Thanksgiving Wrap-Up 2012: Grampa's In-House Catering Service Saves the Day

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful, restful day, complete with good food and surrounded with the blessings of friends and family. 

We have so much to be thankful for this year.  The cease-fire in Gaza reminds me of how fortunate we are to live in a place where violence is rare and the day-to-day safety of our loved ones is something we can take for granted.  We're thankful for our home, our livelihood, our community, and for the wonderful teachers who bless our children with their dedication and enthusiasm every single day.  And we're thankful for the Screaming Cheetah Wheelies who go by the names Lars and Anders, our rambunctious sons who try our patience daily but also fill our lives with so much joy that we wouldn't trade them for the world.

Those are the Big Blessings, but honestly, what I was most thankful for this Thanksgiving was Grampa's In-House Catering Service!  Since Bernie has been traveling so much for work this month, and I was busy working on a design project for a new client on top of my responsibilities as Chauffeur, Algebra Tutor, Science Project Supervisor, and Keeper of the Video Games for the two princelings, I just didn't have the time or energy for the weeks of cooking necessitated by our traditional Thanksgiving dinner menu.  Then, to make matters worse, Bernie stumbled and fell on the stairs last week, spraining his ankle pretty badly, so he was on crutches and unable to fulfil his usual role as Thanksgiving Sous Chef.  My father, who is himself recovering from shoulder surgery, came to the rescue.  Bernie managed to do a remarkable job cleaning our house with a crutch under one arm, pushing the vacuum cleaner with the other, and laid out roasting pans and other equipment.  I set the dining room table, decapitated some roses and arranged them in a bowl for a centerpeice, and my parents showed up on Thanksgiving morning with a completely prepped Thanksgiving meal to cook in my ovens: turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and green bean casserole.  I had made my Cranberry Citrus Compote and Cinnamon Molasses Pumpkin Pies ahead of time and stocked up on champagne and our favorite pinot noir, and my mother made the gravy, so we managed to pull off a decent Thanksgiving feast between the four of us.  Dad's apple cider brined turkey was delicious, and all the tastier because I didn't have to fret over it myself.  Thanks for coming to the rescue, Dad!  :-)

Photo Shamelessly Stolen from SewCalGal

This was the most relaxing Thanksgiving Day I've had in a long time.  I even managed to sneak upstairs to my sewing room to whip up another Dresden Plate while everyone else was watching the Westminster Dog Show downstairs.  Which is why, when I saw this adorable quilted turkey with Dresden Plate tail feathers on SewCalGal's Thanksgiving post, I had to snatch it for myself.  By the way, Darlene -- as I'm counting my blessings, you're on the list.  Thank you so much for your 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge.  I know you have put a lot of work into organizing and hosting this year-long event on your blog, lining up expert quilters, sponsors and prizes, and getting the tutorials and winners posted each month.  I am amazed by how much my FMQ skills have improved, just by spending one day each month practicing a new technique.  Thank you for bringing this community of quilters together from all over the world to inspire and encourage one another!



My Dresden Plate, One of Eight

As of right now, I have 7 Dresden Plates pieced, and I just need to assemble one more before I get out my embroidery module and machine-applique the red flower centers to all of the blocks (using Marjorie Busby's fabulous embroidery design for Accuquilt precuts). 



Rose Dream Block from the Kansas City Star, click here for Tutorial

The plan is to alternate Dresden Plate blocks with the vintage Rose Dream block that the lovely, talented, and unbelievably generous Charise of Charise Creates was sweet enough to redraft as a 14" block for me, just so it would work for this Dresden Plate quilt.  Charise, I'm thankful for you, too -- and can't wait to see what other challenging and unusual blocks you'll be sharing in your Vintage Block QAL in the coming months. 

The Rose Dream block was published in the Kansas City Star in 1930, around the same time that Dresden Plate quilts were most popular, so I feel like the two blocks make sense together historically.  The curved piecing looks just a bit more challenging than the drunkard's path blocks I mastered for Lars's Drunken Dragons quilt, and I feel like the combination of curved lines and pointy little squares will be a nice complement to the pointed edges on my Dresden Plates.  I've traced Charise's enlarged pattern pieces onto template plastic and carefully cut them out, but I haven't cut any fabric for these blocks yet.  I'm still considering different options for the background fabrics in this quilt, and I think I'm going to use one of my software programs to audition a few alternatives before I make a commitment.  I don't have any of the dedicated quilting software programs like EQ7, and I don't have the ability to create a new block design in the quilt design function of my Bernina Artista embroidery design software (and there's no way this Rose Dream block would be one of the block designs in the software's design library.  However, I think I will be able to use my Minutes Matter Studio interior design software program to do some mock-ups for this quilt, since I can draw any shapes I want, fill them with fabrics, and import, crop, and duplicate photos in Studio.  I'll let you know how that works out.

