of baking and other things

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baking, chocolate eggs, food, happy, new paint, paint brushes, quotes, restaurants

After a lovely day spent with friends, good food and lounging in front of an open fire, today feels more subdued, tranquil even. The street is quite, no cars filled with people rushing off to church, family visits or other trips, no kids squabbling over chocolate eggs and even the pigeons that normally ‘gurr’ seem to have lost their voices.

My morning has been peaceful and relaxed, I spend a luxurious amount of time lingering over a cup of tea and a book. Very opposed to yesterday where my morning was filled with family chats and baking an Easter loaf.

But somehow I feel energised, excited about the day that feels filled with promise. And I can’t help but think about the German saying “In der Ruhe liegt die Kraft” (There is power in tranquility). Although I am a little unsure of what that may really mean, or how it may express itself, I am willing to wait and see.

And so far it has worked out well, I have managed to make my bed,  put on a wash, hang it up, clean my floors and even write this blog without breaking a sweat or feeling it was work.  Inspired by all this  “doing” I think I will  bake another loaf just for myself and maybe even break in the new paint brushes I bought last week in an attempt to reignite my passion for painting. But before I do any of that I have a little project I have been meaning to do for a while now and think today is the perfect day to take a few minutes to do it, let my energy create a little something new.

Like that wonderful Moody Blues song Higher and Higher puts it so well:

Climb to tranquility, finding it’s real worth, conceiving the heavens flourishing on earth

a home baked eater loaf

chocolate eggs and a snotty nose

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chocolate, chocolate egg, chocolate eggs, christian holiday, christianity, cocoa butter, cooking, Easter, easter eggs, eggs, food, holiday, miscellaneous, painted eggs, photography, photos, random, skype, snotty nose

I awoke this morning to a skype-session with my year-and-a-half year old chocolate covered nephew and a snotty nose. His parents had forced him to say thank you for the egg-shaped Irish treats I had sent him and we spend a few minutes stuffing our faces (him), blowing our noses (me) and singing “itsy bitsy spider” (both of us).

Since Easter is probably the most important christian holiday around it does always surprise me how few people really know what is celebrated. So instead of thinking about Jesus dying for or sins and then rising from the dead to save us all,  most people spend their time devouring one chocolate egg after another thanking the Easter Bunny.

It really is surprising that the reason eggs dominate Easter goes back to the fact that the church didn’t allow eggs to be eaten in the week (Holy Week) leading up to Easter Sunday. To not waste the eggs laid in Holy Week they were painted and given to the children on Easter Sunday as gifts.

The Victorians  (1820-1900) then came up with the idea of making satin covered cardboard eggs and filled them with little gifts. This idea prompted craftsmen to start making eggs out of porcelain and later silver and gold. The ultimate Easter Eggs of the 19th Century were of course Fabergé’s creations that he made for Tzar Alexanders wife Marie.

But trust the Germans and French to come up with a more edible idea. In the early 19th century they made the very first chocolate eggs. Sadly they were a little bitter and hard but over time, as chocolate became softer and easier to mould, they perfected the know commonly known hollow variety.

However it was Cadburys introduction of pure cocoa in 1966 , combined with the Dutch invention of a press that separated the cocoa butter from the bean (1982), that allowed the mass production of Easter Eggs as we know them today.

So whether the fox (some parts of southern Germany) , the cuckoo (Switzerland) or the Easter Bunny left you a chocolaty treat today maybe spend a minute thanking the industrial revolution for the chocolaty goodness melting in your mouth. And while you nibble, chew and smile say a grateful prayer, celebrating the true meaning of Easter.

Some hand painted eggs in my window