May the Easter bunny bring you coffee as well…

easter, holidays | March 31, 2013 | By

Cartoon with God placing coffee in the angels halos with the caption that says "Oh, that's what those are for!"

Whether today has religious meaning for you, is a day for hanging out with friends or family, or is the one day a year you get to play Easter bunny to pull pranks on the kids by miscounting how many eggs are left….. Have a great holiday! ;)

Quirky lettuce bunny – How does she keep her leaves so crisp?

bunny, easter, vegetables, vegetarian, veggies | January 31, 2013 | By

Sheridyn Fisher dressed as a bunny with lettuce leaves as rabbit ears and a bikini. The caption says "Be a bunny's honey. Go vegetarian." PETA advertisment for going vegan or vegitarian.

“I’d go vegetarian for that.” <— says every guy the first time he sees the picture. :P

This is actually a rather old picture that I’ve been holding onto. I couldn’t figure out if it was PG enough for QC, but ultimately, it *is* quirky and it *is* a bunny, so I had to.

The alternative was for me to try to recreate the photo myself and I’m pretty sure nobody wants to see that attempt, lol. And as a true meat eater, I couldn’t justify trying to pull off saying things like “Vegan meals are healthy, humane, and helpful to the environment, so they’re something everybunny can enjoy!” *cringes at the lameness* Still a great photo, though!

Chinese tea eggs – Marbled eggs for Easter?

asian, canada, easter, edible art, eggs, food art, tea | January 24, 2013 | By

Chinese tea egg
 
Tea eggs are a traditionally an Asian snack that’s sold by in street markets. It’s usually savory and flavored with Chinese five-spice powder, but the really cool part about them is that they’re marbled.
 
While living in Vancouver, one of the handy side effects is that I was exposed to way more Asian culture than I ever expected.
 
When I first saw these, it made me immediately think of Easter eggs. I love when some of them get “accidentally” cracked and the dye seeps inside, leaving a similar effect as the picture above….but way more colorful.
 
I have never flavored boiled eggs directly, though, so I thought I’d try it out in a more traditional way. And the idea of using tea was kind of interesting.
 
I don’t know that I’ll do it again. I don’t like just how cooked they end up being. You’ll see below a picture of the inside where half of the yolk ends up gray. That’s the result of overcooking. You can’t exactly avoid overcooking, though, because you let them seep in the hot water/tea for at least 20 minutes after the initial cooking time before ever considering putting them in the refrigerator.
 
I couldn’t really taste much either. They just ended up tasting like rubbery (another result of overcooking) boiled eggs that were several days old. I’m glad I tried them out, though, and I’d love to see them in a more authentic environment some time because I bet they’d be better.
 
Now onto the pictures. I got some really interesting marbling, including a couple that ended up looking marbled. Oh, and one of the eggs ended up cracking all the way through to the yolk, so the white absorbed way more of the tea and left a huge dark crater on one side. That egg wasn’t delicious at all, ha.

 
Chinese five spice powder eggs

Cracked eggs for Asian tea eggsCracked shell for a marble egg

Dark lines on a boiled egg - Asian tea eggs

Tea stains on boiled eggs China

Asian tea leaf steeped boiled eggs

Boiled egg sliced open. The yolk is dark grey from being overcooked. The outer white is marbled with tea.

Tie-dyed easter egg from cracking shellMarbled tea eggs with dark spotty lines and dots

 
Cracked boiled egg with deep chewy crevicesBoiled tea leaf eggs steeped for 20 minutes and 3 days to create spider web lines
 
I’m not posting a recipe because there are tons around online. They’re all very similar and very basic, so just find one that works for you. Use whatever black tea you want and flavor with something Chinese-sounding….Chinese five spice, soy sauce, cinnamon, star anise, etc.