Meanwhile, my hallway is piled high with boxes of Christmas decorations, and my family is chomping at the bit to haul out the holly and decorate Christmas trees.  Lars and Anders have even been cleaning their bedrooms, with actual cleaning products, because Bernie told them he wasn't going to set foot in the LEGO store this year unless they could put away all of the LEGOs they already own.  Who ARE these whirling dervishes of bedroom cleaning, and what have they done with my sons?!

Whatever you're up to this weekend, whether it's holiday decorating, shopping, or just relaxing and enjoying leftover turkey, I hope you have a chance to reflect on your blessings and spend time with your loved ones.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Buttercup Squash Soup and Herb Butter, Check!

Behold, the Buttercup Squash!  They are not a figment of the recipe's imagination (who are you to deny the imaginings of recipes?); they actually exist, and this is what they look like.  They look so fabulous with my granite countertops that I was tempted to use them as accessories, but alas, I snatched up the only Buttercup squashes that I could find.

Bernie versus The Squash

Because my knives are dull (note to self: get them sharpened ASAP!), and because I hate messy prep work, and because Bernie enjoys hacking viciously away at innocent squashes with a dull knife, I got to take pictures while Bernie peeled the raw squash and cut it into 1" cubes.  I am not allowed to go behind him with a ruler, actually measuring the size of his squash cubes.  Not if I want him to continue helping with the cooking, anyway.

So anyway, the leeks and the squash get chopped up and put in a big stock pot, and you pour a little white wine and a lot of chicken stock over the vegetables, bring to a boil, and then simmer for 25 minutes until the squash is fork-tender.  Here's what my soup looked when it was done cooking, cooling on the stove:

Buttercup Squash and Leek Soup, Ready to Puree

The "cool for at least 15 minutes" step turns out to be important, by the way.  Trying to pour boiling hot soup with big, splashing vegetable chunks into a blender or a food processer is a terrific way to burn yourself and make a giant mess. 

Something seems not-quite-right with my blender lately, by the way.  It has a Burning Motor smell and makes an unpleasant screeching noise when we turn it on.  Also my dogs get upset and whine at the back door when the blender is turned on, begging to escape the house, as if they sense impending doom or something.  I would love to have an immersion blender like this one from Williams Sonoma for this task, so I could puree the soup right in the cooking pot without messing with the blender or the food processer, but it seems pricey for something I might only use once a year.  They say you can use it for smoothies and all kinds of things, but I don't make that many smoothies, either.  Back to the soup!

So, ta-da!  The soup is done and is waiting patiently in the freezer for its Thanksgiving Debut.  Yes, it looks like baby food, but it tastes really good, I promise!  I'll just move it to the fridge to defrost the day before, then reheat it on the stove and add some chives and a pat of herbed butter to each bowl just before serving.  Far from being bland, this soup gets a bit of a kick from white pepper.  Mmm!

Herb Butter for Soup and Turkey

Speaking of the herbed butter, that's the other cooking task we crossed off the list today.  The butter gets creamed together with minced shallots sauteed in sherry and fresh chives.  I cut little star shapes out of the herb butter and froze those separately so one can go on each serving of soup, but the rest of this concoction gets smeared all over Big Bird, in between the skin and the breast meat.  This makes for a moist, flavorful bird that tastes way too good for there to be any leftovers.  Like the soup, the herb butter can be made up to two weeks ahead of time and frozen.  However, in years past, the herb butter has not DEFROSTED as quickly as the recipe promises it will, so I'll be moving it to the fridge to defrost a bit earlier this year to reduce Thanksgiving morning panic.  There's nothing like trying to smear frozen butter under the skin of a cold, raw turkey.

