craving coconut cake

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I can just see my Mother rushing about on Saturday putting the finishing touches on Easter outfits. One year she sewed a cream linen shift with blue trimmings and a blue linen cape to match. I'm sure I had a hat- or maybe just a new ribbon or trimming from the dress. It would all have matched. Beautifully turned out-except for the white patent leather shoes-of course they should have been cream-but really-that was not happening. If Mother did not sew- Daddie shopped for me. He always seemed to lean toward sailor ensembles. Once a sporty navy jacket with brass buttons and pleated skirt- topped off with a white beret-red, white and blue ribbons streaming from the side. I loved that hat. Yes, tailored sailor suits for his little girl- after all he was a Naval man. As evidenced by the cape, Mother preferred something more feminine- but again navy blue seemed to be a  style choice both parents embraced. A spiffy navy and white houndstooth spring coat with matching dress that boasted a very smart white bib made of neat organdy ruffles. A white bowler  finished off this look and the white patents did to, but I wore the black so I could carry my favourite handbag-the only one I owned at the time. An especially stylish two piece suit made of cotton with sprigs of flowers tossed about was another Easter look-sporty. I am sure the Boys got new ties or something like that.

Mother was busy during this holiday-besides doing wardrobe- she always baked a coconut cake. Not just any coconut cake but one that looked just like an Easter bunny-Didn't everyone have one? Yes, an Easter bunny cake-replete with jelly beans made from scratch. It followed-Easter. Coconut Cake. The coconut cake's decoration evolved as her children grew older. The bunny turned into a fresh green (coconut) lawn (sheetcake) and jelly beans hid in the landscape (icing). Mother no longer bakes-in fact-she was never a baker-but come Easter. Coconut Cake.
 

 just like this-it's lovely really but Mother is an artist
and Our Bunny was quite painterly (the cake from here)

Easter corsages were the thing that finished off the Easter outfit. Occasionally my GranMa would make one for my Mother and I, oft times the florist was called and corsages were dropped off on Saturday- ordering up something that would be just perfect for a sailor.My mother looked particularly beautiful on these Easter Sunday mornings. None of the hectic Saturday wear of playing wardrobe mistress showed, nor the evening rounds of Sunday school lessons and overseeing my Saturday night shampoo. Mother always looked right- whether dressing up in the nautical style we so embraced or wearing a yellow two piece slubbed linen. The perfect yellow for Easter, I think. The colour of the hundreds of living  peeps I would have been visiting out at my great grandmother's over the last few weeks prior to Easter.

The formidable MaMa & her daughter Eustean raised chickens-thus little biddy-peeps were always popping up to strengthen the brood. The kitchen was prime real estate for the appliance size boxes full of chicks. That country kitchen housed a massive much used cook stove and assured the chirpping yellow masses would be warm. Holding them, I thought of the sad little purple and greens biddys I had seen at the dime store. Did they ever survive? They looked so sad-I pitied those little peeps. Poor peeps- likely their fate was no different from MaMa's chicks, or for my brother's pet duck whose life was "cut short" when he went to live with his relatives. These two ladies were of sturdy German stock, little sentiment was allowed when it came to a pet duck versus a savory Sunday lunch on the table, but that's another story.

After much success with wardrobe at Sunday services, the long awaited Easter Egg hunt at Naomi and Lewis's (my grandparents-they liked to be call by their first names) commenced.
Hidden eggs, cousins, the prize. I don't remember what it was, probably money. I never won, but with each egg I collected dozens of Easter memories were being put away for a day like today when nothing but coconut cake will do.

Happy Easter-whatever your preferences might be.

(last year's little augury Easter Posts here and here)
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Easter Brunch Try a Little Bunny Food with Eggs: Baked Eggs with Spinach

This recipe....is one of those easy but sophisticated ones that can serve as a late morning breakfast, or brunch staple....baked eggs and spinach.



First, you blanch some spinach, dropping in boiling water for 30 seconds to a minute, and then lining a lightly greased oven safe bowl with about a half a cup of the spinach.

Break two eggs over the top of the spinach, and pop in the oven at 375 degrees (200 C) +/-, for about 15-20 minutes, or until the eggs are cooked to your liking.

