DIY Father’s Day Gift for Your Superhero | Alphamom. Created by Jordan Ferney, fantastic!

Father's Day Gift Guide: Theo Chocolate and Beer Pairing Kit.

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Etched Glasses for Father's Day.

My family is very practical when it comes to gift giving so my favorite place to look for gifts for things like Father's Day is Cool Tools, a collection of reviews of stuff of all kinds that simply work.

How to Dye Easter Eggs Naturally, Without a Store-Bought Kit | Serious Eats.

Design*Sponge » we like it wild: fresh eggs. Tiny flowers arranged in natural color eggshells, sweet.

Goldbunny Crackers for Easter ~ Cupcake Project.

Vibrant Eggs, Dyed Naturally | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn.

Indie Fixx » A fun Easter egg dyeing technique.

Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes (with marshmallow Peeps, too!) | The Cookbook Chronicles.

poppytalk: Happy Hippity Hop!. I like this secret message egg.

What wonderful things for grownups can be hidden inside standard plastic Easter eggs? | Ask MetaFilter.

Earlier I made Chocolate Easter Surprise Eggs. I really enjoyed making them but realize, of course, how complicated they were. I am clearly a crazy person. Here is something similar but much easier to make. To sum up: dyed eggshells filled with candy and/or toys and sealed at the bottom with paper.

Before:

After:

You will need:

• enough time to let dyed eggs dry overnight
• one dozen eggs (or however many you'd like to make)
• boxes of both regular and neon McCormick food coloring
• assorted candies or toys small enough to fit into an egg
• mini muffin papers, or paper nut party cups, or regular paper, or big roundish stickers
• glue
• a cookie cooling rack, or skewers stuck in some styrofoam, or six sets of takeout chopsticks stuck in a vase (for drying the dyed eggs upside down)

Handy but not necessary:

• an egg topper or a Dremel

These are a re-do of surprise eggs I made ages ago. (I think that was one of the first tutorials I put on this site.) I took inspiration from both Kinder Eggs and Cascarones, eggshells filled with confetti usually cracked over the head of a friends or family. (Note: some of the images below were reused from my earlier tutorial, so they might look familiar.)

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Fancy Flours -- Detailed Embellishments : Egg Shells. Emptied, pre-sterlized brown egg shells for you to use to serve your Easter dessert out of. Wow! Thanks to Susan for letting me know about these. They also have silver eggshells!

What should I call my adults-only, secular, cocktail-intensive Easter egg hunt on the invitations? | Ask MetaFilter. I'm with the person who said: "Adults-only, Secular, Cocktail-intensive Easter Egg Hunt. I don't think that this can be improved on."

CakeSpy - Egg-stra Special: Cadbury Creme Eggs Benedict for Serious Eats.

Craftzine.com blog : Color Eggs With Kool-Aid.

Design*Sponge » diy project: ukrainian eggs made simple.

Craftzine.com blog : Striped Easter Egg Dyeing.

Easter Cake (with a sweet surprise inside) · Edible Crafts @ CraftGossip. This is so neat.

Taste Test: Chocolate Easter Bunnies | Serious Eats.

These dyed Easter are real eggshells that have been coated on the inside with chocolate and stuffed with candy and a small surprise.

Everything I used to decorate the eggs is edible. I used jumbo sized eggs, though this wasn't necessary. I stuffed them with the smallest things I could find.

I was hoping to try to make my own version of the chocolate filled real eggshells that Martha Stewart created a few years back, but I wanted mine to be more like a Kinder Surprise egg with a toy or small item inside. I also took inspiration from hollow chocolate eggs that contain smaller chocolates and candies, as these make a pleasing rattling noise when you shake them, and I can never wait to find out what is inside.

I learned a lot through mistakes along the way (which I'll go into obnoxious detail about in a later post), but here is what did work for me.

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I'm caught unprepared this year! Clearly I don't deserve my Irish heritage. Please check out these excellent Saint Patrick's Day stuff from other people -- Shamrock Badges at Design*Sponge, Bog Tea at Make Grow Gather. ("So in honor of St Paddy’s Day, I suggest that you brew some good, strong Irish tea, carry it outside, and drink in the world." Lovely!) Corned Beef and Cabbage (which thankfully starts with a package of corned beef) and Caraway Soda Bread, both from Simply Recipes. (All images used above are from their respective sites.)

