Tabebuia, commonly known as trumpet trees, are spectacular tropical flowering trees known for their explosive, often leafless, spring blooms in shades of pink, yellow, or white. Primarily native to Central/South America, these trees reach 20–50 feet tall and thrive in full sun and well-drained soil.
It's spring in central Florida with pink and yellow tabebuia or trumpet trees in blooms. For a brief time, the blossoms appear like magic. I can never get enough of blossoming trees. I just want to drive and hunt for them.
Here at the condo, the garden in the center of our wrapped condo building has azaleas in bloom.
I hope you are enjoying spring in all its new life wherever you are.
When I was growing up, Easter usually meant a ham dinner. Of course, I love the memories of my mother's cooking and being with my family. I must admit most of the time when I was older and cooked Easter dinner for family, I bought a spiral sliced ham. If you are having ham on Easter or any other occasion, don't just throw away the bone from your ham. It's great for soup and ham broth. It's also wonderful to add to a pot of collard greens or cabbage. You can keep the ham bone in the fridge for 5 days or freeze it for at least a few months.
Today's recipe is classic white bean and ham soup. Very often family members get tired of a holiday menu when having it warmed up several times. Besides adding the ham bone for great flavor, the soup is the perfect way to use left over ham and vegetables. The next time you have a ham dinner for the family, plan to make bean and ham soup and use the ham bone and any leftovers in the soup. I'm using navy beans, but you could add other beans or peas too. Add onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and herbs for a comforting bowl that's inexpensive and filling. If you don't have a ham bone, you can use a ham hock. It's similar. I was raised in the south so I grew up with homemade corn bread to accompany the meal, but it's great with rolls, biscuits, or crusty bread.
Bean & Ham Bone Soup
Use organic when available. 8 Servings
Ingredients
16ozdried navy beans (or great northern beans)
8cupswater
1ham bone or smoked ham hock
2tbspolive oil
1cupdiced onion
1cupchopped celery
1cupchopped carrot
2garlic cloves minced
1tspdried thyme
1tbspdried parsley
1tspmustard
1tbsplemon juice
bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
2 cupschopped ham
Instructions
Sort and rinse beans
Soak beans overnight in large pot or bowl covered with at least 4 inches of water
Drain and discard the liquid
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a 4-quart soup pot over medium high heat
Add onion and celery & cook for 2 minutes
Add garlic and cook for another minute
Add 8 cups of water to soup pot with lemon juice, beans, bone, thyme, parsley, mustard, salt, pepper, and bay leaves
Bring the mixture to a boil
Reduce heat to low and simmer covered
Cook for 2 to 3 hours
Stir occasionally and add more water if needed
Add chopped ham and carrots the last 20 to 30 minutes of cooking
When beans are tender, remove bone and cut off any meat
Discard bone, gristle and bay leaves
Add ham back to pot
If soup seems too thin, use potato masher to mash some of the beans in the soup
Optional sprinkle fresh chopped herbs or green onion on bowl of soup
Serve with crusty bread, corn bread, rolls or biscuits
I was playing with pretty watercolor flowers and made a colorful
frame I love. It’s perfect really anytime of year, but I feel we all
need bright cheerful flowers this April, May, and beyond. I saw a sign that said ‘welcome
home’, and it reminded me of my mother, long gone. Many of us live at a distance from
family and old friends. This sign re-affirms our need to welcome each other
home.
Camellias are popular, long-lived, evergreen shrubs (or small trees)
renowned for their glossy foliage and stunning, rose-like blooms that
appear from fall to spring.
As staples of Southern gardens, they bloom in white, pink, and red,
thriving in acidic, well-draining soil and partial shade in zones 6-10. Here at the condo, the bush in the center garden finished blooming last week. The bush by the walkway from parking to the condo building has been blooming steadily. It is slowing down, and I believe the end of the camellia season is almost here.
Spring time means newborn animals, leaves on trees, grass starting to
grow, and flowers pushing up in the garden. It is a time for new life
and fun food. I enjoy food art. Spring and Easter are a perfect time to
make cute food to celebrate. Last week I shared the classic cute bunny cake for spring and Easter. It is made from 2 round cakes with artistic cuts on
one cake. The classic bunny cake has been around since the 1950s.
Today, I wanted to consider some of the different ways
to make cakes that look like a lamb. A lamb is a symbol of renewal and has long been at the
center of Easter tradition.
I. Lamb Cake Using a Lamb Mold
This is one of the most popular ways to make a lamb cake. There are numerous posts with a molded lamb cake. Wilton has great instructions on how to make the lamb cake with the Wilton
3D standing cake pan. They decorated the cake with flat white icing
first. Then using an icing tip and bag, they added swirls on the body
for wool and colored accents. I personally would find this way of
decorating hard as I’ve never been great at piping icing details. The face is the flat white icing with colors for lines for
mouth and eyes. Their lamb’s face is cute and not hard to make.
Wilton also has a cake iced with a spatula and leaving the face bare.
You can make this with white cake or chocolate. I think it’s really cute
and Wilton ranks it for a beginner.
