrepieces - it looked great with all the dough eggs the kids had made (just as well my dad drilled holes in the ones my nieces made so we could hang them up too)

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  4. Wow Easter is such a big time for kids. There are so many fun crafts for them to do! :D

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    1. yes easter is a fun time for kids - it was always a bit time for my family though I have talked to others who didn't do as much as us

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  5. Those painted easter eggs are so cute! WHat a fun project!

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    1. Thanks Joanne - it was fun though I think I did a lot of it and Sylvia helped when it interested her

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  6. Once again I am amazed Johanna! You do such fun things with Sylvia. I'm so delighted to be able to "watch" her grow and see your creative influence bloom.

    Those Cheese & Cracker Chicks are just soooo adorable. I bet they would be perfect for a May Day celebration too:)

    I think it is so adorable that your father took charge of the Easter Egg hunt coordinating colors and hiding in elusive places. It sounds like your family had a wonderful Easter!

    Thank you so much for sharing, Johanna...

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    1. Thanks Louise - the easter egg hunt was just right for my dad - and I am pleased to share a little of our creations with you

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  7. You guys did such an amazing job with these. what a fun Easter project for the kidlets :)

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    1. Thanks Cass - I've got heaps of easter ideas on pinterest - helps find some projects

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  8. Absolutely love all your Easter stuff, especially the ornaments! And your coded egg hunt sounds very civilised - ours was pandemonium :)

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    1. Thanks Kate - I am sure your easter egg hunt would be fun - we have had some crazy ones in the past

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  9. I still have to get around to salt dough crafts, every year I say I'll make Christmas decs, then Valentines, then Easter etc! Love the egg hunting board with the children's names and corresponding egg!

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    1. Thanks Veganopoulous - I've been collecting lots of ideas for salt dough crafts on pinterest - am glad to finally try it - it was easy to work with but need to work on what baking time works with my oven - would love to do the christmas decorations with it.

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  10. I adore your salt dough Easter eggs - they are so cute!

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  11. Our posts are very similar with tales of how we spent the long weekend. I love how you did so much baking with your 5-yr old. I can understand her being too excited to go to sleep. And that's a great idea about making the children collect only one colour of eggs - I'll remember that for next year! xx

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    1. Thanks Charlie - yes our easters were quite similar - I love having good friday as a quiet day to potter around the house so that is often a baking day. The colour coding was great for the easter egg hunt - though one of my older nieces was quite keen on finding others' eggs and rehiding them so the older ones wont necessarily act nice even with this (though I told me niece that was not on)

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  12. Your family always puts on such a great spread! I love the colour-coded egg hunt idea too. Wish I'd thought of that when my kids were small. It would have saved a lot of hysteria.

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    1. Thanks Linda - the colour coded egg hunt was fun - though I wonder if the novelty was part of what the kids loved - it was interesting to see the different dynamics with this hunt and nice that they were helping out each other towards the end when there were just a few eggs left

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  13. Oh I'm loving your easter egg tree of salt dough eggs, what a gorgeous idea to do with your daughter. The chick crackers are cute as pie too, lovely wee make and a fabulous entry to this month's Family Foodies 'Healthy Snacks' event.

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