In case you’re wracking your brain trying to remember how on earth to boil eggs, what on earth to do with those eggs, and what in tarnation (wherever that is) to serve on Easter, I’ve got a few reminders from years past.
Have a blessed Easter, don’t eat too much chocolate, and remember what the empty tomb really means–Jesus (God) lived and died for you, and then He came back to life. Why? So you could do the exact same thing. Don’t try to figure it out–we can’t love like that. Just appreciate it.
Easter is a fun time for families, but for my family, it is all about our faith, and our faith is all about Jesus.
At Easter it can be easy to get wrapped up in the Easter breakfast and the Easter basket and the Easter ham and the Easter eggs and the Easter buffet and the Easter chocolate and the Easter brunch and the Easter leftovers…and did I mention the food?
This nifty little jelly bean poem reminds the children of the reason we celebrate Easter. It’s essentially the entire Gospel in a nutshell…or in an eggshell.
Here is what you need:
Jelly beans (Note to self: Don’t eat all the black ones this year, or it won’t work. As if I would do that…again.)
Plastic eggs, plastic snack bags, little cups, mini baskets, frosted cupcakes, chocolate baskets, gauze and ribbon—anything to contain your Jelly Bean Gospels.
A version of the Jelly Bean Gospel poem printed out.
Here is what you do:
Step 1 – Put one jelly bean of each color, along with the Jelly Bean Gospel poem, in the container. (If it’s a cupcake or chocolate basket, lay it under or beside the treat.)
That’s it! There is no step 2. I love simplicity!
I go through this process with my children instead of printing up the poem. They have to search out the words and meanings themselves. It’s meaningful, and we can call it school. Wink.
Here is my version of the Jelly Bean Gospel poem:
Black is for the sins I’ve done.
Red is for the blood of God’s Son.
Purple is for the death of The King
Green is for life when Christ rose again
White is for my sins forgiven
Yellow is for my home in heaven
Pink is for my joyful face
Orange you happy for God’s grace?!
I like to stop with yellow. The last two lines are a little hokey. I don’t like to turn an amazing message that has stood on its own two feet for all time into a hokey jelly bean groaner…and that last line is a groaner. Sorry.
Here is my Jelly Bean Gospel for readers with Bible access:
Black – Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23 (sin and death)
Red – Romans 5:9 (blood)
Purple – John 19:19 (King)
Green – Matthew 28:5-6 (life)
White – Isaiah 1:18 (forgiveness)
Yellow – John 14:2-4, Revelation 21:21 (heaven)
Pink – Romans 15:13 (joy)
Orange Ephesians 2:8-9 (grace)
You can exclude the keyword, and let them discover it themselves if you prefer, or substitute other Bible verses.
Adjust this poem however you see fit so you can save and eat all your favorite jelly beans. I first saw this concept years ago at our church, but there are 184,000 versions online (I make 184,001), so do a quick search for other options. I wrote my own, because some of the others didn’t make sense, and my kids would ask, “But WHY is orange for sins?” and “I don’t WANNA be tickled pink. I’m a boy. I wanna be tickled BLUE.” and “The fifth and sixth jelly beans don’t rhyme. That’s so lame.” I just didn’t want to go there, ya know?
Hey, if you have any questions about my faith, please ask me. I’m happy to share my faith…but I will not share my black jelly beans.
And now, a pressing question: what is your favorite color of jelly bean?
This post goes out to Facebook fan Jessica. Good luck and have fun with your first major Thanksgiving cooking!
I love to prep as much of my major cooking ahead of time as possible, especially for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. (I’ve even fed the family breakfast before bed to get a jumpstart on the next day. Note to self: bad idea.) Sometimes my prep backfires, like when my pre-peeled potatoes turn brown.
If I were to ask my husband about that phenomenon, he would draw on his pre-med training and say something all science-y, like the browning is caused when the polyphenol oxidase enzyme is released from the potato’s cells upon cutting. The enzyme immediately begins reacting with the oxygen in the air to turn the phenol compounds within the tuber brown in a process called oxidation.
Oxidation, shmoxishmation. I just call it ugly. They’re still perfectly edible, mind you, but they aren’t perfectly pretty. I like my taters to be pretty before I mash them into an unrecognizable pulp.
Here’s how you can get a jump start on your potatoes without the ugly.
How to Keep Potatoes from Turning Brown
Peel and rinse the potatoes. (So far so simple.)
Place them (whole, sliced, or diced) in a bowl, pot, bucket, trough, whatever, and cover them completely with water. Completely! Taters in, air out.
Store the bowl in the refrigerator. (I cheat on this step if I don’t have room in the frig. Shhh.)
That’s it! Told ya it was simple. Simpler than that whole polyphenol oxidase thingie.
Notes:
I only do this overnight. Some people claim you can do this up to three days in advance as long as you replace the water and rinse the potatoes daily. Some people might be right about that. (See the comment section for other opinions.)
