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Easter

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10 Surprising facts about Jelly Beans

Unless you’re an uber-fan, you probably don’t think about jelly beans a whole lot until Easter rolls around — then the little candies take center stage. But what do you really know about these sweet pops of flavor? Here are some juicy details. 1. It can take 7 to 14 days to make A jelly bean. Making jelly beans is no easy task. It requires many steps from liquifying sugar and flavors to pouring into tiny bean-shaped molds and letting dry overnight. The candies then undergo a process called “panning.” They’re transferred to a rotating drum where flavors and colors are added as they spin. Sugar is then added to create the bean’s hard exterior shell. Finally, a hot syrupy wax is applied to give them their shine. After all of that, the beans still need to go through packing and shipping. 2. the battle for favorite flavor. For two…

Easy Tie-dye Easter Eggs

When Easter rolls around, everyone wants to get in on the fun of dying eggs. It’s a much-anticipated spring holiday tradition for many kids and families. Some treat it lightly, purchasing the dye kit at the grocery store, happy to apply some soft colors to those crisp, white eggshells. Others, like myself, take the tradition way too seriously. When I dye eggs, I want COLOR! … and I want my eggs to be cooler than everyone else’s eggs. I get competitive when it comes to art projects. I know, weird. But every year I try new fun ways of dying eggs. This year tie-dye is making a comeback, so I thought, “why not eggs, too!” Tie-dye eggs are as easy as wrapping eggs in textured paper towels and dotting them with food coloring, then spritzing them with water. Giving each egg a light squeeze ensures that the paper towel transfers…

14 Fun facts about Peeps

Forget groundhog shadows or tulips. The first real sign of spring are bright yellow Peeps stocking the shelves at your local grocery store. Marshmallow Peeps are everyone’s favorite non-chocolate Easter candy — they even outsell jelly beans! Americans will eat 1.5 billion Marshmallow Peeps and Bunnies this spring, but what do you really know about these sugar crystal coated, brightly-colored bird-shaped mallows? Discover 14 fun facts about Peeps: 1. Making Peeps used to be a really long process. It used to take 27 hours to make a Peep. The first Peeps were squeezed one at a time from a pastry tube before receiving hand painted eyes. Today, with an automated manufacturing process, a Peep takes just six minutes to make. 2. About 5.5 million Peeps are born every single day. Machines crank out 3,500 Peeps per minute — that’s nearly 2 billion Peeps per year! 3. Peeps were originally produced by…

Cracking through 8 myths about eggs

They’re cheap, nutritious, and an essential part in the diets of billions around the world. Still, there are a lot of myths surrounding the everyday egg. Get ready for a bit of shell shock. I’m about to scramble everything you think you know about eggs. Myth: Brown chickens lay brown eggs. Truth: The color of a chicken does determine what color eggs it lays, but it’s not the feathers that give it away — it’s the earlobes. (Yes, Earlobes!) Chickens with red earlobes lay brown eggs, while white eggs usually come from chickens with white earlobes. There are always exceptions, but if you’re wondering what color a hen’s eggs will be, this general rule is a good place to start. Myth: All eggs need to be refrigerated at all times. Truth: Whether or not you need to refrigerate your eggs depends on where you live. If you live in the United…

Peeps debuts 7 new fun flavors for Easter, including cotton candy

Love them or hate them, is it even Easter without Peeps? The iconic marshmallow candies have been filling Easter Baskets for decades, but this year parent company Just Born is releasing seven new flavors just in time for the 2019 holiday, including: Cotton Candy, Pancakes and Syrup, Orange Sherbet Dipped in Crème Flavored Fudge, Root Beer Float, Chocolate Caramel Swirl, Blue Raspberry, and Vanilla Crème. See new Peeps flavors from last year. The new flavors come in the classic chick shape and are currently rolling out in stores nationwide from now until Easter. If you’re looking to stock up, some of the new flavors are available only at select stores, so you’ll have to go on a bit of a hunt — good practice for finding your Easter basket later! Root Beer Float can only be found at Kroger, Blue Raspberry are excluding to Walmart, and Vanilla Crème and Chocolate…