Tomorrow I've got some work to do in the morning, but I'm hoping to sneak in enough time to make my spiced pecans and at least make the crust for that Crimson Appleberry Pie that we're auditioning this year.  Yes, auditioning -- Thanksgiving is THEATRICAL!  If you'd like to try your hand at this soup recipe, you can find it here on finecooking.com.  I just feel better knowing that, no matter what catastrophes might be lurking between today and the 24th, at least my guests won't starve on Thanksgiving Day now that there's soup in the freezer!

12 Days and Counting: Thanksgiving Menu Ready to Go!

Photo Courtesy of Fine Cooking

In less than two weeks, we'll be hosting Thanksgiving dinner for my parents, Bernie's parents, my sister-in-law, and teenaged nieces.  We haven't all been together for the holidays in a long time, and we're really looking forward to it.

So far, I've finalized my menu, ordered my 20-22 pound fresh, organic turkey from Dean & DeLuca for Tuesday pickup, and plotted out a timetable for what needs to be done when over the next two weeks in order for the meal to come together smoothly.  I ordered my spices from Penzey's yesterday and placed a wine order at wine.com that will be delivered this Thursday.  I went with four bottles of Oregon's Domaine Drouhain pinot noir for red, and two bottles of Adelsheim's Pinot Cris, also from Oregon, for the white.  Six bottles of wine for 5 adults -- do you think that will be enough?  ;-)  It's better to have too much wine than too little; any unopened bottles can be saved for another occasion.

Most of my Thanksgiving recipes come from a menu published in Fine Cooking magazine in October 1998.  What's great about this menu is that it uses all fresh ingredients, and although it's challenging (and impressive!), a lot can be done ahead of time, and the flavors of each dish complement the others so nicely.  I really can't imagine ever making anything else for Thanksgiving dinner, so the most I change is to experiment with a new green vegetable side dish or pie recipe each year.  In case you are in charge of cooking this year and haven't yet finalized your menu, might I suggest:

Spiced Pecans, recipe HERE

Spiced Pecans.  The spiced pecans recipe is used in the stuffing, but makes enough to set some out for pre-feast nibbling as well.  Lars loves these.  The spiced pecans can be made and frozen up to two weeks ahead of time, and that's one of the things I'm planning to do this weekend.  You can find that recipe at Fine Cooking here. 

Buttercup Squash & Leek Soup with Herb Butter, recipe HERE

Buttercup Squash & Leek Soup with Herb Butter.  Bernie really likes this soup, and sending him to five or six grocery stores to track down the right squash variety has become something of a Thanksgiving tradition in itself.  Buttercup squash is not the same thing as Butternut squash, although you can substitute Butternut if you can't find the Buttercup.  As for our family, we enjoy the Quest for Obscure Ingredients and the look of puzzlement on the faces of the produce boys who don't know their squash varieties as well as they ought to.  To me, the best thing about this soup is that it can be made and frozen up to two weeks ahead of time, and then you just dump it in a pot on the stove to reheat it on Turkey Day.  Easy peasy!  This soup is on the agenda for me this weekend as well, and you can find the recipe at Fine Cooking here.  What's more, I'll be making an herb butter this weekend that will be used to garnish the soup as well as to smear under the skin of my turkey to keep it all moist and delicious.  Mmmm...

Roasted Turkey with Apple Cider Thyme Gravy.  The recipe calls for a 12-14 pound fresh turkey, but I ordered a 20+ pound bird because of past experience.  This turkey is so good, there aren't enough leftovers if I don't get a bigger bird!  I'm allowing for an additional hour and a half of roasting time for my bigger bird.  By the way, if you've never cooked a fresh bird for Thanksgiving before, there's nothing to fear.  In fact, I think frozen birds are much harder.  I've heard so many horror stories about frozen turkeys not thawing in time, or not cooking as quickly as expected because they weren't completely thawed, resulting in sub-par Thanksgiving dinners served at 11 PM to grouchy, starving guests.  You don't have to worry about that with a fresh bird, and you can order one ahead of time from most butchers or specialty grocers.  The recipe for this delicious, knock-your-socks-off Thanksgiving turkey is right here. 

