And it's funny, because when I think about it, it hasn't seemed quite like Easter for about 40 years now. And it probably HAS been that long since the last time I remember enjoying this tradition.
But it WAS a tradition of the best kind. Every year, sort of like the flu... And right now as I'm remembering it, it's almost as if I'm back THERE... sitting around that kitchen table once again... in that vinyl upholstered "booth" with the boomerang patterned formica... just waiting to get started. Now that I think about it, it was probably one of the sweetest memories of my childhood.
Looking at this somehow brings back a lot of other memories like fish sticks, spinach, artichokes, liver, homework... and oh yes, I almost forgot the chicken pot pies.
But it also makes me want to revert to things such as sucking on a bottle and picking fuzz off a blankie...
Anyway... making the sugar eggs involved mixing sugar and egg whites(?) together and then packing the mixture into one of those plastic easter egg molds. Then it would get thumped out onto a baking pan where it would bake for... a while. While that was going on the frosting, consisting of powdered sugar, water, corn starch and food coloring (I think) would be mixed and then wrapped into several different cake decorating packets with different colors of frosting and tool tips on each... probably about 12 to 14 of them.
There were always alot of packets full of white frosting with a regular little single holed tool which is what was used to make all the bunnies and swans... which then had to sit on the cookie sheet for quite a while in order to harden. I'm still not sure how mom made them. But probably with the same artistic flair and swing of the wrist that created all those bunny, swan and kitty pancakes all those years as well.
But anyway... after the sugar molds were cooled... the process of carving them out began. And I think that was probably about the time when all of that sugar would get all over the floor... which is probably why I have always related Easter to having sticky feet.
The rest of the process is fairly easy to figure out, because it basically just consists of decorating them... and my kids would have probably had the opportunity to enjoy this tradition many more times than the once or twice that Grandma was able to come out for an Easter visit... if only I could have figured out the first part... or had not had such a major phobia about having sugar all over my floor...
I think these are a couple of the ones my kids made.
And I try every year to put them out for Easter decorations and then, I just can't!... and they just end up going right back into their well protected wrapping until the next year. Because they are really as tacky as can be!
But as I was writing this I think I may have just had an epiphany. And that is... that even though they really ARE extremely tacky, and the process of making them can create a sticky mess on your kitchen floor to the extent that you don't even want to think about ... A finely crafted piece of artwork that to be displayed in a future curio cabinet... was probably never the point.
2 comments:
Aww, thanks for the sugar egg memories. I had to go dig my old one out just to pet it and reflect.
Happy Easter, Chardonnay!
p.s. Orange gold-flecked formica and fish sticks rock!! Hee.
Your memory story brought back lots of memories for me too. I'm one of the teachers at MVHS that after school went into your mom's room and made some eggs for my kids. Your mom was so good at this and I tried to make them as good as hers. Those were some great times. And,yes, the floor was sticky...throughout her room and mine. But, it was all worth it. I still display mine at Easter. It's a tradition!
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