Easter, both the mainstream and Orthodox ones have come and gone, leaving behind honest-to-God Spring (at least where I am. I hear tell that it's already Summer in some places). However, when I spotted this picture in the Slashfood Flickr pool, the colors and patterns caught my attention and spoke to me.

When I was growing up, my mom had a bowl of wooden eggs that were carved and painted. I loved to play with them, but wasn't allowed particularly often, as they were old and the paint was a bit flaky. They looked just like these Easter eggs.

Thanks Andreea, for adding your image to the pool and for giving me a brief trip in my childhood memories.

I can't believe it's Easter already. Time is just flying. Did you get the eggs decorated and hidden? Did the Easter Bunny leave a basket for all the kids? I remember as a kid that my favorite part of the holiday was the Easter egg hunt in the back yard. My dad would hide them all several times so we could have multiple hunts, and boy did he ever find some creative hiding places!

We have all of these traditions for Easter, but do you know where they came from? I surely could not answer that question until recently. I came across this really neat web page that explains the origins of several Easter traditions, such as where the Easter Bunny came from and why we decorate eggs. If you're interested in finding out the why's and wherefores of our Easter activities, you should check this out!

Ah, pastel tinged egg salads and deviled eggs, how freakish and lovely they are! As you may know, we are thick in the middle of Easter egg dyeing season and so I thought I'd post a fun, vibrant and appealing image of how one person chose to present her eggs a couple of years ago. I didn't actually think that I would be dyeing eggs this year, but I got an email just yesterday afternoon from some friends, inviting us over on Sunday afternoon to have dinner and tint some hardboiled eggs. I'm really looking forward to it!

It's February 14, and you know what that means. That's right, today's special day is National Creme-Filled Chocolate Day.

OK, it's also something called Valentine's Day, but what's a better day for a candy holiday than Valentine's Day? (Answer: Halloween). Here's a recipe for Cream-Filled Chocolate Bites from RecipeZaar, and here's one for some Cream-Filled Chocolate Easter Eggs.

One Stop Candle has instructions for making your own cream-filled chocolate candies, using creams of various flavors and colors.

A little spat has broken out in Switzerland over a trademark dispute over a red ribboned Easter bunny.

Chocolate makers Lindt says it holds the right, copyrighted since 2000, to manufacture golden Easter bunnies tied around the neck with red ribbon. In neighbouring Austria Hauswirth also makes a similar product and has done for 50 years.

Hauswirth is a small company in comparison to Lindt and refused suggestions from Lindt's lawyers to replace the wrapper with a bronze one or the red ribbon with a green one. A court order prevented Hauswirth with selling their bunnies this year; a move that prompted them to give away thousands of chocolates to children across Austria.

A further court date has been set for June.

Easter egg hunts are one of the very best things about Easter for kids. Not only is there the appeal of an outdoor game, but, more often than not, the eggs are edible. I'm partial to the school of thought that say Easter eggs should be brightly colored plastic with some sort of goodie inside - not hard boiled. Of course, it can be hard to choose candies to put inside the eggs. There are many factors to consider: where the eggs will be, how long they’ll be there, what the temperature is like. An indoor hunt gives you more options, as does a cool, morning egg hunt, but you'll have to worry about melting on a warm afternoon. Here are 8 of our favorite egg-hunt treats, plus a few tips to keep them in mint condition:

• Jelly Bellys or other jelly beans taste great and won't melt inside the egg. They also supply the additional bonus of making a pleasing rattling sound that gives kids the feeling they're hit the candy jackpot.

We all know how to dye Easter eggs. I mean, geez, you just have to read the directions on the Paas package, right?!? Hmph.

But some of us aspire to the Sandra Lee brand of semi-homemade, eschewing such blatant ready-made-ness, and will want to dye our eggs without the help of a package. If you're dyeing at home, you can go with food coloring, or go completely crazy and use natural dyes.   

Dyeing with food coloring has some benefits because food coloring can make your eggs extremely bright and colorful, like no egg that could come naturally out of a chicken. (Not that anything besides light blue and beige would come out of a chicken anyway.) I mean, haven't you seen the magic of 1 oz. of red food coloring in a red velvet cake?

Greenpeace has issued a warning regarding chocolate Easter eggs. According to the environmental group, some confectioners use genetically engineered ingredients and/or dairy from animals raised on genetically engineered feedstock. The group is rightfully  concerned about potential health risks.

One of the makers it has called to task is Cadbury. Among the Easter egg makers it considers friendly are Darrell Lea and Ferrero Rocher. While I'm skeptical of any so-called Frankenfoods, I'm rather conflicted now that I've seen the Cadbury Easter Egg Delight. It's the Russian nesting doll of candy  – an outer egg encases an inner one, which is in turn filled with individual chocolates. I think I'll take my chances!

[image:Cadbury]

Cadbury Mini Eggs are one of the best things about Easter, right alongside Peeps and Whopper Robin Eggs. The single bad thing about them, in fact, is that the are only for sale around the springtime holiday, so you have to stock up during the days after Easter Sunday when all the seasonal candies are on sale.

Just like the majority of non-imported Cadbury products sold in the US, the mini eggs are made on license by Hershey's. While Hershey's does a respectable job of replicating the taste of the milky Cadbury chocolates in their bars, in no single candy is the taste better than these chocolates. The mini eggs are coated in a thin, crisp candy shell. Unlike most candy-coated chocolates, the shell is delicate and not shined to a high gloss. Instead, the spotted pastel eggs have a matte finish that gives them a more egg-like appearance and a more textured mouth feel. The shell melts away quickly - if you can resist chewing it unlike me - to reveal the ultra-creamy milk chocolate center of the egg.

There are lots of excellent chocolate eggs to choose from, but I dare say that there is no better solid chocolate one than these.

Cadbury cream eggs are the favorite chocolates of the Easter season for many. Even with my big sweet tooth, the creamy, ultra-sugary fondant filling is a bit too sweet for me, so I cannot imagine the sugar overload that would follow an attempt to eat the Ultimate Creme Egg. The ultimate creme egg started as 48 individually wrapped Cadbury eggs and a large, hollow milk chocolate eggshell. The fondant fillings were scraped out of the smaller egg and transferred into the large shell, in what must be the coolest Easter egg hack ever.

With Easter drawing ever closer, the number of bunny and egg themed chocolates in stores seems to be growing exponentially. Sure, all the products were all there months ago, but you cannot deny that there are far more now. The real question is how to choose between all the options, because even though you could take home a whole shopping-cart full of chocolaty treats, some are simply more worth it than others. The most fun are the larger, filled Easter eggs. They're tasty and definitely unique to this time of year.

For a look at some of the more widely available dark chocolate easter egg options, take a look at Sugar Savvy's review of some supermarket choices. Russell Stover's chocolate raspberry whip filling came out a winner, but they also liked Hershey's Special Dark with Almonds. At Candy Blog, Cybele also tackled Russell Stover eggs, in addition to Reese's Peanut Butter eggs and the ever popular Cadbury Creme Eggs.