Others add a splash of lemon juice to keep potatoes from turning brown. This is a good practice for something that might be sitting in open air. Scientifically, however, the browning occurs when the potatoes come in contact with the oxygen in the air, which is an impossibility when the tubers are immersed in water whose oxygen is firmly bonded to hydrogen and won’t be oxidizing any taters. I save my lemons for lemon pie. Mmmm…pie.
I know you’re all itching to know why potatoes don’t turn brown after they’re cooked. Well, if I were to bother my pretty little head about such things, I would tell you that heat denatures the enzyme, rendering it inert, so it no longer reacts with the oxygen to transform the phenol compounds. (Heat kills enzymes.) But all that science just gives me a rash.
Another alternative: crockpot mashed potatoes
My dear blog friend Stacy from Stacy Makes Cents has a recipe for crockpot garlic mashed potatoes in her e-cookbook, Crock On. Crocking your taters would entirely free you up from even having to think about them. It would almost be like having a personal chef make the potatoes for you, and all you had to do was eat them. Crockpots are neat like that.
Read my review about Crock Onhere, or, if you want the recipe for crockpot mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving and don’t want to bother with any ol’ reviews in case it talks about phenols and denaturing enzymes (which it doesn’t),buy it now for $5, or get it on Kindle. That’s how I’m making our mashed potatoes this year.
One more Thanksgiving tip:
Brine your turkey! It’s simple and makes all the difference for a juicy bird. Here’s how.
Jessica, I hope this tip for keeping potatoes from turning brown helps you out! Happy Thanksgiving! (Have a question? Submit it in the contact me section.)
I love a good, juicy ham on Easter and Christmas (and any day in between). Too often the hams we’ve had are dry, expensive and sickeningly sweet, even when we bought the high-priced, big name hams from the ham store. It’s enough to make a person sit down and cry into her taters. Therefore, we took it upon ourselves to find the cheapest, tastiest method of preparing ham that we could…just for you. You’re welcome.
optional ingredients for an optional sauce – ours only requires brown sugar and a sauce pan
Which ham should I buy?
The most convenient ham is, naturally, the spiral-sliced. Our experience with spiral cut, however, is that they dry out very easily. Because they are already cut, the heat has more surface area from which to draw moisture. Nothing can prevent moisture loss to some extent, not even the reams of aluminum foil we use to try and prevent its drying out.
For that reason, we buy unsliced ham, which, to our delight, is cheaper. I like the shank, because it is often the cheapest of all and not too difficult to slice. You can also grab yourself a nice butt which will work just as well for the same price or just a few pennies a pound more, depending on your store. According to our old butcher, the shank and butt are essentially the whole ham (which is the leg) chopped in half to form the separate cuts. With such little difference, I go for whichever is cheaper. (Here’s more than you ever wanted to know about ham cuts.)
Watch for a sale around the major holidays and you’ll really score big with your ol’ pigskin.
How do I cook the ham?
Preheat your oven to 350.
Put the ham in a pretty (okay, so it doesn’t have to be pretty) roasting pan with the bone side down, fat side up.
Add one cup of water to the pan. (Some experts say not to do this, but I do it…so there, experts!)
Cover it completely with aluminum foil. But aluminum foil will kill you! I know, but this ham is so juicy, you’ll die happy.
Cook to the proper temperature as explained below, and immediately remove it from the oven.
Let the ham rest covered for 20 minutes or so before slicing, so the juices redistribute throughout the ham.
How long do I cook the ham?
If the ham is pre-cooked, heat it to an internal temperature of 110-140 (Fahrenheit) and pull it from the oven, depending on how warm you want your ham. (If it’s fully cooked, you can theoretically eat it cold.)
If the ham is not pre-cooked or only partially cooked, heat it to 150-155 (Fahrenheit) and pull immediately. I know the meat police say 160, but it will continue cooking 5-10 degrees after you pull it. I pull at 150. If you wait for 160, you may have a dry ham. You’ve been warned.
Use a meat thermometer! Insert it well into the meat, but not touching the bone. if you don’t have a meat thermometer and you cook meat, buy one. If you don’t want to buy one, you’ll be cooking roughly 20-30 minutes per pound, but I won’t guarantee that your stove doesn’t run hot and that you won’t be eating a football. In that case, I wash my hands of your ham.
I won’t even go there! Okay, maybe just a little. There are as many ham glaze recipes out there as there are cooks to prepare them. Personally, I don’t like to be knocked out by an overwhelming shot of sugar, bourbon, cloves, or pineapple when all I really want is a nice big mouthful of meat. I want to taste the ham! Is that so wrong?!
