As we go about our daily lives, there are many opportunities to LIVE A LITTLE BETTER. The purpose of this blog is to share ideas that will bring these opportunities to light and to encourage readers to take small steps to improve their lives. Improvement may take the form of better health, more fun, new ideas to think about, interesting books to read, things to make or do, how to make or save money, ways to become more efficient and organized, or any information that will help bring a new or different way to deal with situations in our daily lives.
The design of this blog will be to spark some interest in something NEW and give the basic information that a person would need to pursue the idea further. For example: Easter is coming up. Every year (for the past I don’t know how many years), we have boiled some eggs, dyed them, put them in a basket, and had a little Easter egg hunt for the kids or grand-kids. Why not do something different this year? How about making some CASCARONES? Cascarones are hollowed-out eggs filled with confetti. They are easy to make and fun to break over someone’s head to shower them with confetti. Having a cascarone broken over one’s head is said to bring good luck. The tradition is said to have originated in Italy when young men would throw hollowed out eggshells filled with perfumed powder at women whom they found attractive. Instructions on making cascarones will follow at the end of the column.
Please visit the blog often to make comments, and if you make some cascarones, let us know how they turned out. By participating on the blog, you can become a part of a network of people sharing ideas on how to LIVE A LITTLE BETTER.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING CASCARONES
Step 1 - Empty the eggshells by making a hole in one end of the egg and shaking out the contents. The hole needs to be about 3/4” in diameter to allow filling the empty eggshell with confetti. To make the hole, tap on the end of the egg with the end of a piece of silverware and then smooth out the edges of the hole. After emptying the eggshell, rinse well and let dry completely. Save the egg cartons to hold completed cascarones.
Step 2 - Decorate the empty eggshells with Easter egg dye, stickers, markers or paints. Allow to dry completely.
Step 3 - Fill eggshells with confetti. Confetti can be made from paper at home or purchased at a party store or online. Filling the eggshell about half-way full is enough.
Step 4 - Cut small squares of tissue paper and glue on to the egg to close up the hole. Elmer’s regular school glue works well. Allow to dry and store in empty egg cartons until ready to use.
When cracking the eggs over a person’s head, the egg should be crushed in the hand before putting the confetti over the person’s head. It hurts a little to have the egg actually smashed on someone’s head. As always, children should be supervised and shown how to crush the egg in their hands before smashing someone over the head with an egg. This is not a good activity for especially young children or babies.
I remember when I first learned how to make cascarones, my son was in kindergarten. I decided to be a great mom and make 6 cascarones for each of the 15 or 20 children in his class. Then I thought I could make 6 for each of the cousins we would be seeing over Easter. There were 10 cousins. As you can see, I ended up making dozens and dozens of cascarones. WOW, what a lot of work that was!
That was a LOT of scrambeled eggs you had to eat! hahaha
Posted by: Becky Beavers | 03/31/2011 at 02:27 PM
CASCARONES- only the ONE of the many many fun things we did at your house!!!! How lucky I am to have grown up with a Monk monk!
Posted by: Jennifer Bird | 03/31/2011 at 08:40 PM