What Happened to May Day?

Since the 21st century, the May Basket tradition has wilted. I remember constructing baskets back in elementary school from wallpaper samples, construction paper, and paper plates. We would pick flowers from mom's garden to fill them.

My best friend Kathy and I couldn't wait to run down the street to her grandmother's house and hang a basket on her door knob, ring the bell and run away, giggling hysterically until we reached the next house and did it all over again. We'd circle the whole neighborhood, leaving baskets at our friend's houses and then hide in the bushes with our hearts pounding in our chests, waiting to see the smile on the face of the person who answered the door.

Isn’t it time to revive the May basket tradition? Don’t you know someone who could use a bit of cheer? Have you noticed that the rain has everything blooming?

May Baskets are easy to construct. Cut a circle out of construction paper and roll it into a cone. Use a ribbon or a paper strip to form the handle. The bouquet doesn't need to be elaborate. In fact, you can make paper flowers if you don't want to use real ones. You can even find little baskets at the 99 Cents Store and little bunches of silk flowers. Once you decide on the recipient, quietly approach the door, hang the basket on the knob, ring the doorbell and RUN LIKE HECK! It's supposed to be anonymous and I guarantee you'll be giggling like a kid again.

I'm always blown away how when we bless someone else, we're blessed ten-fold in return. Put a smile on your neighbor or friend’s face this May Day!

I can't wait to hear your stories...
~Mary

Lemon Peel Candy

In honor of our Annual Lemon Festival, I decided to make lemon peel candy.  I have tried to make orange peel candy in the past with some success and thought that lemon would work too.  I have a good friend whose tree's seem like they continuously produce lemons so its nice to find another use for them.

The recipe is really easy and goes like this. . . . .





Cut the top and bottom off of about 10 lemons and then quarter them.  Peel the skins off of the lemon quarters (save the lemons for another recipe like lemon-aid or you can freeze for later).






Cut the skins into about 1/4 inch slices.   Place in a pot, fill with cold water and bring to a boil.  Once it boils drain and rinse with cold water.  Repeat process of cooking the peels with fresh cold water, boiling and rinsing.

In a saucepan put 4 cups of sugar into 2 cups of water.  Whisk mixture,  bring to a boil, and add the peels.  Simmer for about 45 minutes.  Peels should be tender.




Transfer the cooked peels to a drying rack with wax paper and let dry for about 1 hour.  Roll the slices in sugar and there you have it- Lemon Peel Candy.  Store in an airtight container.


We will be serving some during the Lemon Festival so stop by before its all gone!

Hope to see you this weekend!
Corrie

13th Annual Lemon Festival

We wanted to let you know that we're open special hours for this year's Lemon Festival (April 23 - 25):

Friday - 12 - 8

Saturday - 10 - 8

Sunday - 12 - 4

Come down and have some fun!  There's rides, music and lots of fattening food!  Visit Speckled Hens and look for our Lemon Specials!

Farmer's Market is happening every Thursday evening until December from 5:30pm - 9:00pm.  Speckled Hens is open until 7:30pm.

Chicks' Pick

Each week we will highlight one of our products that we LOVE here at Speckled Hens.  This week,  I chose our Mission Harvest Olive Oil, specifically our Lemon Infused Olive Oil - $13.95, just in time for the Upland Lemon Festival next week.  Mary Lake-Thompson starts with extra virgin olive oil, cold pressed from one of their one hundred-year-old olive trees and then infuses it with lemon.  The olive orchard is located in Northern California which happens to be the perfect climate to grow olives.  Use this olive oil to make a great refreshing salad dressing or I found a great looking recipe on foodnetwork.com, "linguine with shrimp and lemon oil" from Giada.  I can't wait to try it out and let you know what I think.   

Have a great week!
Corrie   

A Good Egg

Since my whole family decided to follow the Zone Diet, we've been going through eggs like crazy.  I've been hard-boiling just about every other day.  I thought I'd pass on what I've learned on how to hard-boil a perfect egg because the only way I knew how to do it was boiling it to death like my mom did...then I found a better way!  

I only put as many eggs in the pan as will fit on the bottom and cover completely with water.  I cover them and bring them to a boil.  As soon as they're boiling, I turn the flame down to simmer, leave the cover on, and set the timer for 15 minutes.  Once the timer goes off, I drain the hot water out, immediately cover with cold tap water and then plunge handfuls of ice into the pan.  The cold water keeps the yolks nice and yellow and the ice causes the egg to shrink away from the shell so they peel easily.  I can't tell you how many years I struggled with peeling eggs.  But the ice works every time!  Of course all of this only works if you remember that you actually PUT a pan of eggs on to boil, unlike me the other day who proceeded to take a shower and forget all about them!  Yep, that's right, eggs exploded, water boiled away, and the kitchen smelled just dandy!

Easter dinner at our house means deviled eggs.  Everyone seems to love my deviled eggs, especially my kids, so I'm passing on the recipe.  It's really nothing stupendous.  All I do is add Miracle Whip, Seasoned Rice Vinegar, Mustard, and Pepper to the egg yolks.  Yep, that's it.  There's something about the Miracle Whip and rice vinegar that just gives them a good tang - better than regular mayonnaise and regular vinegar.  I can't really tell you amounts because I just plop a little of each and keep adding until it's right.  Sometimes I stir in a little bacon, sometimes I don't.  I prefer them sprinkled with a little dill, rather than paprika, but you can do whatever you like.

 Happy Cracking!
~Mary

Easter Fun

  The other day I was talking with a customer about her Easter plans and asked her if she was going to do an egg hunt.  She had said that her youngest grandson was already 10 and that he was probably too old to enjoy it.  I had told her that my family loves the "egg hunt".  We actually look forward to it.  What we do is fill plastic eggs with money.  We fill them with change- some pennies, some quarters and then we have some with $1's, $5's,  and one with $20.  Everyone has fun, adults, teenagers and the kids!   My customer said what a great idea and decided to do it as well.   Actually, she came back during our 40% off Easter Sale and said that she was already for her "egg hunt".  She had bought iTune cards and some Starbucks gift cards and told her grandchildren- be prepared and ready for the hunt because grandma has some surprises for them. 

  I came by Speckled Hens today to say hi to Mary and Laurie and told them about this story.  All the customers in the store chimed in on what they do for their Easter egg hunt as well.  One customer said that they also put money in some eggs and then in some they put truth and dare activities  (like cluck like a chicken, hop like a bunny, who really ripped the kitchen linoleum.)   One customer said that she put lottery tickets in some and that her kids love to scratch them no matter if they win money or not.  Another customer mentioned that you can have a golden egg as the top prize that's the hardest to find.  The finder gets bragging rights until next year. 

Have a Happy Easter! 
Whatever you do, enjoy your family and don't forget to celebrate the true meaning of Easter.

God bless,

Corrie