Are you with me? It’s okay if you’re not, because you can do a quick search on any recipe site for half a gazillion glazes. Here are 68 glaze recipes from my favorite recipe site, AllRecipes.com. Read the reviews and pick your favorite…but might I recommend you keep it simple?
Because my husband likes the option of a subtle sweetness with his ham, and others in my family like the option of eating ham without going into a diabetic coma, this is the method he whipped up:
The Simple Homemaker’s Husband’s Simple Ham Sauce
Pour the pan drippings into a saucepan.
Add 1/4 cup or so of brown sugar or honey (depending on how sweet you want it and how much juice you have).
Heat it on the stove stirring to dissolve the sugar or honey, and testing for the sweetness level you’re looking for.
Adjust with water if it’s too salty or thick, and sugar or honey if you want a sweeter juice. Taste as you go and adjust gradually.
Serve it on the side as an optional au jus.
It is simple and delicious, but doesn’t coat the ham with sugar, which many people in my family can’t (or won’t) eat.
Insert your knife parallel to the bone and cut entirely around it. (Remember, the two L’s in the word “parallel” are parallel to each other, if you forgot your basic math.)
Slice perpendicular to the bone to make nice slices that should fall away from the bone. (You will be cutting into the length of the bone, not the end…obviously.) Do this on either side of the bone.
There will be quite a bit of meat left on the bone, just as with the store-bought spiral cuts. I like to gnaw on this when nobody’s looking remove this meat later with a small knife and use it for any number of recipes needing diced ham, including scrambled eggs, bean or potato soups, fried rice, quiche, breakfast potatoes, salad.
Save the bone and toss it into a soup, crock of beans, or pot of jambalaya.
Here’s the boring printable version of how to bake a ham:
How To Bake a Simple Ham
Author: Christy, The Simple Homemaker
Prep time:
Total time:
A simple, juicy, affordable ham that will not put you into a diabetic coma…at least, I hope it won’t.
Ingredients
a ham
pan
one cup water (optional)
aluminum foil
meat thermometer
oven
optional ingredients for an optional sauce – ours only requires brown sugar and a sauce pan
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350.
Put the ham in a pretty (okay, so it doesn’t have to be pretty) roasting pan with the bone side down, fat side up.
Add one cup of water to the pan. (Some experts say not to do this, but I do it…so there, experts!)
Cover it completely with aluminum foil. But aluminum foil will kill you! I know, but this ham is so juicy, you’ll die happy.
Cook to 150 using a meat thermometer if your ham is uncooked or partially cooked. If it’s fully cooked, warm it to your desired temperature, but no warmer than 140 or you may dry it out. Blech.
Immediately remove it from the oven.
Let the ham rest covered for 20 minutes or so before slicing, so the juices redistribute throughout the ham.
Remove the drippings to a saucepan over low heat. Stir in 1/4 cup brown sugar or honey, taste, and add more if desired to sweeten the juices to your desired sweetness. Serve on the side so everybody is happy!
3.1.09
I hope your ham turns out as juicy and delicious (and affordable) as ours! Good luck!
Let me know what you think, including your best pointers on how to bake a ham…a simple ham.
But if you talk about scoring the outside in cross hatches, stuffing cloves all over, dousing it in bourbon, and then adding pineapple and maraschino cherries, I’ll know you didn’t really read this post and don’t embrace my “simple” philosophy. (Wink.)
I’m embarrassed to admit that I have no pictures of our own hams. Years of ham baking and experimentation, and nothing to show for it but full tummies. Special thanks to all the photographers credited above…but our hams look juicier. A-hem.
Use a whisk to remove Easter eggs from a cup of dye without coloring your fingers, or to lift boiled eggs out of hot water without burning your hands and without dropping the slippery little buggers from a spoon. This also works to remove them from ice water if you cool your eggs after boiling.
Simple press the whisk onto the egg, and the little stinker should pop right through the loops on the whisk.
To remove the egg, separate the wires a tad and the egg should pop right out. If it doesn’t come out, it doesn’t deserve to be free.
Of course, if you like your kids to show up at church on Easter Sunday with dyed hands and wrists, you won’t want to use this technique. For our family the dyed hands on Easter are a tradition, and I’m not one to break with tradition.
I think I’m going to bring a whisk to the next egg-and-spoon race we’re invited to. That’s not cheating, is it?
To see your favorite simple tips featured on The Simple Homemaker (including a link to the page of your choice), please submit it through my contact page or send an email (pictures are optional) to TheSimpleHomemaker at gmail dot com with SIMPLE TIP in the subject.
It’s Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season and a time when Christians focus on what Christ did for them both through his life and more specifically through his death. Then it all culminates in the glorious resurrection of Easter morning. I’m giddy about Easter.
Over the years I’ve used several approaches to bring the magnitude of this home to my children and to awaken in their small hearts an awareness of and appreciation for Christ’s sacrifice. No, I’ve never used the give-up-chocolate-for-Lent approach. I want them to look forward to this time of the church year, not dread it. I want them to enthusiastically celebrate their Savior.
