Beginnings of Spring and Eclairs

Today is the first day of Spring! Yeah! I love spring...especially because it means we're that much closer to summer and Jaren coming home! This winter we had a lot more snow and sun than usual and a lot less rain than usual. Looks like now that spring has arrived we're back to the typical rain. At least it hasn't been too gloomy and the blue sky or sun pokes through on occasion. It has also been about 50°-60° (F) over the last week. Yesterday we hit 60°! We are also seeing new growth. All the little spring plants and flowers are pushing their way up. The tree in my parents front yard is even starting to push out it's little buds.



This little daffodil's green leaves started coming up in the middle of February because of the beautiful warm weather we had. Then it got cold again (30°s-40°s) so it was slow going. Finally it has warmed up enough that all of the daffodils have bloomed. Good job little guy for persevering!



My mom and I decided to try making something that we never had before. My dad's work was having a pot-luck today and he asked us to make something for it. So, yesterday we spent ALL day in the kitchen and this is what we ended up with!



Eclairs are great little things. I searched online looking for all kinds of recipes and narrowed it down to the two that I thought looked the best. We tried them both so now we know which one we like better. The easiest part of the whole process was filling the Eclairs and frosting them. Now that we have tried making Eclairs it should be easier the next time. When you bake the pastry dough, they automatically bake into a little hollow shell. The "pastry cream" we made was like a really rich vanilla pudding/custard. I wanted a little lighter texture so I took a bit of the custard and folded in some fresh whipped cream and I liked that better. We piped the filling into the shells then topped them with my all-time favorite chocolate ganache. You just can't go wrong with chocolate ganache! These will not only taste good but impress others with your mad baking skills. If you ever decide to make these tasty little treats, make sure you have pastry bags and a lot of time! Happy 1st day of Spring everyone!