It's Easter! Time to Enjoy Boozed Up Bunny Jello Shots!

 Booze up your chocolate Easter bunnies:

It's that time of the year again! After a busy day of Easter baskets, Easter dinner, and kids charged up on chocolate, sugar, and excitement, you need a treat.

Photo and recipe from OhBiteIt

I first saw this photo somewhere, can't remember where, but I had to track down the original.. which apparently was published several years ago at a site called "O Bite It".. very clever for a food blog, I must admit!

Just a quick description before I send you off to OhBiteIt for the specifics..

The vodka (or perhaps another alcoholic beverage) replaces the water in the Jello recipe.  So simple!  In this recipe you carefully cut off and save those bunny ears and later "glue" them back on with whipped cream.

Boozed Up Bunny Jello Shots from Oh Bite It  HERE!

Do Eggs Balance on the First Day of Spring?

There's a myth that eggs will stand on end during the Equinox.  Is it true?  Snopes says..

Photo of eggs found on Snopes

The Chinese are often cited as having originated the practice of standing eggs on end during the equinox. Just as the equinox symbolically restores balance to the world by signaling its rebirth after a season of darkness, the equinox literally balances the day by dividing it into equal portions of darkness and light. If the symbol of fertility, eggs, could be balanced on end during a day equally divided between day and night, this was a sign that all nature was in harmony

Nonetheless, the vernal equinox brings no special egg-balancing properties with it. Standing an egg on its end is something just about anyone can do any day of the year; the feat simply takes the right egg and a little trial and practice. Since the vast majority of people never see or try balancing eggs on their ends on any day other than the equinox, though, many of them come away from the experience believing that something special must have occurred on that particular day.

More HERE on Snopes. 

Spring 2019 Comes Today, Wednesday, March 20! Flower Dreaming...

Happy Spring!

It's still cold out there and the furnace is still purring here in Chicago, but Spring is literally just around the corner.  The Northern Hemisphere enters Spring for 2019 tomorrow, Wednesday, March 20th, at 4:58 p.m. Central Daylight Time (5:58 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time).

The vernal equinox (autumnal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere) means that the days and nights are just about equal all over the world.  The word "equinox" comes from Latin words meaning "equal night".

So, as we in the Northern Hemisphere wait, here are a few beautiful still life studies of Spring flowers by Russian painter Sergey Potapov with which to welcome and ponder Spring 2019:

Still Life by Sergey Potapov (Russian)

Still Life by Sergey Potapov (Russian)

Still Life by Sergey Potapov (Russian)

(I found these paintings on Facebook, introduced HERE by Facebook user Samuel Cherubin via Art-katalog.com.)

It's World Book Day, March 7: For the Love of Books

Why We Read: 

Books are magic. They can take you anywhere you want to go.  They take you to different times; they let you visit people who lived hundreds of years earlier; they let you imagine what it would be like to live hundreds of years later.  You can be rich or you can be poor; you can experience anything through a book.

(A friend posted this illustration on Facebook . If I can find the source, I will credit it.) 

In honor of World Book Day, at least World Book Day in the UK, I'm going to reintroduce an article I wrote last year about the joy and magic of books:

At one time we had hundreds of books, actually we had several thousand books.  My first husband and I were both book collectors; our first date included a trip to a used book store with thousands of cheap books.  My ex-husband built bookshelves everywhere...  We had library stacks in the basement, library stacks in the extra rooms on the third floor; the closets that we didn't need for clothing or storage were turned into floor-to-ceiling book shelves. 

But then life changed..... 

The story continues here:

 For the Love of Books.......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Book_Day_(UK_and_Ireland) 

For The Love of Books

I love books.

Not just the function of books.  But real books with paper pages.  And sometimes with beautiful photographs or sketches.  Hard cover, paperback; that doesn't matter.. but BOOKS.  Not books you read online, not even Kindle books.  Books that smell like paper.  Even some with a touch of mustiness... REAL books.

Book chair by Alexander Love.  You can buy it at etsy! 

At one time we had hundreds of books, actually we had several thousand books.  My first husband and I were both book collectors; our first date included a trip to a used book store with thousands of cheap books.  My ex-husband built bookshelves everywhere...  We had library stacks in the basement, library stacks in the extra rooms on the third floor; the closets that we didn't need for clothing or storage were turned into floor-to-ceiling book shelves.    

At one time I had these books pretty well organized.  Fiction was in the basement, arranged alphabetically by author.  Greek and Roman history were in the back room of the third floor.  Psychology and philosophy were also in that back room.

When our son was born, we added more books.  Books about pregnancy and child-rearing.  Beautiful hard-covered picture books for children.  When I returned to teaching, we added shelves of books about child development, education, and teaching.

Well, life changes.

Happy Easter! Happy Passover! Easter Bunny detours....

The Easter Bunny gets a taste for something green and makes a detour:

Happy Easter!  Happy Passover!

More Easter humor HERE and HERE....

Easter foods and treats?  Boozy bunnies HERE and HERE, Easter egg Jello and pudding shots HERE and HERE, and simple Easter cakes HERE and HERE.

St. Patrick's Countdown: Nine Days until St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day falls on a Saturday this year; giving fans of the holiday -- Irish or those who are just Irish for the day -- extra time to celebrate and wear green!

We do know that everybody is Irish on St. Patrick's Day.. Actually though, tens of millions of people in the United States have Irish heritage.. including many millions who are unaware of their Irish roots.

There's another reason that so many celebrate the Saint:  St. Patrick's Day means that Spring is just around the corner and that's reason enough to celebrate, even if you don't have a proverbial drop of Irish blood.  But it is usually still pretty darned cold in Chicago, so we still need to wear coats when we watch the parade, watch the Chicago River being dyed green, or engage in some bar-hopping or pub-crawling or green-beer-drinking.

No idea where this vintage St. Patrick's Day card came from, but I found it at one of my favorite Facebook pages, Nanalulu's Linens and Handkerchiefs

Irish parades in various cities:

Chicago:  Listings for Chicago St. Patrick's Day festivities can be found HERE and HERE.

Atlanta touts Savannah as preparing for the "Nation's second largest St. Patrick's Day parade" HERE.  (If so, I had no idea.)

Boston:  Well, we know that people in Boston celebrate St. Paddy's Day.  Try this link for more information.

I'll add information about celebrations in various cities as I come across it. 

Irish (or kind of Irish) food and drink:

Two articles about Irish Soda Bread can be found at Cheese, Chocolate, and Other Delights:

1. Traditional Irish Soda Bread HERE.
2. Enhanced Americanized Irish Soda Bread HERE.

I've also got some great recipes for homemade Irish cream liqueur, Irish Stew, and a few others, some traditional recipes, some just fun.  So check back! 

I've already published this very faux-Irish (but very green)

dessert that will make a colorful addition to any St. Patrick's Day celebration:       

Original of this from Taste of Home, recipe reproduced HERE.