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Each Holy Saturday evening we celebrate  two traditions in our home.
One is to make Caterpillars to add to our Easter basketsthis evening so  that when the children come down in the morning on Easter the caterpillars have become butterflies.

The second tradition is to make what we call Resurrection cookies.......
Now it sounds a lovely tradition and one day, perhaps when our children are all bigger and don't get really tired this will go smoothly as outlined  below.
However with our little ones they are often tired and so do not always respond as well as we would like (just so you realise we try to do these traditions as best we can with the circumstances we have. Our little children do not always respond as we would like as we continue forward each year. They get tired and cranky and frankly so do we).

Resurrection or Easter Story Cookies ~
(For a cane sugar alternative we used xylitol with a direct exchange of quantities. However our children found it way too sweet, so I would advise using less)


Ingredients:
 • Bible
 • 1 c whole pecans
 • 1 tsp. vinegar
 • 3 egg whites
 • pinch of salt
 • 1 c granulated sugar
 • 1 qt. or gal. size zipper bag
 • wooden spoon
 • tape


Directions:
 1.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.


 2.  Place pecans in ziploc bag and let kids beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces.
 Explain that after Jesus was arrested, He was beaten by the Roman soldiers. 
Read: John 19:1-3...... 
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in  the face.


 3.  Let each child smell the vinegar. 
Add teaspoon of vinegar into the mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross He was given vinegar to drink. 
Read John 19:28-30......
Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had  received the drink,Jesus said,"It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.


4. Add egg whites to vinegar. 
Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life.
Read John 10:10-11....
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."


5. Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl.
Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sins. 
Read Luke 23:27......
A large number of people followed Him, including women who mourned and wailed for Him.


 6.  So far the ingredients are not very appetizing. 
Add 1 cup of sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him.
 Read Psalm 34:8.....
Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him~and 
John 3:16.....
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."
7.  Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12-15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. 
Explain that the colour white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.
 Read Isaiah 1:18....."Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."
And John 3:1-3 .....
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."


 8. Fold in broken nuts.


 9. Line cookie sheet with waxed paper. Drop mixture by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.


10. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. 
Read Matthew 27:57-60......
 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.


 11. Place the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. 
Read Matthew 27:65-66....
 "Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how." So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting a guard.


 12. GO TO BED. Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. 
Read John 16:20....
 "I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy." 
And John 16:22...... 
"So with you~ Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy."


 13. On Easter morning, open the oven and remove the cookies. 
Take a bite. Notice~the cookies are hollow.
 On the first Easter Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty.
 Read Matthew 28:1-9.....
 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples: "He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him. Now I have told you." So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell His disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them, "Greetings," He said. They came to Him, clasped his feet and worshipped Him.
On Easter morning we took out our tombs, they seemed a little soft and spongy, but seemed to grim up as they cooled down......then we  and ate them.
Like I said they were quite sweet BUT they hadn't hallowed as they do normally. I think the xylitol needed to be cooked at a higher temperature than over night on low, which isn't what the recipe calls for in this case. But to make a meringue normally you will need to cook it on a high temp, and it will be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Incredible as it sounds Lent really seemed to go by so quickly, not because I was achieving lots of spiritual goals but because we were so busy with things, one of which was adjusting to our new eating routine. One year I really hope to have one of those awe inspiring Lents where I feel that my goals were accomplished.
So it was quite a surprise to me when Holy Thursday actually arrived.
Oh I knew it was coming, in fact I was sort of organised even, but when the day actually arrived I couldn't believe it was that close to Easter.
One of the things our girls were keen to do was to make a trifle which has been our traditional after Seder Meal desert. This year they wanted to do it themselves, I usually love doing this as trifle is one of my favourite deserts.
In fact they really enjoyed making this together and frankly it was certainly more lavish than I would make it.
So lavish in fact that when they put it in the fridge we had to put a tray underneath to catch the overflow. The results though were fantastic!!
Apart from our Seder meal the other main theme for the day was making our 'Crack me' eggs/
We had our table set nice an early for our meal and ready to get to Mass afterwards.
My carnivores nibbling the bones of the lamb roast as I was cutting it up.
Our script for the meal ready on the table
and the candles are lit and we begin.
This year we tried to make a grain free version of flat bread for the Seder meal, which unlike the recipe said it was more a  pancake than a pita bread.
A toast after the Seder celebration.........." to life, to life L'chai-im! L'chai-im, l'chai-im, to life " which is one of our favourite quotes from Fiddler on the Roof.
I love family life!!!!!!!!!!
And so Good Friday came about..............
and as we had not put up our Calvary Crosses today was the absolute last day to get them up!!
Saxon spent quite a bit of time getting bigger and better timber for the crosses but after spending a long time splitting a huge tree found that his Dad was not that keen to try to dig a hole, deep enough to go to China to put the tree trunk in. Oh that was after we found some way to drag it up from the bush.

