Crispy Baked Buffalo Wings

Every January, my eldest child gets another year older. I have tried to prevent this from happening but alas time marches onwards and the little boy I used to know as a toothless, grinning, drooling baby who refused to even attempt to crawl until he was 14 months but still managed to roll across the floor and raid my pantry cupboards just to steal an entire head of garlic (true story) is now a tall, smart, funny 9-year-old boy with quite the mouth full of large, fully grown adult teeth.

Although another year older with some continually developing tastes, there are some things that haven't changed when it comes to Matthew. He still enjoys Thomas the train. He still wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up as his obsession with dinosaurs has not waned over the past four years. He still hates unmelted cheese for some strange reason. He will never turn down the opportunity to build a good puzzle. He still hasn't mastered making his bed as soon as he wakes up each morning. He still snuggles with monkey every single night and occasionally sneaks him along on various outings by ensconcing him inside his pocket.

Then there are other things that are continually changing and evolving about Matthew that show me and Paul that he is in fact growing up. His love of reading has continued to blossom as he has moved away from picture-heavy books and now reads larger chapter books and biographies. After watching The Greatest Showman, he wanted to learn more about the real P.T. Barnum and checked out a biography on his life from the library and devoured it within a few days. His current favorite fiction author is Roald Dahl. One of the items we purchased for his birthday was a big boxed set of all the Roald Dahl books and it was his favorite gift!

Matthew's sense of humor is also really starting to blossom. He has been known to make some truly witty observational remarks that have left Paul and me in stitches. He's also been more adventurous with activities. He's always up for a new experience or activity, whether it be a hike, a bike ride, a new sport to try, skiing, you name it. He always throws himself in 100% with full enthusiasm and confidence. A most recent example of this is skiing. Paul is so proud about how Matthew just throws himself down the mountain, determined to race everyone in sight to the bottom of the hill. Never mind that he has suffered crash after crash, including a few "yard sale crashes" where the impact dislodged all his ski gear - gloves, skis, goggles, hat, etc. - to litter the side of the mountain, Matthew's confidence will not be swayed. We love this about him.

I also love how Matthew laughs first and hardest at all my jokes, even the ones that are over his head. At prayers every night, we always go around the room and have everyone name something they're thankful for. Matthew has thanked God "that Mommy is so funny" on more than one occasion.

For his birthday this year, all Matthew wanted to eat was meat. Meat, meat, and more meat! I remember when he was a toddler and we couldn't get him to eat a single piece of meat. It was all fruit and carbohydrates for the first few years of his life. But now that he is a growing boy, he loves to stock up on protein. He loves barbecue - especially ribs - and hot wings. So, we took him out to a barbecue joint that had caught his attention due to the name "Rib City" so he could get his fill of ribs. I was alarmed by how much he did eat. About twice as much as Paul. And he licked those bones clean. Makes me fearful for what his eating habits will be like when he's a teenager!

Since we had a late lunch, most of us were less than enthusiastic at the prospects of dinner, but Matthew insisted that we make Buffalo Wings for his birthday dinner. Even Paul wasn't hungry. But, being the good father he is, he dutifully made some baked wings for Matthew and they were phenomenal! Matthew ate probably a good two pounds of wings, leaving the little bones piled in a bowl as a showcase of the spoils of his meal. At one point while eating, Matthew turned to Paul and said, "You know what I bet goes great with wings, Dad? An ice cold beer."

Excuse me, what?

Either way, Paul took the hint and helped himself to a selection from his current stock of beer from New Belgium brewing company. And he agreed that it went great with the wings (duh). But those wings would have gone great with anything. They were out-of-this-world fantastic. Matthew dipped them in ranch dressing and we bought one of those veggie trays from Costco and just served that along with the wings and we had a meal! Easy and very, very delicious! Since the little girls do not like anything hot, we served a pound of the wings untouched by the spicy Buffalo sauce and they ate them with a side of barbecue sauce for dipping.

I'm out of town for the Superbowl and already Matthew and Paul are making big plans for making a huge batch of these wings for the game. I love how they bond over licking the tiny bones of chickens clean.