Wild Rice, Spiced Pecan & Apple Stuffing.  Mmmm...  This recipe is fabulous with the Apple Cider Thyme gravy, and it's really easy, too.  It uses some of the spiced pecans, and you prep most of the ingredients the night before so you're just folding in the wet ingredients on Turkey Day.  Michael Brisson, the chef who came up with these recipes, suggests sticking a fork into the middle of the stuffing to draw the heat into the bird and ensure the stuffing cooks completely.  I've done that every time I stuffed a turkey and have never had a problem.  The recipe also makes enough stuffing to fill a separate baking dish.  You can find that recipe here. 

Whipped Yukon Gold Potatoes with Horseradish

Whipped Yukon Gold Potatoes with Horseradish.  Yes, horseradish -- the zing of horseradish is the perfect counterpoint to the apple sweetness of the apple cider gravy and the apples in the stuffing.  Trust me.  You'll find this recipe at Fine Cooking here. 

Cranberry Citrus Compote, photo courtesy of Fine Cooking

Cranberry Citrus Compote.  This is another one of Michael Brisson's recipes from Fine Cooking.  Again, the recipe is fairly easy, the lemon and orange juice elevates these cranberries way above what some people (gasp!) dump out of a can, and this dish can be made up to a week ahead of time and refrigerated.  You just stir in the sliced scallions on Turkey Day and dump it into a serving bowl.  Try it!  You can find this recipe at Fine Cooking here. 

Green Beans with Pancetta, Mushrooms & Shallots

Now, Michael Brisson's original menu in the October '98 Fine Cooking included a warm greens salad and a fruit crisp for dessert.  We're pie people when it comes to Thanksgiving, so I've never bothered to try out the fruit crisp.  I made the warm greens salad with homemade plum vinaigrette dressing the first year, and it didn't go over well enough for our family to justify all the fuss.  A salad that gets sauteed immediately before serving doesn't make for good leftovers, either.  My mother always made that green bean casserole from the Campbell's soup recipe for Thanksgiving, and last year I discovered this fancy pants gourmet version that scratches the green bean itch but fits in better with the rest of my Thanksgiving Day Feast.  This year I'll be making my Green Beans with Crispy Pancetta, Mushrooms & Shallots again using Susie Middleton's recipe from the November 2010 issue of Fine Cooking, recipe here.  My mother will think the green beans are not cooked enough (I'm not a fan of mushy vegetables), but she can pop hers in the microwave.  Love you, Mom!  :-)

For dessert, I'll be making the Cinnamon-Molasses Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Crust that I've served every year since the recipe was published in Bon Appetit in 1999.  The original recipe calls for a bourbon whipped cream that I tried once and loathed, so I skip that and serve my pie with vanilla ice cream instead.  The pecan crust and molasses elevate this pumpkin pie so far beyond anything I could buy in a store.  Every year I work myself up about the pie crust and consider buying an ordinary pastry crust from the grocery store, but it's really not all that hard to make pie crust from scratch and the results are so worth it.  I find that a glass of wine for the pastry chef goes a long way towards calming the pie jitters!  I couldn't find my pie recipe online at the Bon Appetit web site, but I did locate the exact same recipe (with no credit given to the source!) here in the archives of a Colorado newspaper.  Since Bon Appetit published the recipe in 1999 and the Greeley and Weld County, Colorado Tribune published it in 2007, I'm guessing some unscrupulous Colorado baker tried to pass it off as his or her own creation.  Tsk, tsk, tsk...  I always bake two pumpkin pies: one for me, and one for everyone else to share.  And no, I'm not kidding.  Momma eats pumpkin pie for breakfast every year on Black Friday.

Since I'll have eleven mouths to feed this Thanksgiving, and since I'm only willing to share one of my pumpkin pies, I'm going to be testing out a new-to-me fruit pie recipe this year.  With apples playing a prominent role in the main courses, an apple pie was the obvious choice, but I have never like the super sweet versions.  I found a recipe for Crimson Appleberry Pie in Carole Walter's Great Pies & Tarts cookbook, available here from Amazon.  I figure the cranberry/apple combo works great for juice, so why not for pie?  The cranberries should add just enough bite to the apple pie to keep it from being too cloyingly, annoyingly sweet.  What's more, I found instructions on the Baking Banter blog at King Arthur Flour for making any kind of fruit pie ahead of time and freezing it just prior to baking.  I would be skeptical if this was coming from just any source, but the folks at King Arthur Flour are fanatical when it comes to baking, so I'm going to give this a try.  I'm going to be making and freezing my Crimson Appleberry Pie this weekend, defrosting it the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and then popping it in the oven to bake the day before the Big Feast.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Meanwhile, it's almost lunch time on Saturday and I need to get out from behind the computer if I'm really going to get anything done today.  I need to do my non-perishable grocery shopping for Thanksgiving and make Spiced Pecans, Buttercup Squash Soup, Herb Butter, and Appleberry Pie.  I also have my parents coming over for dinner tonight for a belated birthday dinner (Bernie's birthday fell on Wednesday this year) and I'll be baking ziti and serving cupcakes for dinner.  Is it too optimistic to think the laundry might get washed as well?

