Did you have a nice Easter? Or Springtime celebration? Did you dye eggs or bake a ham? We did bake a ham, but we have no hard-boiled eggs for egg salad. We do, however, have enough ham to feed 12 people. Considering we only add up to 2, we will have a lot of leftovers.
My mom came to visit, straight from her return trip from Japan, so my dad flew in for brunch on Sunday, too! T still has trouble wrapping his mind around the fact that my parents often fly down for the day. I guess when you grow up with a flight attendant, though, such impromtu trips seem normal!
We enjoyed the Marine Room during their High Tide Brunch, but their Easter brunch was even better (and more expensive). In addition to their crab claws, shrimp, oysters, , quiche, etc. they had prime rib and leg of lamb, along with a multitude of sauces to go with it. And the food is so good. Every dish they make is a quality dish, except for the blue crab quiche that didn’t really win any of us over. I mean, it was tasty and good, just not very crabby. Oddly enough, the tide was higher on Easter than it was when we went for the High Tide brunch!
After my parents left (with SaSa… we’re keeping the puppy for one more week and no, I’m not keeping her, really), T went off to work and I went out for some errand running. I went to Sears with the intention of just looking at new washers and dryers, but after looking at them, my list, the Consumer Reports list, and the sale ads, I was kind of exhausted. The sales guy confirmed that LG is the best brand to go with for front-loading washers, which was nice since he wasn’t pushing Kenmore (Sears’ brand) or the most expensive models. I realized there really isn’t much difference between 4.0 and 4.2 cubic feet in a washer (it’s like 1.5 gallons), although I can tell the difference from a 3.5 cubic foot washer. I realized that the models I like don’t ever really go on sale, so with the 15% discount with my Sears card, and since I already had the voucher with me, I just had him go ahead and ring it up. I’m not the best shopper. I get an idea of what I want, I look at some prices, and then I pretty much just buy it. I don’t spend months tracking prices and watching sales. I did consult Consumer Reports, though, which rated the LG very well but called the Frigidaire their “Best Buy”.
Anyway, after that, my errand running pretty much fell flat. Did you know Target and Wal-Mart close on Easter? I didn’t. I didn’t realize it was such a big holiday to warrant store closures. This also meant that I wasn’t able to find Peeps for T, who likes to leave them out to get stale and then eat them. Yes, I realize that we could have done Easter candy shopping months ago, but I wasn’t really into it and I thought maybe I’d find some clearance Peeps. I also didn’t get to buy socks.
When I got back home, I had enough to time to play with the dogs, Tae-bo a little with Billy Blanks, and whip up some homemade marshmallows. That’s all Peeps are, right? Marshmallows and sugar? I only did this because a) I knew T would be tickled to find I made Peeps just for him and b) I just read a post from The Kitchen on making Peeps. They use Martha Stewart’s recipe, which works pretty well and is super easy. The marshmallow part, anyway. I think it makes half a recipe, though, because it certainly didn’t fill my KitchenAid mixing bowl very much.
I scattered white sugar on a baking sheet and awkwardly piped out chick-like shapes. I also tried making flat bunny shapes. It’s harder than you think it might be. I had mixed 3 drops of yellow food coloring with 1 cup of sugar, to make my Peeps yellow. I sprinkled the yellow sugar on the piped Peeps, but I found it’s hard to get the sides covered, so after everything was piped and sprinkled, I just rolled everything around to try and get them all not-sticky.
T was definitely pleased when he came home to see homemade Peeps. They’re a little less airy than the store-bought ones, but they definitely have that grainy-sugar coating. Our “Peeps” are ageing on the countertop right now, getting to that stage of staleness that he loves so much. All in all, I’d say it was a success.
Three Dog Kitchen 