An Easter Tree Done for Free

I can't take credit for the idea. One of our neighbors did an outdoor tree like this last year. And then this morning, while out for my walk, I saw they'd done it again. It's cheery, seasonal, and just so simple.

With my kids grown now, I have a lot of plastic Easter eggs that don't get the use they once did. A few scattered around the house look cheery, and my kids like to hide a few eggs for each other. But otherwise, I needed to find another way to use some of these.

We have a slim tree-like shrub just outside our driveway/kitchen door, yet visible to the street and passers-by. At Christmas, I put lights and outdoor ornaments on this tree. In February, I string it with pink-purple lights. I had been wanting some outdoor Easter decor. These plastic egg ornaments seemed like just the right thing.

I took a dozen small plastic eggs and attached wire hangers. I used florist wire, as that's what I have and it's cheap. The top end of each egg either had a small hole in it already or it had a dimple, which I poked a hole through using a corkscrew. 

I threaded one end of a 5-inch length of wire through this hole. Using pliers, I turned the end of the wire into a small spiral inside the egg half, preventing the wire from being pulled out of the egg's top.

I used the pliers again to form a hook on the other end of the wire. Once this was formed, I snapped the egg halves back together. Each egg and wire took about 3 minutes to do, so I think I spent about 35 minutes on this project in total.

We had a dry spell in our rainy day, so I headed outside to hang these "new" ornaments on our tree. I have a few kids-at-heart in my household who really love it when I decorate for holidays.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a Cool March

I missed an extra week of Cheap & Cheerful Suppers. I'll try to remember everything we had, but there are a few days in there where I didn't write down what we had that are foggy.

Friday
pepperoni pizza, stuffed grape leaves, dried figs -- a very Mediterranean meal

Early last fall, I froze a bunch of grape leaves from our vines. I rolled about 20 small to medium sized leaves up, then wrapped those in several big leaves and tied with thread. The big leaves are for lining the cooking pan and placing on top of the stuffed small and medium leaves to hold it all down while cooking. I stuffed this batch with rice, garlic, onion , chives, dill, salt/pepper, a drizzle of olive oil and squirt of lemon juice. I steamed them with some chicken stock. These were such a treat in late winter. wOrking with the frozen, then thawed leaves is just a little trickier than working with fresh. The frozen/thawed leaves cling to each other and take patience to separate them all, but worth it. The figs were from our two fig trees. We don't usually get enough ripe figs to dry, but in 2021 we did. So delicious!

Saturday
bean and TVP enchiladas, sautéed garden greens and onions

Sunday

rice, scrambled eggs with cheese and sausage, steamed carrots

Monday
tuna sandwiches, Cole slaw (using last of Napa cabbage and red cabbage), canned pineapple chunks

I needed an easy dinner. I've been working hard on several fronts and too tired to do anything time-consuming.

Tuesday
bean with bacon soup, bran muffins

Wednesday
scrambled eggs, rice, steamed carrots, radish green salad

One of my daughters cooked tonight and I gave her this easy menu. I know scrambled eggs aren't considered dinner fodder in some households. My family has often had breakfast foods like scrambled eggs at dinner time.

Thursday

TVP spaghetti, canned green beans, cupcakes

This was the day I had some bad family news. Our plans had been to make a deep dish pizza and watch a movie. Instead, we threw together this simple spaghetti meal and put off the pizza and movie for the next night.

Friday

deep dish pizza (recipe courtesy of Kraft Foods from the 1980s -- my daughters love these vintage manufacturer recipes), steamed broccoli

Saturday & Sunday - I think we had some sort of Mexican refried beans and tortillas meal one night and lentil soup and rolls the other. I don't recall what else we had with these meals.

Monday
brown rice, peanut and vegetable sauce, bread pudding with fruit sauce

Tuesday
cream of green soup (using garden greens), garlic-Parmesan toast

Wednesday
tuna noodle casserole, radish green salad, rice pudding (leftover rice from Monday and a half slice of very stale bread I found in the fridge) plus the rest of fruit sauce

Thursday
KFC chicken-potato-corn-gravy-cheese bowls, radish green and watercress salad, carrot sticks, banana bread

I have to thank Alice for the KFC bowl idea. I had all of the ingredients on hand and this sounded easy and tasty. My family loved these!

I baked a couple of times during this period, bread, banana bread, muffins, no-bake cookies, and scratch cupcakes. I used some of our old, old and flat cola from Christmas season 2020 as the liquid and part of the sugar in the banana bread. It worked just fine and there's no cola flavor. This soda is flat and no one wants it now. So, I thought I'd use it as part of the sugar and the liquid in various recipes. I've done sloppy Joe mix and baked beans with flat soda, too. I just hate to throw it out. 

I actually did remember most of what we've had these last two weeks. How was your week? Any special meals or snacks you enjoyed?