Easter was right around the corner once we “locked down”. I put it in quotations because looking back, there wasn’t much staying put. Our family, including my Dad and stepmom, stayed home, only went out for essentials for two weeks. The rest of Miami…. not so much. Mark and I would always comment on how much traffic there was for a bunch of people staying home, but in all fairness, I did put Alex in the car and just drive around because I wanted him to get out of the house but not be near anyone.
Alex and I borrowed the car and grabbed sandwiches with the idea of heading down the Florida Keys and finding a good scenic spot to eat our lunch in the car. Right before the big no where to turn around stretch of road leading to the Keys, there was a road blockade and unless you had proof that you lived in the Keys- they turned you around. Instead we found a channel nearby to park at and eat our sandwiches.
I also found a craigslist ad for my vintage silverware that I collect across the state in Naples FL and thought, why not? So I drove two hours I think, just to pick up some forks and spoons, but since all the time was in the car with no contact, I didn’t think it was that dangerous.
One of the perks of not being able to return to China was getting to spend some holidays in the US, and not having to order special things that arrive melted or smashed about half of the time (chocolate eggs do not travel well). One thing I love to do is make sugar cookies, I do this in China too, but Easter lends itself well to sugar cookies. I will include a link to my favorite recipe at the bottom of the post.
I tried something new with the pink bunny and was really happy with how it turned out. My cookies aren’t always perfect, but they’re tasty and make me happy to make so they’re good enough.
Trying out a new pattern, my frosting was a little thick though, and my blue bunny is a little confused, either he has a tail on his stomach or his head is on backwards.
Alex’s Grandma Jane was really excited to get to do an easter egg hunt with him, and she made him a basket too. He loved spending the holidays with family, he got about twice the candy he normally would.
We decided to hide the eggs inside because we had been getting a lot of rain and it was still pretty muddy outside.
All of the action shots are blurred, Alex was running too fast to find eggs for me to get a good picture. The dogs were a little confused as to what we were all doing!
Showing off Sour Watermelon Peeps- which, as you might imagine, were really gross.
He’s sporting his lockdown haircut here (meaning I tried to cut it and we ended up buzzing it all off because I am the worst at haircuts). He couldn’t believe his Easter Basket haul and how much fun he had with the grandparents finding eggs.
One fun thing about the Florida house is most nights, but particularly after rainy nights, there are tons of frogs in the yard. Unfortunately there is a type of frog here that is posionous to dogs and we try to get rid of whenever we find them– but they are too fast. Most of the frog life in the yard is harmless though and after a while you get used to the screaming ribbits and croaks all night long. These two frogs below are just a few of the many that we had outside our door– It’s not the best picture, but they were hard to capture up there. They are sitting on a exterior light fixture by the door to the backyard.
This little guy was just happily climbing up the door, and was completely unbothered by us watching him and getting some up close and personal pictures.
Sugar Cookie recipe
I’ve been making this recipe, exactly as written (or halved because the full recipe makes an absolute ton of cookies) for about 12 years now. It’s taken from Cakecentral.com which is where I hung out when I first got into cake decorating. The link to the recipe is below, but in case you don’t want to head over there I will post it here too.
No Fail Sugar Cookie – NFSC
Ingredients
- 2 cups unsalted butter
- 2 cups sugar (white granulated)
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract or desired flavoring
- 6 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F (176 C)
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
- Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix at low speed until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.
- Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below)
- Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes.
- Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350 degrees F (176 C) for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges.
HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess
- Rather than wait for your cookie dough to chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper.
- Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator.
- Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut.
- Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.
https://www.cakecentral.com/recipe/2055/no-fail-sugar-cookies
Traveling Expat Family 