Easter Story Cookies

Kaylee's blog post reminded me of these cookies we made one Easter in Newport.

Easter Story Cookies

These cookies should be made the evening before Easter. They can be very helpful in teaching children the reason for celebrating Easter.

Ingredients needed are:
1 cup whole pecans
3 T. vinegar
3 egg whites
pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
zipper baggy
wooden spoon
tape
Bible

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (this is important - don't wait until you're halfway done with the recipe.)

Place pecans in zipper baggy and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, he was beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3.

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put vinegar into a mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross he was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19: 28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave his life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sins. Read Luke 23:27.

So far the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add sugar and explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because he loves us and died for our sins. He wants us to know and belong to him. Read Psalms 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12-15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Esplain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those sins have been cleansed by Jesus. Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Read Matthew 27:57-60.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.

Give each child a piece of tape to seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. Read Matthew 27:65-66.

GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20-22.

On Easter morning, open the oen and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookie is hollow!

On the first Easter, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. Read Matthew 28:1-9.

He lives and so can we. Read John 14:19.


Have a wonderful Easter remembering the atoning sacrifice that Jesus gave to us.

One of many projects!

I have several long term projects that I am working on. Today I will show you one of them and then hopefully every couple of days I'll post about the others.

You know my good friend in O'Fallon, Christine, has a quilt shop in her basement. I miss being able to go over and getting just what I need whenever I wanted. She sells most of her fabrics online, so I look at her website ( http://www.aroundtheblockquiltersshop.com/ ) and wish and dream. Well, in Jan. she joined in with the Riley Blake Mystery Block of the Month. Riley Blake is a fabric designer. They have tutorials on how to make each of their monthly blocks on their website. I had seen the info about the block of the month, but hadn't decided to sew along until I saw it on Christine's page. She has a pinterest page. So I am on pinterest without even having a page myself. I'm afraid of the time suck of it all. Here are my blocks:

January-- a simple HST chevron. (ps. I am not using Riley Blake fabric. Don't tell)

February -- my first attempt at paper piecing. It was very hard for me. Frustrating.

March-- another simple block. It is called Churn Dash. Riley Blake named theirs Simplicity.

Sorry, my pictures seem really dark. They will have 9 blocks altogether. They are 12 inch blocks. I am using the black print as my unifying fabric. You might recognize it from the quilt I made Izzy and MJ for the Christmas before last. Hopefully I will have enough. The other fabrics are just scraps from my stash. And I'm using a white Kona solid as my background fabric.

Enjoy your day. It is spring break here, but it snowed again yesterday and it might get up in the 50's by the end of the week. I am ready for some warmth. I'll be back soon with another project.

Snow Day????

This is what we woke up to this morning. It is taken from our back door. It was all gone by this evening. It turned into rain for most of the day.

Ethan was happy that school was cancelled and he got to play video games half the day.