Sweet potato muffins with pecans and raisins are perfect way to use up leftovers

There’s something about using veggies in baked goods that feels so smart. Zucchini bread and carrot cake are two classics, but if you like those, you should try making these sweet potato muffins. They’re a great way to use up leftover sweet potatoes whether they be baked, mashed or casseroled. You can always eat leftovers the next day same way, but isn’t it more fun to make something new? Here’s a simple recipe for sweet potato muffins. They have a mild flavor, and can be dressed up with honey, a pat of butter or an extra drizzle of syrup, but if you’re fine with a clean and healthy tasting muffin, you’ll gobble them up as-is. *Note: If your sweet potatoes aren’t already well-mashed, or if they’re in a casserole, mash before using in recipe. (If casserole is covered in marshmallows, consider scraping some off before mashing.) Sweet Potato muffins with raisins and pecans Makes…

Here’s what to do with all that leftover ham

Come Sunday night, you might have a bit of a ham problem on your hands. It’s recommended that you buy 1/4 pounds of boneless ham or 1/3 pound bone-in ham per person for your Easter feast, but if you’re like most people, that number likely gets tripled … you know, for leftovers. Besides sending all of your guests home with a pound of ham a piece, here’s what else you can do with all of those leftovers: deviled ham Deviled ham makes for a great day-after lunch. It’s light and flavorful and takes no time to make. Get the recipe. HAM pot pie You’ve had it with chicken. You’ve even had it with turkey. Now it’s time to get creative and try your pot pie with ham. Get the recipe. HAM, mushroom and spinach strata If you’ve never had strata, it’s basically the best breakfast casserole you’ve ever had. Time to…

Rent The Chicken provides backyard birds for fresh eggs and down-home fun

If you’ve ever thought about raising hens but chickened out, Jenn and Phil Tompkins have an egg-sellent solution. The Armstrong County, Pennsylvania couple incubated their company, Rent The Chicken, to be a low-risk introduction to backyard bird farming. The business model is all about giving the general public an opportunity to get closer to one source of food, while taking the hard work and commitment out of raising birds. The concept is simple. For the $400 standard rental package, Rent The Chicken supplies a portable coop, food and water dishes, all the food you’ll need, two egg-laying hens, and some other fun odds and ends. Add $200 and get four chickens for your backyard brood. Rent The Chicken will take care of set-up and delivery as well as walking you through the basic information you’ll need to know to care for and enjoy your chickens, and their eggs, all summer long. The portable coop has a wire bottom and wheels which allow customers…

Avocado Easter eggs (made of chocolate) are now a thing

So a supermarket chain in Britain made avocado Easter eggs … and they’re selling briskly. Waitrose unveiled a chocolate Easter egg in the shape of millennials’ favorite fruit — the avocado. The treat, which sells for about $11, looks like an avocado cut in half with a stone. Introducing…our Avocado Easter egg ? with a delicious dark chocolate shell, white chocolate ‘flesh’ and an inner cocoa-dusted ‘stone’. Available in store and online from 20 February! pic.twitter.com/6WFl0lNbtE — Waitrose (@waitrose) February 15, 2018 Here’s how British newspaper the Telegraph described it: “The shell and stone are Belgian chocolate made with 70 (percent) cocoa, while the white chocolate middle uses natural coloring to imitate the green flesh of the fruit. Despite the physical resemblance, the egg’s flavor is 100 (percent) chocolate.” Pastry chef Dominique Ansel, the creator of the Cronut, also took a run at avocado Easter eggs with his “huevocado.” This holiday…

Is Buttered Popcorn your favorite jelly bean flavor? Survey says, probably

Americans eat more than 16 billion jelly beans every year on Easter, and while some people happily gobble them down by the handful, others are more particular about their flavor choices. Candystore.com analyzed more than 10 years of sales data as well as SurveryMonkey and Facebook polls of more than 12,000 candy consumers to determine the most loved flavor in each of the 50 states and the most loved flavors overall. With the results in, it’s clear that Buttered Popcorn is America’s favorite jelly bean flavor. It’s smooth, salty flavor is an interesting cross of savory and sweet. Despite the number of people who despise black licorice, the controversial flavor came in second place. Other top polling flavors included cinnamon, watermelon, cherry, juicy pear, orange, and green apple. Source: CandyStore.com Individual states could either love or loathe their results. Alaska, Minnesota, North Dakota, Colorado, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and New Jersey all put…