Easter Eggs and Easter

Letters to my Grandchildren: Easter When I was Young

As a young child, I remember we always dyed eggs using Paas Egg Colors.  We mixed the dye in with water and vinegar, I still sometimes think of Easter when I am using vinegar.  A dozen was the number we usually dyed.  I remember there was a wax pencil with the set of dyes that we could use to write on the eggs before we dyed them.  Since there were only two of us, I suppose I would hide them and my little sister Martha hunted for them, and vice versa.  Once Betty Jo was our neighbor, there would be three of us to hide/hunt for the eggs.  Hiding and hunting probably continued long past Easter until the eggs were probably a bit on the rank side. New Easter Baskets were out for us on Easter Morning usually filled with candy eggs filled with marshmallows (they were awful).

Even in my 80s I still enjoy dying eggs, but I haven't done so this year.  Once when we were in Shelby for Easter, I went over to Lattimore on Saturday night before Easter to Martha Mason's, set up a card table, and dyed eggs as Martha watched and gave me instructions on what colors to use.  That was one of my many fun visits over the years with Martha.

Easter Sunday I always had a new outfit to wear to church.  As a teenager, when I began wearing hats to church (That was the style back in the 50s.) I would always have a new hat, and I enjoyed seeing what others were wearing.  Once I remember when I was sitting in the Youth Choir and looking out over the congregation, Dr. and Mrs. Hunt from Lattimore, brought their five little girls all decked out in their Easter outfits. The seven of them took up almost an entire row.   I thought they were adorable.  Mrs. Hunt's family was from the Double Springs Church community so I guess she was visiting with her family because I don't remember the Hunts being members at Double Springs.

Easter 1955 was special for me.  I was a senior in high school and it was the first Easter I had a serious boyfriend.  Back then, girls who had serious boyfriends would get a corsage for Easter from their boyfriend.   So I proudly went to Church that Easter sporting my very first corsage from a boy,  but my mother had made corsages for me when I was in piano recitals as a child.

This Easter, April 2020, is sad for me because I am separated from my family, and usually, I would see them over the Easter Holidays.  The Covid 19 virus and the "stay at home" orders are making Easter unusual for a lot of people.  Let's hope we will be able to have a normal Easter in 2021.

p.s I  made little Easter treats for the children on our street, and I hid them in their yards last night for them to find this morning.  Fun, fun, fun for me playing Easter Bunny!

Fresh Backyard Eggs

Photo by Mark Wallheiser for the NY Times.

A recent article in the NY Times, Straight From the Home Coop, features the growing number of folks who are raising their own eggs and not only in the country but in the city.  There are a few folks here in Raleigh who have egg-laying chickens in their backyards. Unfortunately we aren't one of them. 

Our neighbor, Maggie, in Cape Breton has egg-laying chickens, and we can sometimes get fresh eggs from her when we are there.  And are those fresh eggs ever good!  The rooster crowing in the morning is an added benefit from my perspective.  What a wonderful sound to wake up to.  Here in Raleigh, and probably in most cities, roosters aren't permitted.

A new cookbook by Jennifer Trainer Thompson, The Fresh Egg Cookbook, has recipes featuring fresh eggs including one I tried recently.

MJ's Egg Casserole 

1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup cream

1 cup milk

2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar, lightly packed

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

Pinch cayenne

18 hard boiled eggs, peeled and thinly sliced

1 pound bacon, cooked, drained of fat and crumbled

Toast, for serving.

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

2. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat until it foams. Whisk in the flour until smooth. Lower the heat and slowly pour in the cream and milk. Heat until steaming, whisking often. Add the cheese and whisk until melted. Add the parsley, marjoram, thyme, garlic powder and cayenne.

3. In the prepared dish, make layers of egg slices, bacon and sauce, ending with sauce. Cover and bake 40 minutes. (To make ahead, refrigerate covered casserole overnight. Remove from the refrigerator 1 hour before baking, and add 20 minutes to baking time.) Let rest 5 to 10 minutes before serving with hot toast.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings. 

Egg casserole.

Easter brunch.

We enjoyed this casserole for brunch on Easter morning.  I halved the recipe for the two of us.  It seems appropriate to celebrate Easter and other spring celebrations with eggs, because it is in the spring that backyard chickens begin laying again.  Their reproductive cycle is linked to daylight.