An Easter Basket

Among the old things I cherish is my father's childhood Easter basket, above.

I usually keep it filled with small terra cotta pots, but at Easter I use it for chocolate eggs. We're foregoing the chocolate this year (oh, the pain of it all), but I wanted to share the basket with you today.

We are not religious in any traditional way at our house, but I like to think we are deeply spiritual.

It is important to us to respect and honor other people's differences, whatever they might be.

Really, that's all I wanted to say. I hope those sentiments are one of the threads that run through this blog.

On the subject of my father, I have enjoyed making recipes from the "Ships of the Great Lakes Cookbook," provided to me for review by Creative Characters Publishing. Although the recipes were not from any of the ships he sailed on, I felt his spirit guide me as I chopped and sliced and baked and braised. I will feature another recipe in a day or so.

For links to other bloggers who participated in the cookbook review, please visit The Sour Dough and Weekend Cookbook Challenge.