Valentine's Day is tomorrow, how did that happen? We're mostly focused on other things (travel! yay!) but it didn't quite stop my desire for a day spent making heart shaped foods.

first column, top to bottom

Beet ravioli, at Epicurious. (via).

Calimyrna Fig Hearts at Martha Stewart, also see the whole gallery, wow.

Heart shaped cherry tomatoes at Eye Candy, (via).

second column, top to bottom

Papa John's heart shaped pizza, at Serious Eats.

Heart Shaped dumpling, at Chow.

Heart cookie cutters for the edge of a cup (inspiration for my gingerbread houses), at Kitchen Critic.

third column, top to bottom

Cinnamon Heart Lollipops at Women's Day, (via).

Heart Shaped Whoopie Pies at Annie's Eats, (via).

Wishing you all the happiest of holidays! (Shown above are some of the favorite vintage ornaments on our tree, I especially love the teal one with white and red stripes.)

Large ball christmas lights? | Ask MetaFilter.

Cinnamon chocolate marshmallows | Homesick Texan.

How to make 3D paper ornaments | How About Orange.

Sautéed Chestnuts, Onions, and Bacon Recipe | Simply Recipes.

Sparkling Cranberries Recipe - 101 Cookbooks. I must make these. A bakery near me tops a few things with these glittery cranberries and I cannot resist buying whatever they are on top of.

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Paper Stars for Christmas Lights.

Craftzine.com blog : Holiday Cocktails at Rocker Oysterfellers. They had me at Cranberry French 75.

Stocking Stuffer for the Nut Lover: The Walnut Key | The Kitchn.

Almost Bourdain: Christmas Recipe - Chocolate Bacon "NOT Gingerbread" Cake House. Wow!

Holiday Gingerbread Boxes | Canadian House & Home. So neat, gift boxes simply made of gingerbread, via Edible Crafts.

ikea hacker: Ikea light wreath.

Chocolate-Dipped Hazelnut Marbles | Chocolate & Zucchini.

The Creative Place: Tuesday Tutorial: Paper Lantern Ornaments, via How About Orange.

raspberri cupcakes: Gingerbread Igloo - Daring Bakers Dec 2009.

Gingerbread Mansions | Food & Think, with a video showing how the pastry chef from the Four Seasons made a replica of the Smithsonian in gingerbread. They include a link to my tiny gingerbread houses, thanks.

Earlier I made gingerbread houses meant to perch on the edge of a mug, but I wanted to work on a few more things.

First, since these are meant to be eaten I wanted to cut down on the amount of royal icing. I still used it to assemble the houses, but to get sugar decorations to stick to the roofs I decided to use simple syrup. I heated one part water and one part sugar and let it bubble for a while on the stove just so it would thicken. After it was thoroughly cooled I put a dot on the roof and spread it around using a small brush I keep to use as a mini pastry brush. Then I sprinkled sanding sugar or nonpareils. I let it dry overnight and it worked nicely. It tastes a lot better than a layer of royal icing, and I like the way it allows the gingerbread to peek through.

Second, I added a chimney. I rolled out some gingerbread dough a bit thicker and cut out a square-ish shape, using the house template to get the correct angle.

I think it turned out very cute, though I found that the taller chimneys looked incongruous, so I'll stick to very short chimneys.

Third I decided to see what whole happen if I moved the door shape, the part that fits over the mug, off to one side to allow more of the house to hang on the outside of the mug. It worked just fine but moving it over made the pieces more delicate and I broke three out of six during assembly, enough to convince me to keep the door where it is.

Last I wanted to see if it would work out using sugar cookie dough. This was from a mix (I know, I know but I had hit my cookie dough-making wall) and spread quite a bit despite a good amount of chilling before baking. I trimmed the doors when the cookies came out of the oven and were still pliable. They still worked out nicely. Now I'm wondering if there would be a way to make one out of shortbread.