Easter food- notes to self

Deviled eggs.  Any reason you can't put them on a paper napkin to keep them from sliding around? Cut the napkin to the edges of the dish and covered w saran wrap.
Was hungry for peanut butter bon bons, but didn't want to make all the balls.  Ted tested the melted chocolate mixture on parchment paper and wax paper.  After freezing the chocolate came off of both easily, but we thought the parchment paper worked better.  The bonbons work very well as bars, and much easier to make. Next time make the peanut mixture and freeze in the pan shape before melting the chocolate.  That way we can (hopefully) lift out the frozen slab of peanut and place on top of the bottom chocolate layer.

A big bee

Not sure I can really catch up on all the haps over the past few weeks. Finally got my seeds planted March 28, which turns out to be a month later than in 2010.  They are being pretty slow but I should be able to transplant tomatoes at the end of the week provided I have time to weed out a place for them in the garden.

Have been busy rooting out elm suckers. Saturday was a pretty nice day and I spotted this guy darting about in the front garden.  He was darned hard to photograph, since he would constantly dart about and then return to hoover over the Salvia, which wasn't blooming, I think he was just guarding his spot.  I got lucky with this photo.  I took a look at the back garden and saw several of these guys mixing it up.  Haven't seen the males before (ever!) or since, but the females are around because they like my sweet peas var "Matacuna" which have naturalized in my yard.

Things are about as green as they can get these days.  Have taken to biking around the lake after our trip up the hill.

Make a list, use it

Friday April 1st was F's Jr Recital.  We had offered to help with the reception. We spoke on the phone and F gave me a list of things she wanted us to bring, which I jotted down on a piece of paper. I followed up with an email stating what we would bring. Friday I put everything we were going to take on the kitchen table. Then I went and checked the list in my sent email. Ah, I'd forgotten the crock pot. And the cutting board.

Our friend Pam went with us. She was under strict orders to be on time, and she was early.  But we were ready early too, so we all piled into the car.  She had bought the most gorgeous flowers for F.  I got out a vase that F had left behind that I thought would work perfectly, and off we went to Sacramento.  It was a gorgeous day.  Over 80 degrees.

Even though we had been to her friend's recital and reception, the details of setup had not all sunk in.  In retrospect I would do two things differently.
1) I would buy some cheap plastic or paper table cloths so that we didn't have to put everything on the not overly clean tables.
2) I would bring stuff for the cleanup afterwards, containers to put left over food in, and some extra napkins for the cleanup.  F and her friend had made the most wonderful cheesecake and I really would have liked to swipe a few pieces.

The recital was great.  F's performance was flawless and she looked beautiful.

The reception setup looked good, helped immeasurably by Pam's flowers.  We got many thanks from the attendees, which was funny since F and her friends did most of the work.  Finished up w dinner for F and D at the Elephant Bar, which was really noisy.

That was 2 weeks ago now.   Feels like it happened much longer ago!