If you do a search for lamb cakes, you will find hundreds of posts with
varying ways to decorate one. The faces often look very different. Some
of the cakes show how hard it can be working with a mold. The faces are
distorted. Part of the difference in the face is the brand of lamb mold
you are using. Nordic Ware‘s 3 D Lamb Cake Pan is another standing lamb cake. Below is their chocolate version with the body covered in icing and the head bare chocolate cake.
A
glaze was used on the face. Then using a buttercream icing piped
rosettes were placed around the body. A straw was used to pop out the
eyes and then a knife was used to make the nose and mouth. Finally
pre-made cake decorations from Walmart and green coconut decorate the cake.
No matter the brand of mold you use, the piped icing is probably the
most popular decorated lamb cake. An attractive alternative is using
coconut on white icing to make a wool coat for the lamb. I really loved
this idea as a coconut cake was the first cake I learned to make as a
child. It was fun and delicious. Below is a version shared atA Taste of Home with coconut on the body and candy on the face. A lamb cake looks great as a centerpiece for Easter dinner.
I like the idea of not having to spend $20 to $l30 for a lamb cake
mold. My small home does not have lots of storage space. There are so
many ways to decorate a round cake for Easter with a lamb theme. The
easiest is Kraft’s Simple Lamb Cake. Bake your favorite cake and add
white icing on the cake. Use miniature marsh mellows to circle the top of
the cake once. Then add 2 more rows of marshmallows at the top to make
wool coming down to meet his face. Use melted chocolate to make eyes and
mouth. A candy is the nose. Cookies are ears. So cute and easy.
One of the most common methods to decorate a round cake is using
flat white icing on the whole cake. Then add any decorative piping for a
wooly frame for the face. Below is a sponge cake decorated with a cream
icing. Melted chocolate was used for facial features. Round small
crackers or cookies are the ears.
You can easily decorate a round cake with a cake topper made for the season. Below is a great example from Good Housekeeping. This handmade lamb cake topper is made with a Rice Krispies treat, cotton candy, and marshmallows. Everything is edible and unexpected.
Online there are many toppers and cookie molds to help you decorate your cake. Most would be put on the top, but they can also be added to sides of a cake for a cute cake. Below are a set of two lamb cookie cutters. Bake and decorate your cookies for a colorful display.
The Food Network has a darling lamb cake you make from 3 round cakes. Complete instructions are givien at How to Make an Easter Lamb Cake. It is a more complex cake design.
The Food Network has another recipe with instructions that
makes a lamb cake from cupcakes. It seems much easier to me than cutting
3 cakes like the recipe above. Who doesn’t love cute cupcakes?
Last week at the farmer’s market, one grower had a little packet of fresh new asparagus which reminded me of a spring Quiche. Fresh asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and basil cooked in a cheesy custard sounds perfect for breakfast, lunch, brunch, or even dinner. An asparagus Quiche is one of my favorites for an Easter or spring brunch.
I usually use Swiss cheese but have enjoyed quiches made from a variety of cheeses. Your favorite crust can be used – even store-bought. If you cannot have grains in your diet, you can oil the pie plate and cook the vegetable custard without a crust.
Asparagus & Tomato Quiche
Use organic when available, vegetarian Serves 7 to 8
Ingredients
6 eggs or 4 whole eggs and 2 egg whites
1 bunch of asparagus or 7 or 8 stalks
1 9" pie shell
1/2 cup milk
1 cup cream
1 cup grated cheese, such as Swiss, cheddar, Gruyère
1/4 cup torn fresh basil
1 cup cherry tomato halves
Salt and pepper to taste
optional medium tomato to cut into pinwheel slices for decoration
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 F or 218 C
Oil pie pan and add dough
Fork bottom of pie crust and cover crust edges with aluminum foil to prevent over-browning
Bake pie crust for about 5 minutes
Remove aluminum foil and bake pie crust for another 8 minutes until almost done
Reduce oven to 325 F or 162 C
Meanwhile, bring water to a boil in a large pot
Cut most of the asparagus into pieces and save some for top of Quiche
Once water is boiling, add the cleaned & trimmed asparagus into pot & boil for 1 minute
Remove immediately and run under cold water to stop the cooking process
Set asparagus aside
Whisk the eggs in a large bowl and add the milk and cream
Whisk together thoroughly and then stir in the shredded cheese, basil, salt & pepper
Add cooked asparagus and tomato slices to bottom of pie shell
Pour custard mix on top
Adorn top with cherry tomatoes and asparagus (optional)
Bake for 35 minutes or until center is firm
Cover edges of crust with aluminum foil if the crust starts to burn
Let quiche stand for at least 5 minutes before cutting
Can be made ahead of time and served at room temperature.
Optional decorate top of quiche with sliced tomato cut into pinwheels in center of top & asparagus around edge pointing in
I’ve been driving around and enjoying scenes here in my home of
Lakeland, Florida. The days are mostly beautiful with blue skies.
Of course, I love to visit the flower department at my local Publix Supermarket. Some things never change no matter where I am in Florida. Floridians love the seasonal flowers that grow up north. Spring flowers, like tulips, are very popular.
Thanks for the visit. I’m wishing you blue skies and tulips wherever you are.
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