CRAFTS: Decorating Easter Eggs

In the run up to Easter, here's an egg decorating special for you all!

I love decorating Easter eggs. It's one of those crafts than can be enjoyed by kids and grownups alike. 

You can create cute and funny animals or make your eggs as fancy as you like.



Many people boil eggs before decorating them, but if you want your works of art to keep, you can blow the eggs out and paint the empty shell. 

Hard boiled eggs sometimes work better for small children because they break less easily. If painting with children, don't forget to use non-toxic water based paints.

Below is a step by step guide to blowing out egg, plus a few decorating suggestions. 

Have fun!

Materials:

For blowing out the eggs:

Eggs

A nail or a thin pointed screwdriver

Round toothpicks

Clear nail varnish or picture laquer

For decorating kids' "animal eggs"

Paints and brushes

Glue

Scissors

Cardboard

The cardboard tube from a toilet roll

Instructions:

1. Wash the eggs. Yeah, you know where they've been!


2. Start by making a small hole at each end of an egg. Twist the sharp end of a thin nail or a pointed screwdriver against the end of the egg, applying pressure carefully so the egg doesn't crack. Repeat on the other end of the egg.







2. Once the egg has a hole at each end, push a toothpick in and prod at the yolk inside to break it. 










3. Once the yolk is broken, hold the egg over a bowl and blow hard into one of the holes. The egg will begin to pour out the other end. If it doesn't, use the tooth pick once more. Once the egg is empty, wipe it dry. (Then make a delicious tortilla española or a revuelto later.)

Decorating the Animal Eggs: 

1. Decide what decorations you want to do. I decided to do three fun animals - a chick, a pig and a frog. Paint each egg entirely with a base colour first and leave to dry.

2. Make the "animal feet" using the cardboard tube from inside a toilet roll - and cut some ears and a snout for the pig, some eyes for the frog and a beak for the chick...

3. Glue the bases, eyes and other body parts onto the animals and paint them…

Painting the Fancy Decorative Eggs:

1. Paint the eggs in a base colour and leave to dry. If you want the eggs to 'harmonize', then choose only three or four colours. I chose royal blue, bright red and gold.

2. You can either paint the eggs standing in eggcups, painting the top half first, then letting it dry and doing the other half later. Or you can push them onto skewers, knitting needles, etc. Place a little bit of scotch tape below the egg to stop it from sliding. Stick the skewer or needle into a halved potato to keep it steady. Now you can easily paint the eggs all the way round.

3. Show your Easter eggs off in swanky egg cups or shot glasses!

My family is looking forward to the Easter holidays already. Wishing you a lovely spring break too!

COOKING: Roast Chicken

Mmmm… there's nothing tastier than an oven roasted chicken served with chunky vegetables and potatoes.

I like oven cooking because it allows me to potter about doing other stuff while the food pretty much takes care of itself.

Here's a quick way to give your chicken a juicy Mediterranean flavour.

This dish normally serves four people, but can stretch to six - just add extra potatoes and vegetables.

Ingredients:

A whole chicken, cleaned

One lemon

Rosemary

Basil/Tarragon - or both

Sea salt

A few glugs of olive oil

Four large potatoes

Two carrots - two per head

One red pepper

One large onion

One head of garlic

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 210 ºC.

2. Wash the chicken inside and out and put it into a roasting tray. 

2. Cut the lemon in half. Remove all the garlic garlic cloves. Don't peel them, just place them on a chopping board with the butt of a knife resting on them one at a time, giving each a good whack with the your fist on the knife handle. This will crack the cloves, allowing the juice and the flavour to escape while cooking. 

3. Stuff your chicken with the lemon halves, about 5-6 garlic cloves, and the herbs. Save a twig or two of rosemary for the vegetables. Hold the chicken so the legs are pointing up, then pour in two glugs of olive oil inside, so it drizzles down into the stuffing. Place it back in the middle of the roasting tray. Rub the chicken skin with a bit of olive oil and sea salt.

4. Put the chicken in the oven, middle shelf. Set your timer on 35 minutes. 

5. Peel the carrots and chop them roughly, size is up to you (if they are very small you can leave them whole). Wash the potatoes well. Chop them up into bite size chunks, skin on. Chop the red pepper and onion roughly the same. Remove the rest of the garlic cloves and crush them as before.

6. Put the potatoes, vegetables and garlic onto a roasting tray and pour over a few glugs of olive oil. Sprinkle with half a handful of rosemary leaves and some sea salt, mix.

7. When the times goes, lower the chicken down to a bottom shelf and put the vegetable tray in on top, but not touching the top of the oven. Use this time to baste the chicken. (If the two trays do not fit into your oven like this, alternatively you can cover the chicken with tin foil and move it up, and place the veg tray on the bottom. When removing them later, pop the vegetables up for 5-10 minutes to give them "crunch".) 

8. Set the timer for 45 minutes. You may want to baste the chicken once more during this time. 

9. When the timer goes, check if the chicken is done by pushing in a sharp knife. If clear liquid flows out, it's ready. If not, leave in for another 10-15 minutes and repeat the knife test.

Serve and enjoy!