Sunday, April 18, 2010

Can I Tell You About Easter?

Because it was tons of fun! James and Jeremy got back to Reno the Saturday before Easter, so we ended up doing a big dinner and day of festivities with them! However, the Resident Taste Tester and I wised up and moved the fun over to the guys' house. It means more work in transporting enough food to feed a small army, but it's way less work cleaning up ahead of time and then cleaning up the leftover mess.

Before I get into the food, let's chat about the fun and games the RTT and I set up for the guys! First, keep in mind that these are all guys in their twenties. Tough and manly guys who shoot guns and play video games and talk a lot of smack. Now, think of these same guys coloring eggs and hunting in the backyard for eggs we hid! I'm giggling just remembering!

I have to give credit where credit is due, and these guys were super creative with coloring the eggs! Ignoring the one with a male extremity written on it, they made some pretty cool eggs. We had a few egg causalties, since Jeremy decided he would rather eat one of the hard boiled eggs instead of coloring it, but the guys got really into it.


After the eggs were colored, they actually had a judging contest. I'm sure the one that said "Stead House" was voted best egg. PS - the Victoria's Secret egg was made by one of the guys, not us girls.



After we fed them, the RTT and I snuck out to the backyard and hid Easter eggs in their backyard. But not just any old eggs. We found plastic camoflouge Easter eggs, green camo eggs. Holy crap! Even if the guys had been dead sober, they would have been hard to find. Throw in a significant amount of PBR and it made for a rather interesting Easter egg hunt!

I tried my darnedest to get the guys to carry baskets to gather their eggs. I really wanted a photo of the guys holding baskets, preferably pink ones. I was rather rudely overruled on that, so I told them they were on their own to come up with something to hold their eggs. This is what I got:


There you have it, folks. A motley crew of hard core Easter egg gatherers. From left to right, James with a mail box, Jeremy with a mail box, Matt with a PBR box, Deke with my bowl that had potatoes in it, and a corner of Alex who was too cool to play along with the hunt.

The RTT and I also found these really cool eggs that look and feel like real eggs, but are filled with confetti. We hid most of them, but kept a couple for ourselves and tried pelting the guys with them. The RTT got some good hits in, but I was not so lucky. I ended up cleaning confetti out of my jacket and shirt. FYI - you can't just throw it, you have to break it on someone.

Ok, now for the food. I have learned an incredibly valuable lesson about the Stead house. If you want food photos, take them before even showing the guys the food. They started in on the cookies as soon as I walked in the door. And these deviled eggs? There was an overflowing plate until the guys saw them. I was trying to swat hands away long enough to snap a photo.


Deviled Eggs

6 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and cut lengthwise
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon dry ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Paprika for garnish

Remove the egg yolks to a small bowl and mash with a fork. Add mayonnaise, mustard powder, vinegar, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Fill the empty egg white shells with the mixture and sprinkle lightly with paprika.

I also made chocolate chip cookies. I'm learning not to ask them what type of cookie they want, since the answer is always chocolate chip cookies. Next time, I'll pick something new so you won't have to see another photo of chocolate chip cookies! Until then, here's a photo of rather flat chocolate chippers and PBR! Not a combo I would necessarily pick, but they like it.

I'm Not Dead!!

Bet you probably thought I was, though! I fully intend to play the busy season card, with filing deadlines, working weekends, and incredibly long hours. I know you're probably thinking, "Typical lame accountant excuse." But seriously, it was crazy busy this past month, especially the last couple weeks.

However, just because I haven't posted in, oh say, a month, doesn't mean that I haven't been up to any culinary quests. I just haven't gotten around to posting them. But I have so much to tell you about and not nearly enough time to blog about it! I've made cookies and cakes and muffins and more! There were Wine Sundays and brunch and potlucks and a happy evening called Beer Saturday.

But I can't blog about every little crumb that came out of my kitchen. In a whirlwind of taxes and baking, I truly can't remember everything I made. And I repeatedly fail at taking photos. I know there is no remaining evidence of the corn muffins I made for Beer Saturday. Or the lemon poppy seed muffins I made for my Post Easter Brunch. And I think I made some cookies at some point for a potluck, maybe peanut butter?

So I want to tell you about the big things that happened. Like our Easter festivities, which also celebrated James and Jeremy coming home from their one year in Kuwait! And my cake decorating classes, which have been fabulous! So please have patience with me as I catch up with my blogging.

In the meantime, please accept these cookies as an I'm-sorry-I-ignored-this-blog-for-a-month offering. Since today was the first truly gorgeous day that fell on a weekend, the guys, the Resident Taste Tester, and I had a barbeque at the Stead park by the guys house. The guys, our official meat producers, took charge of making fabulous burgers and brats. The Resident Taste Tester put together a tasty veggie tray. And I took requests and brought potato salad and, per James' request, the chocolate trip peanut butter nut cookies I sent to him in Kuwait.

These cookies are incredibly tasty, but simple to throw together. I bake them for less time than called for in the recipe, since I like a chewy softer cookie as opposed to a crunchy cookie. I think I found that 9 minutes and 30 seconds was the perfect time. Any shorter makes for a slighlty undercooked cookie, ask me how I know. We were in a hurry to get to the park, so I took photos after we got there. I kid you not, we were there for maybe 5 minutes before I took my camera out and snapped some shots. The plate was, key word being "was", a heaping mountain of cookies when I arrived.


Chunky Peanut, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Cookies
Makes about 5 dozen

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup roasted, salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Put butter and peanut butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until combined, about 2 minutes. Add sugars; mix 2 minutes. Mix in eggs. Gradually add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips, peanuts, and vanilla with a mixing spoon until well distributed. Refrigerate dough until it is slightly firm, 15 minutes.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Space balls 2 to 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly. Bake until just golden, about 13 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool.

I have a confession to make. And I can tell you because I'm pretty sure none of the guys follow my blog. I didn't make this potato salad. I was tired from being out late Saturday and had limited time to cook before we were supposed to be at the park. And normally I would make my regular potato salad recipe, because it's tasty and I like making it. But, like I said, I was tired and pressed for time. So I bought it at the deli and put it in my bowl and said I made it. Don't judge me.