Life at a "Swell's" pace

These pictures are a bit tardy, but nonetheless I felt like sharing them. There's more pictures of this epic Easter egg day over at Skylar's site and Jeff's oh, and more here. Check em out!

I love all the bright colors of the egg dye! So pretty, I just wish the eggs looked that bright when they came out of the bath.

Plush PEEPS!

As we were dying eggs, this was going on in the oven!

EASTER HAM!

They did a fantastic job!

Since it's always such a wet holiday here in Oregon, we hung plastic eggs and fill them with goodies. The wet grass doesn't work well with the dyed eggs, but we have other plans for the eggs we dye. hehe......

He found the golden egg! He was pretty happy about that one because it had 10 gold dollar coins in it and he has been asking for them for months!

The bunny left a cute, little basket and even left "droppings" on the stairs. That crazy bunny.

He even opened an Easter basket from Namaw in Arkansas.

And the bubbles were a hit.

My little bunny rabbit.

Yes, I know, I am a bit tardy on this and I have yet to post anything recently. So, won't you bare with me and stick around while we play catch up for a minute.

Here is a quick photo-capture of our 2011 Gingerbread House in the making. Very simple process and the kits that are out now make it even easier. I always think that gingerbread houses should be sold year around, because they are just so darn fun to make and then eat, right?

Quick Gingerbread

Serves:12

255 calories per serving

Ingredients needed:

Nonstick cooking spray

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup light molasses

2 large eggs, beaten

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup firmly packed minced ginger

Confectioner's Sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle flour into the pan and shake out the excess.

2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt and set aside. In another bowl, whisk together molasses, eggs, oil, and buttermilk.

3. Dissolve baking soda in a cup of boiling water and fold into the molasses, then combine into the dry ingredients until well combined. Don't over mix. Add ginger.

4. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake until the center comes out clean (About 40 minutes). Cool for 10 minutes and invert onto a cooling rake. Dust with confectioner's sugar before serving.