Happy Birthday to my growing son, Matthew! We are proud of you! But your Dad is probably most proud of how much of a carnivore you've turned out to be...

Baked Buffalo Wings
adapted from Cafe Delites

For the Chicken Wings:
4 pounds chicken wings cut, wing tips removed and cut into drummetes and flats
1 tablespoon baking powder (NOT baking soda)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder

For the Buffalo Sauce:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup Frank's Original Red Hot Sauce
A generous dash of honey

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat oven to 450°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminium foil and set a heat-proof wire rack inside.

Pat dry chicken wings liberally with paper towels, squeezing out as much moisture as you can. Transfer them to a large bowl.

In a small bowl, combine the baking powder, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper together, whisking well to combine, and sprinkle the mixture over the wings. Toss wings through the baking powder mixture until evenly coated.

Arrange on rack, leaving about 1-inch of space between each wing.

Bake for 30 minutes; flip and continue to cook until crisp and golden brown, (about 20-30 minutes longer), until golden browned and crispy.

While wings are cooking, whisk together hot sauce, butter and honey. Toss wings through the sauce to evenly coat.

Serve wings immediately with ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing and plenty of crudites.

The Best Cheesy Breadsticks

Last Friday, the kids and I chose to ignore the foul weather predicted by local meteorologists and traveled down to Pittsburgh to spend the day with Lucy's godmother at Idlewild Park. I am so glad we did because not only did the severe storms completely pass by our area with barely a zephyr, the day actually proved to be extremely sunny, bright, and hot. It was the perfect day to be outside exploring!

I'm a bit of a history lover, so I'm going to share just a bit of information about Idlewild park. Located just Southeast of Pittsburgh, Idlewild was initially established as a picnic area in the 1870s and advertised in the Pittsburgh area to church groups and schools as an ideal recreation local. While the park enjoyed great success and popularity as a picnic grove, after about sixty years the famed Mellon family chose to commercialize the property further through the addition of rides, bandstands, and other attractions, including the commissioning of a beautiful carousel that is still in operation today. Idlewild has been a grand success every since and is now considered the third oldest amusement park in the United States!

Idlewild is located right off of historic Route 30 in a beautiful, wooded area that provides an ample amount of shade for the park's many areas. It was a beautiful drive down there through the curvy, twisty hills of the Pennsylvania countryside - one that I especially enjoyed because the kids were quiet and napping! There is the main portion of the park that consists of all your typical carnival rides such as carousels, til-a-whirls, and other spinning rides that are perfect for children ages 4-10. As you walk further in, you encounter Hoot and Holler, a cute little western-themed town featuring shops, shows, and a log ride. Jumpin' Jungle is a play area great for the whole family that includes a tree fort for climbing, a giant slide, ball pits, and more. Storybook Woods is a shaded, relaxed area where the whole family can walk along a guided path and encounter characters and interactive scenes from favorite children's stories and nursery rhymes. Across the river and just a short train ride away is the Neighborhood of Make Believe, an adorable Daniel Tiger exhibit where the big, furry little feline himself is usually present for a short song-and-dance show followed by a meet-and-greet. The rides in this area are ideal for infants to young school-aged children. Then, of course, there is an outdoor water park with slides, wave pools, and other ares to cool off on a hot day.

My kids absolutely loved Idlewild! Granted, there were a few meltdowns - Matthew was initially scared of every single ride and refused to ride anything. Emma didn't want to leave at the end of the day and sobbed the entire way back to the car. The best behaved child award definitely went to Lucy. The poor baby was to too short to ride most of the rides in the main area and had to be content with watching her siblings ride. For the most part, she was fine with it! There were plenty of other things for her to do...

