Easter Egg Tree in our living room. I left the art card in the picture, because it shows my favorite Fernando Botero painting: The Vatican Bathroom :-).
We have a second similar Easter Egg Tree in our living room, but other than that, no Easter eggs for us this year! No chocolate eggs, no decorated boiled eggs. We almost didn’t have the glass Easter eggs on display either, because until White Thursday, we had been unwilling to remove the Christmas decorations from our trees! (“Christmas trees in April?!” “Yeah, you know, climate change…” ;-))
I made filled eggs, and of course we did not have to go without chocolate. I tried to make eggnog truffles.
Eggnog and chocolate, to start water based ganache
Long story short, I mixed two failed eggnog ganaches (one milk chocolate and one dark chocolate) and we ended up with a delicious chocolate eggnog paste. We spooned some up with fresh raspberries at our Easter brunch, and had the rest as dessert on Easter Monday. If we took a neat spoonful of chocolate paste, it looked just like an Easter egg on a handle :-)
Part of our 2020 Easter brunch, during ‘intelligent lockdown’. The chocolate eggnog paste is in the espresso cups. It wasn’t mousse, but thick like Nutella, and delicious. For Easter, we only use the yellow and green parts of our Arzberg Tric service (we have orange, ice blue, lagoon blue and dotted in mixed colors as well).
Another way to have chocolate was with my new, beloved Hot Chocolate Shaker!
Just hot water and chocolate, shaken. Delicious!
It is a simple looking plastic cup with a lid. I was doubtful at first whether this would really be anything special. But I decided to give it a try and order, because my luxury drinking chocolates never resulted in completely satisfactory drinks at home. I tried several hand whisks but my chocolate always remained watery with separate chocolate bits. An immersion blender could do better, but it is just too big for one cup.
I was pleasantly surprised by the Hot Chocolate Shaker! By putting chocolate and water in it, and shaking it manually for about ten seconds, I can make a delicious hot chocolate drink! (Of course this works with milk, too.) Cooped up at home with all my chocolate at hand, and a need for sweet comfort, this new gadget is a serious threat to my waistline!
I am usually quite moderate with chocolate, but a nice cup of hot drinking chocolate takes 30 grams or more. That adds up!
Pieces of chocolate bar (Original Beans – Femmes de Virunga – 55% dark milk chocolate) in my chocolate shaker. Just adding hot water and shaking for about 15 seconds results in a frothy, completely smooth drink. Cleaning the cup is a breeze, too!
There were other treats for our four day Easter break at home. I ordered a gorgeous book (through Quiltmania), Wartime Quilts by Annette Gero.
Wartime Quilts, book by Annette Gero. Great to enjoy with hot chocolate, in my comfy pants :-)
Peek inside the book. My favorite quilts are the geometric antique quilts made by soldiers, from thousands of pieces of thick wool uniform fabrics.
And I have some more pictures for you, continuing from my previous post.
Original quilt design by Annika Kornelis
The milk chocolate brown here represents the comfort of chocolate in yet another form! All blocks in these 3 quilt designs are original designs, and drafted by me in EQ8.
The rainbows from my starting idea transformed into wavy backgrounds here, which reminded me of comet trails. Not as hopeful as rainbows, but perhaps equally fitting for these times!
I hope you were able to make the best of Easter, or just a break, as well.
Stay home, stay safe!
XXX Annika
Stof Genoeg 
I have never heard of Fernando Botero, so thanks for sharing the link! Is it respect, or modesty, that puts the Pope (cardinal?) in the tub fully clothed? And it is interesting how the status is shown by the size of the characters.
Also, I have never heard of the wartime quilts book. Beautiful! How wonderful to have this one in your personal library! :)
Wow Laura, I was amazed that I have apparently never written a blog about Fernando Botero before. I will have to remedy that!
We have visited exhibitions of his work several times, and I must have pictures somewhere. Fernando Botero is a very popular painter and sculptor from Colombia, usually referred to as ‘the guy who does fat people’. He really does not.
His people, (and animals, and objects), especially the enormous bronze sculptures, look rounded and voluminous, but seem to carry very little weight. They’re not fat. It is amazing how he does that. I love his sense of color and his sense of humor. It is definitely not respect or modesty that made him put his catholic vip in the bath tub fully clothed! He has done many nudes and brothel scenes. His paintings sometimes show a critical view of people in power, by depicting them silly or childish, with vacant looks in their eyes. If you have seen some of his portraits, you know the vacant look is not because he can only paint in a naive or dull style!
I could go on and on about what I love about his work, but I will save that for a blog post!
Hugs, Annika
Then I look forward to the blog post! 😉