Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter eggs and lemons


After single handedly keeping Cadburys in business this Easter (thanks Easter Creme eggs!!) I decided that for our Easter dinner dessert this year I would avoid chocolate and go for a lighter flavour. I certainly was not doing traditional this year, having applewood barbecued pork loin with smashed potatoes and asparagus for the main meal - chocolate would not be missed at the end.

So when I went into the grocery store on Saturday they had blackberries and lemons on sale. Great! I knew I had some phyllo in the freezer so homemade lemon curd, blackberries and brown sugar Italian meringue with crispy phyllo layers would do the job.

Once at home I set to work. The kids were dying the Easter eggs and I was layering the phyllo and baking it off. I decided to wait until later that evening to make the lemon curd so the kids would be in bed and my full attention would be in the kitchen. Little did I know that my plan would hit a slight snag.

Happily sequestered in my kitchen, I started measuring the ingredients for the lemon curd and this is when Murphy's law set in. I had decided to buy a different brand of eggs and as I was separating them I noticed that the yolks were noticeably smaller than I was used to. When I had used up all my eggs I was stuck. It was late at night, stores were closed until Monday and I needed eggs. All that was left for me were the coloured Easter eggs that my children had lovingly decorated just hours before. I had to pause, the mom side debating the pastry chef side of me, before I reached for the eggs. Dessert trumped decoration in my house! Of course I felt guilty destroying my children's hard work but in the end I convinced them it was worth it - they loved the dessert and asked for seconds!

1 comment:

Kim -@ the Paper Apron said...

Thank you for opening up your comments- I think it's so much fun to read each others comments and see how people react to different recipes. This one does look perfectly beautiful! I've seen lemon curd in the store, but have never purchased it- and I've certainly never made it. I think it's high time I did so I can try this out!