I loved that the park had something to offer each of the kids. My daredevil child Emma got to ride as many spinning rides as she wanted. She was really dying to go on the large coaster but thankfully it ended up closing early due to maintenance before Jen or me had the courage to tell Emma that she was too short to ride! Matthew had a blast driving bumper cars and sliding down the giant slide. He also was obsessed with the little train they had in the park, but I should have predicted that! Lucy was absolutely thrilled to watch Daniel Tiger sing and dance live - she was clapping along and dancing too! She also enjoyed all the little rides The Neighborhood of Make Believe had to offer and wouldn't stop talking about how much fun she had for days afterwards. It was adorable. Jen, of course, was a champ for helping me put up with the kids. We were both zonked by the end of the day. But so were the kids which made the drive home not-quite-so-painful. Thanks Jen for a fun day!

The recipe for today is in no way related to our fun in Idlewild other than, like the amusement park, it is something that all three of my kids adore. My kids refuse to eat the crust of their pizza, but they are all over breadsticks. It doesn't make much sense to me either, especially as I watch the discarded pizza crusts from my children pile up on my plate during a pizza party. Thankfully for them, I have never met a carb I didn't like and the crust just happens to be my favorite part of a pizza. I have been trying to gently explain to them that breadsticks are just pizza crust without the pizza attached but they just aren't buying it.

Breadsticks are a quick, easy filler to any meal - especially caesar salad (yum!) or chicken parmesan - and I have yet to find a recipe that is as easy, forgiving, and just plain good as this one. Our little family will devour an entire batch of these in minutes. If you don't wish to make them cheesy (but really why wouldn't you?), these taste just as good plain with a hint of garlic salt. Be careful...they are incredibly addicting. It's so hard to eat just one!

The Best Cheesy Breadsticks

from Lauren's Latest

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 envelopes rapid-rise yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted, divided

4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 tablespoons garlic salt (I use less)

1 1/2 cups grated parmesan

1 cup grated mozzarella

1/2 cup grated cheddar

Stir water, yeast and sugar together in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup. Set aside until foamy.

Meanwhile, melt the butter and measure out the flour and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir with the dough hook for a few seconds to disperse the salt into the flour. Pour in the foamy yeast mixture and start to incorporate. Drizzle in half of the melted butter. Scrape the sides if necessary and knead about 7 minutes. Dough should be sticky. If it's dry, sprinkle in a bit of water, a little at a time, until the dough is slightly sticky. Grease a large bowl, gather your dough into a smooth ball, and then place in the bowl. Turn to coat with oil. Let rise 30-45 minutes in a warm place until doubled in size.

Punch down dough and roll out to be 2 ft x 1 ft, approximately, on a floured board. Cut into 1/2-3/4 inch strips using a pizza cutter. Twist two strips together to create breadsticks and place onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let rise another 30 minutes or so. They should be almost touching by now.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Brush remaining melted butter over breadsticks, sprinkle with garlic salt and cheeses and bake 8-10 minutes or until poofy, hot, bubbly and brown. Cool 3-5 minutes before eating!

Leprechaun Bait

Friday is Saint Patrick's Day and it is kind of a big deal for our family. It has nothing to do with our Irish heritage, which is very small and honestly questionable because the genealogist of the family kept making new discoveries about our origins - at first we were 1/16th Irish and then it changed to Dutch and then back to Irish again - only our German, Czech, Lithuanian, and Polish ancestry is indisputable. It's probably safe to say that the only Irish in us is due to our relationship with the University of Notre Dame, our alma mater.

No, the reason Saint Patrick's Day is such a big deal is because Matthew makes it a big deal. He is very into feast days and no other feast day in the house is as great as his own! Being that his middle name is Patrick, he has been pining for Saint Patrick's Day for weeks. He has already asked me multiple times whether I am planning on hosting a green-themed surprise party to celebrate HIM on Saint Patrick's Day. Or whether he will receive gifts for HIS feast day. Or whether we will plan a fancy dinner in his honor on HIS feast day. I've calmly tried to explain that Patrick is not even his first name, but his middle name! And while I appreciate honoring the Saints after which our children are named, if we treated every feast day for both the first and middle name of each family member as if it were their birthday, we would be eating cake constantly.