The result is an almost quiche like consistency, that is tasty and there are no carbs.....it is also something that can be served at a table in the garden or at the kitchen counter, where traditional egg dishes can get cold quickly or are impractical....really simple and simply delicious!  Thanks again to Donna Hay!

Shall We Gather?

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...it all started with Dafs. As mentioned my favorite yellow- and for some reason this year, I have been remiss in gathering them. My grandmother had borders thick- and never- did she pick.

Dafs in tulipiere

Maybe just an occasional bloom or two would go in her heavy brass vase made in India. She never visited India~ Nor could I imagine her there- though she did follow my grandfather to a little town- gathering wayside flowers as she traveled- not taboo in the 20's.

Naomi, a triple exposure with the fading figure of my grandfather in the background

I have always enjoyed masses of daffodils in the house- however after writing about my preference to gather- it seemed that this year- I wanted to drink them in as Naomi did-where they grow. Flower petals, stem and bulb all feeding til they fade. Naomi gathered family; this was her preference.

but With the Dafs fading, I decided to gather. Admiring the nuanced colors, many specimens and generally gushing over them in a simple white tulipiere.





I plant a few new Daffodils every year- I have accumulated: simple Dafs that naturalize, Tazetta, Jonquil, Daffodil White Lion, Delmashaugh, Narcissus Thalia, Calgary, Snow, Safina, Lemon Drop (Double Dafs)- to name a few.... the hunting part.

...& then, along came the eggs. Eighteen to be exact. A dozen and a half beautiful eggs in extraordinary wash of colors.

eighteen eggs

I was bowled over. My gentlemen farmer friends (really a she and a he)- gathered these and dropped them off at the house right before Easter. What luck to have perfectly dyed eggs- compliments of nature and of friends. Had I tried to get these shades- I would have failed, Miserably.




Fairly new friends, these "farmers", We met while gathering in our small- shall we say- Southern Gothic town to campaign for Barack Obama. A small group gathered new voters throughout the summer- anxious to see how far this little place had come. I thought to myself-If everyone across the country in places like this are gathering too ( A Miracle in of itself) Change Will Come.

Southern Gothic uptown

Change did come. New Friendships came.

...and then the eggs.







...that started me thinking about another collection of Eggs I had gathered; the last of a vast collection of prints from the NATURAL HISTORY of the NESTS and EGGS of BRITISH BIRDS by the Rev. F. O. MORRIS. Purchased in a baker's dozen, the overwhelmingly nuanced collection were the eggs no one else wanted.






What fascinates is the ever so slight difference in each of the prints.

the British Eggs of Reverend F.O. Morris

...landing me right in the chicken coops and hen houses of my great grandmother- Avie Eustean Fleig, known to all as MaMa.

MaMa was ancient when I was born, so it seemed to me and when she died at the age of 89- I was 19. MaMa was not so ancient, but the world had changed and she was still"of her day," not to mention the fact that M. sewed for four daughters, designed an occasional wedding dress for a county bride, gardened-vegetables and flowers, tended chickens, chopped wood, wielded a mean shovel to put down a snake and cooked on a wood stove most of her life (another topic to be sure). She sat in the kitchen in a rocker near the radio-Supervising. I guess it was her throne of sorts and well deserved.

Gathering~
the MaMa I always knew

I remember MaMa-
a two story log house- with a newel post that as a child- I could not get my arms around, yet every time I went out to MaMa's I would try it out. Eventually I was able to ring around and wondered what the fuss was all about.

...but about the Eggs. Always in abundance at MaMa's, along with huge cardboard boxes of little peeps in the kitchen around the same time each year.


Peeps to Coops, to Chicken Yard, to Eggs. MaMa sold eggs to a local grocer and to "private clients." MaMa gathered it all- family too. Pictures lined the polished log walls in her sitting room and bedroom- dozens and dozens, daughters traveling, moving far, but staying near-through still images and stories MaMa told... as we gathered round her chair.


We all gather, and if blessed- the simple things and the irreplaceable people come our way.


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Look What I Got!

a designer's dream palette-

what is your dream palette?

...more on these eggs to come