Easter Means More To Me Than Tree Blosoms and Golden Rod

This Saturday we woke up to a wonderfully wonderful day. The temperatures entered the 70s and life was fine. We celebrated the day by hitting up the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where if you enter on any given Saturday by 12noon you get in free! It's a deal since we live a short 7 minute walk away. Our good friend Shannon trekked across Prospect Park to accompany us. Shannon is also pregnant. Due just over a month ahead of me. Isn't this a great pregnant belly shot? I have really started to show in the last two weeks. You can't see Shannon's as much because of the angle she's standing at - too bad...

We saw some amazing Magnolia blossoms. Did you know they came in bright magenta like this?! I didn't. So amazing. In the pics above those are other types of smaller white star magnolias lining the walk.

Here are some buds that are about to burst!

I made go to Dunkin' Doughnuts with me on the way to the gardens (it is across the street from the entrance) to get my jelly doughnut I have been craving for the past several weeks. We ended up getting a "crave pack" of the doughnut holes and shared them with Shannon. I think I must have eaten half the pack. I am still uncertain this has staved off my craving for them though. I may have to stop in later this week and pick up the real thing. There just isn't enough jelly in those little holes. Plus, I think I want a lemon or raspberry filled and that's a slightly different animal than straight up jelly-filled.


Theo shaved his beard for the spring. Isn't his new Phase One of beard removal fabulous! I was a little unsure at first but after two days I am sold! I convinced him to go to Easter service and work this week like this. Who do you think he looks like? One of our friends said Doc Holiday.


The two weeping cherries were in full and beautiful blossom. This is just their tops on the bright blue sky. So glorious! In another couple weeks will be the cherry blossom festival they have every year and there is a whole avenue of regular cherry trees that would take your breath away.

A couple posts ago I mentioned a dish named Golden Rod. When we came back from the BBG I whipped some up for brunch since we sure wouldn't have any on actual Easter (we went to brunch at a friend's house; it was a feast to remember!). Below you can find the recipe but first I'll tell you why it's important. This is the dish I remember eating every year on Easter with my family. This dish came through my mother's family from her mother who learned how to make in a Home Economics class in High School (circa 1935!). It's a great dish to serve kids for three reasons. You can use the hard-boiled eggs you previously died after the Easter egg hunt is over. As you see below you use food coloring in the sauce to turn it any jaunty shade that strikes your fancy! Finally, it's incredibly easy! It's a basic white sauce with eggs in it. Here is the recipe for two servings but it's easy to multiply so don't be bashful.

Golden Rod

4 hard-boiled eggs
2 English Muffins (plain or whole wheat, you can use regular bread in a pinch)
3 T. butter
+/- 2 T. flour
+/- 1c. milk
salt and pepper

Shell the eggs and carefully separate yolks from whites. Place yolks in a small bowl and mash until crumbled, set aside. Roughly chop the whites, set a side.

Melt 2 T. of the butter over med-low heat. Add in flour and stir to make a thick paste (you may need a little more). Very Slowly! add in milk until you have a nice saucy consistency. If you add too much milk the sauce will be too runny. I like mine thick enough to sit on the back of a fork but runny enough to run through the tines if you sit there. Now you have your basic white sauce! Add the chopped egg whites and salt and pepper to taste. Continue heating up over the med-low burner until egg whites are warm, do not let your sauce simmer! Add in your food coloring. You can make this whatever color you like (or leave it white) but start slowly as one drop goes a long way! Make sure you stir in the color completely before you add more color. I used one drop blue and one drop yellow to achieve the beautiful turquoise green pictured here.

Separate and toast your English muffins and butter with remaining 1T. butter.

Arrange two muffin halves on each plate. Spoon egg white sauce over the top, it should spill over the sides and onto the plate. Garnish with the crumbled egg yolks and ENJOY!


Let me know if you make Golden Rod. I would love to hear about your experience! Below you can see me getting ready for my first bite. And no that purple thing on my plate is unfortunately not a jellybean, it's my prenatal vitamin! It's only confusing until you try to bite into it. Oh the colors and sizes these things come in!