I am planning on teaching the kids a lot about the life of Saint Patrick during the day on Friday. However, I also want to share with them a bit more about their older brother, my first baby that was lost to us during the early days of pregnancy. I felt so strongly that the baby was a little boy, so Paul and I named him Patrick Michael. Matthew's middle name is after in honor of his older brother, without whose passing Matthew's conception would not have been possible. Thus, Saint Patrick's Day is actually more appropriately our baby Patrick's feast day and seems a fitting time to discuss his short but meaningful life with our children. We'll see how they take it as they're still a bit young. But truly, that little soul, whose face I have to wait until heaven to see, is at the forefront of my mind whenever I hear the name "Patrick".

Baby Matthew

Baby Emma

Baby Lucia

And so, we will celebrate Saint Patrick's Day this year as we always do. We will eat Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Soda Bread; we will enjoy our time together as a family. But this year, I want to make the day even more meaningful by remembering, sharing, and reflecting on my first little angel baby whom I love and miss dearly. It's an odd thing, to still feel such grief yet also to feel so blessed that it happened because I now can clearly see how God executed his plan for our lives through that experience. He called my little baby to himself so that we could welcome Matthew into our arms, leaving us to both grieve the loss of Patrick while concurrently rejoicing in the blessing that is Matthew. We have another angel baby named Emma Grace and wouldn't have our Emma Rose were it not for her passing. Like I said, reflecting on that experience leaves me with such a mixture of emotions. But I think it's time that Patrick and Emma's story be shared with their siblings.

Sorry for that stream of consciousness.

In addition to our normal eats for the day, the kids and I made a fun snack mix to share called "Leprechaun Bait". It was Matthew's idea to make this mix after spying it online while I was browsing through Facebook. I initially thought it sounded gross - Lucky Charms and Mint M&Ms? Gross.

But, being the sucker I am, I let my son talk me into purchasing the ingredients and whipping up this monstrosity of sugar for the children. After we were finished, I decided to try a handful and then I just could not stop eating this. It is good. Like really, legitimately good! It took all my willpower to adhere to my Lenten resolution of no sugar and not eat an entire bowlful all by myself after the kids were in bed. It's seriously addicting. And the kids all agree!

The recipe calls for using a whole 3/4 cup of  JUST THE MARSHMALLOWS from the Lucky Charms cereal. I did actually spend quite a bit of time picking every, single, marshmallow out of a box of cereal which ended up totally about 1 cup. Then, I had to throw away the box and keep the remainder of the marshmallow-less cereal in a plastic container so that the kids wouldn't get all excited that we had Lucky Charms cereal for breakfast and then cry upon discovering that all the marshmallows - the best part - are missing. I actually like the cereal without the mallows so that's been my breakfast this week.

I encourage you to give this a try. It'd be a great snack mix to make for a classroom or office party. I am slipping bagfuls into Matthew's lunch during the week and he has loved having it for snack time.

Leprechaun Bait
barely adapted from Wishes and Dishes

7 cups Corn or Rice Chex
1 cup Lucky Charms cereal
1 cup crushed pretzels
1 11.4­ounce bag dark chocolate mint M&Ms
1 11­ounce bag white chocolate chips or melting discs
¾ cup of JUST the marshmallows from Lucky Charms box

In a large bowl combine Chex, 1 cup of Lucky Charms, pretzels and M&Ms.

In a heat­safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds on 50% power. Stir and
repeat until the chips are completely melted.

Pour the melted white chocolate over the cereal mixture. Stir carefully to combine, as to not crush the Chex. Continue stirring until the mixture is completely coated with the white chocolate. Sprinkle with the remaining ¾ cup of Lucky Charms marshmallows.

Pour mixture onto wax paper or parchment paper to dry and spread it out. Let it sit for about an hour to give the white chocolate time to set.

Store in an airtight container.

Matthew's Favorite Snack

Matthew often gets ideas into his head for things he would like to do, see, or create and does not stop bugging me until they happen. For a while, he was determined to ride a roller coaster even though I'm' pretty sure he had no idea what a roller coaster was. Paul and I finally took him to an amusement park and fulfilled his dream. After completely terrifying him on that coaster ride, I think Matthew has had his fill of coasters for the next decade.