So finally he was convinced to re-use our crosses from last year ( he still isn't convinced this makes a great enough impression) and we placed them further down the hill ( up another smaller Hill) so they are even more visible to passing traffic. We really like to try to make an effort to get people to think about what Easter is all about
As we could not have our traditional Fish Burgers this year (that not grain thing results in no bread for burgers) we had fresh gem fish and salmon with chips for this Friday meal.
One of the most precious memories for us outside our attendance at Church on Good Friday and Confession is the making of Hot Cross Buns. I honestly can not remember not making them for our family and the thought of bought ones, well let me say, yuck!
This year I was looking for a great gluten free or sourdough recipe but frankly did not have time to trial them before hand. So it was back to the standard recipe for us. Which the children were not unhappy about as it is a tradition they were loath to forgo.
I was worried about our reaction to the wheat based on one prior experience but we did not have any severe reactions. I think even home made is better than bought wheat filled items. Perhaps it is the other things they add as well?
Rogan was so keen to help with the kneading this year we hand knead our bread mostly and it is a pleasure I still enjoy.
Putting on the crosses made from flour and water. This is a significant step for me and I really enjoy this part.
Our buns out of the oven. Don't they look great? By the way if anyone has a really, really good grain free sweet bread recipe I would love to know what it is! I still have not found any breads that REALLY are breads as we know them.
The icing sugar glaze I would normally put on I substituted with coconut sugar dissolved in hot water with added allspice. It turned our just perfect! I brush this on straight after the buns come out of the oven, and i think this makes them extra tasty.
Of course Trahaearn had his first Hot Cross Bun this night, in fact he actually ate two. There were no left overs like there has been some years, but I did not really want any so didn't make as much as in precious years. We did notice some affects through the night and next day with the wheat but like I said not nearly as much as with a bought bread product.
Photos are really important to me in recording events for future looking back. This one was one was all about Trahaearn and his first Holy Week with us, and how very very thankful and grateful to have this special and precious little guy with us.

So what's next?
Well I have a couple more Easter posts and then I really want to share with you our food journey (what we have cooked and baked and how much we liked and disliked them) with Grain 'n' Sugar FREE.

Time, time is what slow me down.
Until next time dear friends............

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

The last few years we have really, really enjoyed making these 'crack me' eggs. We found the idea here and it is, one, probably the most popular activity prior to Easter. We usually do them during Holy Week and have been doing them over the last three days (Since starting this post we have completed them)
What are they you ask?
Well simply put they are  dyed eggshells filled with chocolate, lollies and/or toys and sealed at the bottom with cup cake paper.
WE simply used a knife to make a crack at the bottom or top of the eggs and emptied our eggs out to use later. I made custard and frittata with ours.
Then weI carefully rinsed out each eggshell. Eden was a great help with this part and she used a finger to scrape away the last bit of the egg white that is attached inside.
Then we filled a pot with water and submerged them in it. Then we brought it to the  to a boil. Once boiled we lowered  the heat and simmered for 10 minutes. You do need to skim any  foam from the top as it appears.
We cooled them by carefully rinsing them and put them on a draining rack on top of the stove and let them dry.
For our dye we can only use red as we only have brown eggs and not white and so can not use any pastel colours for this. However if you have white eggs you can create a variety of colours with this.
For the container above we used two cups of just boiled water and 4 tablespoons of vinegar, as we are not precise in colour we just poured our red food colouring in till we were happy with the colour.
Do not use a metal container or plastic for this part of the process, and do not stir them in the dye as they become splotchy..
We let them soak for five minutes and turned them over for another five.
We then prepared an area to dry the dyed eggs on. Skewers into the top of an egg carton works well and we use on to lift it out of the dyed water and place back into the egg carton to dry.
Vellvin really wanted to do them this year and  was very diligent.
However she got tired of wearing the gloves and ended up with a dyed red hand, which she really wasn't worried about.
Our eggs drying.
OK, so when your eggs are dried you get to fill them.
We put all ours inside that egg carton you had the skewers sticking out of and put our choice of lollies on plates. As we  are avoiding wheat filled lollies that really restricted our choice of fillings
Of course you could put small toys or home made little items in instead of chocolate.
So we have milk, white and dark chocolate drops and chocolate sultanas.
Then each of the children had a turn at filling 4 eggs with the choice of chocolate. We gave them a set amount each and they had to use no more than that.






Here you can see them filled and ready for the paper tops

Putting them into the eggs is a delicate process so we use an individual egg cup to do it
These are our slips of paper with 'crack me' on them and the cup cake papers.
Some of the children wanted to have 'crack me' in different languages and so used google translate to find out how they were written.
We cut down the cup cake papers to make them fit better
Glue them on top
attach the 'crack me' paper to the bottom of the cup cake paper and then.......they are finished.
Next simply put them back in the box and  have them ready for Easter Sunday.

Blessings to you and your homes,