Have a great weekend!

More from Paris: Setting the Mood

Bonjour!  If we were still in Paris, I'd be starting my day with a cafe au lait like this one.  I would have taken a picture of the yummy crepes framboises that I had with the coffee, except I devoured them before I remembered to take a picture.  C'est la vie.

Then we'd head down a beautiful cobblestone street like this one:

...And on our way, we'd probably pass a lovely little grocer's fruit stand, like this one:

I've never before seen such enormous grapes.  They were good, too; just watch out for the seeds.

That's all for now.  By the way, if anyone knows how to get French accent marks in Blogger, please let me know in the comments.  Have a great day!

My Chocolate Larzipan Saves the Day

Today has been a challenging day. I raced from a doctor's appointment this morning straight to an installation and meeting with a client with no time for lunch in between, then barely had time to let my puppies out and feed them before I had to stuff them in the back of my car and high-tail it to Anders' school in time to pick him up (5 minutes late). I walked the dogs along the strips of grass near the school parking lot, then loaded them back in the car and zoomed back down I-77 and I-485 towards home to meet Lars's bus. Today Lars's bus was late because the bus driver ran out of gas (?!!), which made us late to piano lessons.

Lars "accidentally" forgot to bring his book bag to piano lessons, which meant that he couldn't do his homework during Anders' lesson and got to read his book instead. Anders did bring his bookbag, but he refused to do his homework during Lars's lesson. It was 6:15 by the time we got home and I was able to feed the dogs, park the boys at separate tables with their homework, and start dinner. The whole day felt like one long panic attack, and it is still not over because I have about four hours of work to get done before I can go to sleep, and if I stay up too late I'll sleep through my alarm and tomorrow will be even more stressful and chaotic than today.

So, what am I doing blogging at 10 PM if I have so much to do, my sensible friends might be wondering? I just wanted to quickly share with you one delightful splash of sunshine that lit up my otherwise wretched day:

My Lars-of-Ours informed me, on the way home from piano, that chocolate is a vegetable. For real. Chocolate comes from the bean of the cacao plant, and it is an honest-to-God, scientific fact that chocolate is a vegetable. Lars apparently learned this from reading National Geographic. So all those cravings for Starbucks' dark chocolate-covered graham crackers, all those guilty Godiva indulgences -- it's no longer a source of shame! Forget broccoli, brussels sprouts and parsnips; the choco-beans are vegetables, too! This is the best news I've heard in a long time. Thanks, Larzipan -- Mommy needed that today!

Eight Days Until Christmas, and the Panic Begins to Creep In...

Behold, the Christmas Lights!  You know, I insisted on the lights for the flower box greenery sprays despite the difficulties in getting the cords up there inconspicuously, but doesn't it look a bit like the flower boxes are on fire now?

If you haven't gotten my Christmas card yet, that's because I haven't mailed any.  I haven't bought them yet, either -- or even picked them out.  I ordered pretty Christmas angel stamps over a month ago, but it looks like those will get stuck on bills instead of Christmas cards this year.  I'm thinking of starting a St. Patrick's Day Card tradition in 2011, but don't hold your breath.

Meanwhile, I have a mountain of Amazon boxes piled behind the cutting table in my sewing room containing unwrapped gifts for my children.  They aren't even secured behind a locked door, I can't remember what I ordered or who anything is for, and I have no idea whether I'm done shopping for the kids yet (if what I bought so far is 70% off one boy's list and only 30% from the other's, I'm going to have to head back out).  So you know what I'll be working on tomorrow.