Then, he decided that he wanted a pet spider after seeing a caged Tarantula at the pet store. I worked for weeks trying to talk him out of that idea (and I never told my arachnophobic husband about it since I know the thought alone would keep him up at night). When I told Matthew the spider would eat Riley (our cat), he finally agreed that owning an arachnid was probably not the best idea. Now he's deathly afraid of spiders. Good job, Mom.

Note the lettering on Matthew's t-shirt.

Then there were the three months leading up to Emma's first birthday where Matthew talked nonstop about making her a strawberry cake. He even had me search Google for pictures of strawberry cakes so he could select the right one. It was cute at first, but quickly became irritating. I almost decided to move up her birthday celebration by a couple months just so we could bake it and be done with it.

Which brings me to the story behind Matthew's favorite snack, a snack that Matthew has been determined to make for over a year.

Matthew has been checking out the same 10 books from the library for what seems like forever. They are a variety of Thomas, Curious George, and Little Critter books that he just enjoys reading over and over. When we get to the library, I turn him loose in the Children's Section and then take Emma to the book return to drop-off our old books. By the time I have returned, he is sitting at one of the little tables with a stack of books completely identical to the ones we just returned. Goodness gracious, child! Variety is the spice of life!

One of these books is Curious George Picks Apples. The book is just about as exciting as it sounds. In fact, the title pretty much gives away the climax. At the end of this gripping tale, there are three "recipes" that kids can easily make using apples. One recipe in particular for "Apple Teeth" caught Matthew's attention and he would not stop begging me to make some apple teeth with him. "You need go to the grocery store, get some marshmallows, get some apples, and then we make the teeth!" he would remind me every time we entered a grocery store.

Finally, I got around to buying a bag of mini marshmallows and this has been Matthew's snack every single day this week. I think they're a bit disgusting looking, essentially some gruesome apple dentures. Although, I have to admit, the marshmallow and peanut butter combination is killer.

To make these delightful snacks: slice an apple. Spread a thin layer of creamy peanut butter on one side. Stick marshmallows along the curved side to resemble teeth. Repeat with all slices. Sandwich slices together to make a smiling mouth of teeth! Eat!

And Matthew's latest obsession? He wants a pet turtle. He's actually laying on the couch now "reading" a National Geographic Book on turtles while every once in a while making a plea for his case: "Mommy, turtles are nice. They don't bite. I pet the turtle. I sleep with the turtle. Turtles make eggs. We can eat the eggs for breakfast. Riley can't make eggs. Turtles do. Turtles swim in the bathtub with me....."

Not happening.

Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs (and an Easter Sunday Recap)

We had a fantastic Easter weekend - thanks in no small part to the beautiful weather that seems to finally be here to stay. We had the pleasure of celebrating with my sister and her husband-to-be. Matthew was so darn excited during the days leading up to Aunt Catherine's arrival, that he kept putting himself to bed extra early. I certainly had no complaints.

Catherine and her Matthew (whom we dubbed "the big Matthew" in order to distinguish him from our Matthew) arrived bright and early on Saturday morning and brought the sun and some really warm weather. Catherine and I ducked out briefly for some sister time while Matthew entertained the big Matthew with Paul and Emma. Then, we proceeded to finalize our Easter preparations by doing the usual egg decorating session. Matthew loved decorating the eggs with Aunt Catherine and the big Matthew. He had been looking forward to that activity for weeks. He was much better at it than his Aunt - poor Catherine cracked (smashed is more like it) every egg she tried to dye. We fired her before she could crack all the eggs and put her in charge of making the egg stands. And I have to say she was excellent at that.

Baby Emma is just in awe of the egg-dying activities.

Apparently it's a genetic thing.

Aunt Catherine! You were banished from touching the eggs, remember!?!?

Matthew takes over the dying. Notice Catherine is adjusting to her new job as egg-stand maker.