Today Amanda White launched her new hands-on ebook that will do just that, help children enthusiastically celebrate their Savior.
Why does the name Amanda White sound familiar? She is the author of Truth in the Tinsel, the hands-on Advent program I love. Oh yes, her!
This ebook is not a dissertation, exegesis or commentary on the biblical account of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It’s an experience for parents to lead their kids through the story. We will not be learning every single detail of the story. There is so much historical and traditional background that our 21st-century brains can hardly understand it anyway. What we will be discovering is who Jesus is and why He came.
I have yet to share Sense of the Resurrection with my children, since it just launched today, but I have read it and I am excited to spend twelve focused days working through the projects with my clan, including my older children who can explore some of the ideas for digging deeper. Of course, I’ll tweak it a wee bit, because I’m an obsessive tweaker. Tweak tweak.
Those of you who know me know that I have difficulty finishing what I start. Life gets in the way, and I always bow to life. One thing I love about Sense of the Resurrection is that I have 50 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter morning to accomplish 12 days of activities. That leaves room for our traditional Easter and Lent activities, oh, and life.
Celebrate your Savior with us this year. Click through this link to see what Amanda says about Sense of the Resurrection.
Please share this post to help other families awaken a love of their Savior in the hearts of their children. A simple pin could have far-reaching effects.
This is an affiliate link, which means if you buy through this link, I will receive a portion of the proceeds. If you want to bypass my link, you may do that. I will not feed you to the alligators. Really, I won’t.
Remove the yolks to a bowl and break them apart with a fork.
Add mayonnaise one spoonful at a time until you’ve reached your desired moisture level. Add mustard and salt to taste.
Combine until smooth or the texture of your choice.
Spoon or pipe into the egg white hollows.
Sprinkle with paprika, or top with red peppers or green onions if desired.
Deviled Eggs Recipe Tips
For perfect hard-boiled eggs with bright yellow yolks, click here.
Wipe the knife after cutting each egg to keep the whites clean.
Cool eggs are easier to slice cleanly than warm eggs.
If desired, spoon the filling into a plastic bag, seal, and snip the corner off. Squeeze the bag to pipe the filling into the eggs.
If you mess up some of the eggs while peeling, throw them in with the yolks to mash into filling. Click here for easy-peel eggs.
Here’s the printable version:
Deviled Eggs Recipe
Recipe Type: Appetizer
Author: Christy, The Simple Homemaker
This basic deviled eggs recipe lends itself to a lot of variations to suit your fancy.
Ingredients
12 hard-boiled eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise (or to your preference)
2 teaspoons mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of pepper, optional
paprika
optional green onions, red bell peppers, or any other pretty garnish
Instructions
Peel eggs.
Cut the eggs in half lengthwise.
Remove the yolks to a bowl and break them apart with a fork.
Add mayonnaise one spoonful at a time until you’ve reached your desired moisture level. Add mustard and salt to taste.
Combine until smooth or the texture of your choice.
Spoon or pipe into the egg white hollows.
Sprinkle with paprika, or top with red peppers or green onions if desired.
Notes
Wipe the knife after cutting each egg to keep the whites clean.
Cool eggs are easier to slice cleanly than warm eggs.
If desired, spoon the filling into a plastic bag, seal, and snip the corner off. Squeeze the bag to pipe the filling into the eggs.
If you mess up some of the eggs while peeling, throw them in with the yolks to mash into filling.
To learn how to boil and peel perfect eggs, visit www.TheSimpleHomemaker.com
2.2.6
Deviled Eggs Recipe for Stuffed Egg Chicks
For a fun alternative, try these stuffed egg chicks:
Cut a small slice off the wide bottom so the egg stands flat.
Cut the top off. Remove the yolk.
Make the filling as directed above in the deviled eggs recipe. Pipe or spoon the filling back into the larger white segment and top with the small white piece.
Add olive slices or raisins for eyes and a carrot segment for a beak.
Feel free to give your newly formed friends a little personality.
“Aaaaah! Herbie!”
“Okay, Kids, who yolked up in my shell!”
“It happens every Easter, Ethel. He stuffs himself to the eyeballs and then he pays the price.”
What is your family’s unique twist on the basic deviled eggs recipe?
)
Peel and rinse the potatoes. (So far so simple.)
Store the bowl in the refrigerator. (I cheat on this step if I don’t have room in the frig. Shhh.)
)
For perfect hard-boiled eggs with bright yellow yolks, 
Wipe the knife after cutting each egg to keep the whites clean.
If desired, spoon the filling into a plastic bag, seal, and snip the corner off. Squeeze the bag to pipe the filling into the eggs.
If you mess up some of the eggs while peeling, throw them in with the yolks to mash into filling. 