Tonight, we're baking.  I use that "we" very loosely, because Bernie mixed up the dough, refrigerated it, rolled out all the little cookie balls and swirled them in the granulated sugar.  I flattened each one slightly with the bottom of a drinking glass, chilled the trays of unbaked cookies on the screen porch (next to the He-Man Tree) so they would crackle nicely, adjusted the racks and set the oven to TruConvect, and pulled the cookie sheets out of the oven at just the right degree of doneness.  Really, these are 80% Berniemade and only 20% Rebeccamade cookies.  I must give credit where it is due. 

Yummy!  They are Crackled Molasses Sugar Cookies, by the way, and since molasses is high in iron and I'm slightly anaemic, I'm pretty sure this is a health food for me.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Happy Christmas, everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving from Our House to Yours!

This year, Lars and Anders were charged with the task of creating a Thanksgiving centerpiece.  I was expecting a turkey of some sort -- I printed a photo of a wild turkey off the internet and suggested construction paper, pine cones, and other craft supplies as mediums for consideration.  The boys were up in the toy room for hours, and they did build a turkey out of K-Nex (kind of like Tinkertoys), but they also surprised us with this Lego creation.  How cool is that?  If Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, Darth Vader, Yoda and Dr. Octopus can all set aside their differences and come together to break bread and give thanks, there's hope for the Universe yet.  Oh, and they are grilling their turkey, by the way -- Lars says that Darth Vader is manning the barbecue. 

Although I felt like I was playing catch-up for the last week, we did manage to pull off our traditional Ridiculously Complicated Feast this year, thanks to Bernie taking on more of the advance preparation than usual.  There were: Spiced Pecans, Roasted Turkey with Apple Cider Thyme Gravy; Wild Rice, Spiced Pecan & Apple Stuffing; Whipped Yukon Gold Potatoes with Horseradish; and Cranberry Citrus Compote (all from the October 1998 issue of Fine Cooking magazine, and reappearing on our Thanksgiving table every year since), and the Cinnamon Molasses Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Crust from the December 1999 issue of Bon Appetit, also a family ritual.  We skipped the Buttercup Squash Soup this year and tried out two new vegetable recipes instead, a Pomegranate-Balsamic Glazed Carrots (a keeper) and a Green Beans with Crispy Pancetta, Mushrooms & Shallots (not so much), both from the September 2009 issue of Fine Cooking.  Place cards are courtesy of Lars-of-Ours.

We learned some important lessons this year, such as that Harris Teeter closes at 2 PM on Thanksgiving Day, Food Lion closes at 3 PM, but Bi-Lo is open until 7 PM.  We also learned that it is best to provide more spousal supervision when it comes to Thanksgiving grocery shopping, so that no one would have to go racing out to the store for horseradish on Thanksgiving Day in the first place.

Notes to Myself for Next Year:

1. Stop being such a baby about the pie crust.  It's not as big a deal as you think it is, and the homemade pecan pie crust is definitely worth the effort.
2. It would be better if guests didn't arrive until after the bird is in the oven, when I've transformed back to my human self.
3. Don't forget to plan a light lunch for Thanksgiving Day.
4. Did you order Christmas cards yet?!

Renegade Easter Bunny Wreaks Havoc with a Sharpie!!

This year, my third-grade son suggested that we dye our Easter eggs black.  Black?!  If you met my boys, you would understand.  How do you even DO that, I wondered?  So I said, "No black eggs -- it's Easter, not Halloween!"  However, through some kind of food coloring mishap, the eggs that were supposed to be blue came out such a dark, midnight blue that they really DO look black.  The rest of the eggs are normal colors, just very vivid.  I think I put way too much food coloring overall.  Anyway, after the kids went to bed, a wicked urge came over me and I went to town on the eggs with a Sharpie marker.  Tomorrow morning, I plan to act really surprised and exclaim, "Boys!  Look what the Easter Bunny did to your eggs!!"

See those weird, creepy charcoal-black eggs at the top ?  I'm sure I couldn't duplicate that if I tried.  My favorites are in the photo below: The Egg Who Lived (top left), the orange dragon (bottom left) and Mr. Yuck (bottom center). 

I got the egg faces idea from one of those endlessly forwarded emails that one of my sisters sent me.  They had faces drawn on uncolored white eggs, like this:

I think my colored eggs are much cuter.  If anyone knows the source for the terrified eggs in the above photo, please let me know so I can give credit where it's due.  Have a Happy Easter!