Oh yeah. These are so gorgeous - so unique, such beautiful designs, such original colors. We're a talented family.

We attended the 7:30 AM Easter morning Mass at our parish. Of course this meant that we were all up by pretty much 5:30 AM to try to get everyone beautified in time for Mass - and we still arrived with barely a second to spare. Matthew was very well behaved at Mass. Threats of having his Easter candy privileges revoked should he misbehave might have had something to do with that. Emma was great right through the homily. This was so out of character for her, that I leaned over and whispered to Paul: "Wow...she's being so darn good. It feels great to sit together again!" She must have heard me because then she started doing her usual routine of grunting, groaning, and flailing until one of us took her to the back. It was great while it lasted.

Paul with his pretty little girl.

Brushing her hair - so very young yet oh so vain!

And this is Matthew - completely upset that I took away Angry Birds from him because it was time to go to Mass. This was seconds before I threatened to cancel the egg hunt. He shaped up quickly.

After arriving back home, we took some really quick family pictures on our back porch. Seriously, this photo session was probably about 2 minutes long. It was freezing outside. And the children were getting anxious for some Easter treats. And by "children" I pretty much just mean Matthew.

Our little family of four!

I just love this guy.

Little Matthew's face just cracks me up so much in this picture. He loves his Aunt Catherine.

Love Birds. Catherine, you better start working on your Spanish since
your last name is soon to be Ortiz.

"Sisters, Sisters. There were never such devoted sisters!"

Everyone dressed down and then we banished little Matthew to the office while big Matthew and Paul stuffed some plastic eggs with jellybeans and then scattered them around the house and yard. Then, the hunt began! Matthew was obnoxiously excited to finally go egg hunting.

We spent the rest of the morning stuffing ourselves with Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs, Blueberry Buckle, and fresh pineapple. Little Matthew and Emma ate probably about two pounds of chocolate (it was seriously disgusting how much sugar they inhaled between the two of them) as their breakfast. Since we all were feeling a little lethargic, Paul and I hustled everyone out of the house for a long hike while our pork rib roast slowly cooked. We meandered through the woods, skipped rocks, and chatted for a couple of hours - just enough time to not feel quite so stuffed from breakfast and ready ourselves for Easter dinner! It was so warm and beautiful outside - the first time in a long while that we had weather this beautiful for Easter Sunday!

Upon arriving home, we put the final touches on Easter dinner and then sat down to eat again. By the time our meal was over, our poor guests were complaining about how full they were and how they had to take off to start the long trek back home. Then Paul reminded them about the Carrot Cake Cheesecake sitting in the fridge and I think they about died. But they managed (somehow) to finish off a slice before packing up, saying goodbye, and heading out. Matthew was so sad to see Aunt Catherine go that he refused to say goodbye. He might have also been a bit exhausted - he passed out for the night immediately after they left (around 5:00 PM).

So excited to start finding eggs!

"I can't reach it!"

And this mysterious hand is coming to the rescue!

I think the Easter bunny enjoyed hiding eggs out of Matthew's reach.

Ah-HA! I see CANDY!

Fighting over spilled candy. All in the spirit of Easter.

I think she choked on that jelly bean shortly after this picture was taken.
Lesson learned - no more jelly beans for Emma!

Loving the outdoors on this beautiful Easter morning!

The eggs have finally all been found! (At least I think that's why everyone but little Matthew looks so happy!)

Emma received a stuffed bunny in her Easter bucket.
She kept hugging it while saying "Hiya" in a high-pitched voice. She likes animals.

Overall, it was a lovely day spent with family enjoying good food and conversation. Everyone enjoyed the food but I have to say that my favorite dish of the day was the Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs. While growing up, my family always served a coffeecake of sorts for Easter brunch along with the hard-boiled eggs we had dyed the day before. We normally cracked the eggs and ate them plainly with salt and pepper. Paul really hates straight up hard-boiled eggs, although he loves them in things like Egg Salad or Deviled Eggs. Since he is so darn picky, we decided to make deviled eggs to serve alongside the Blueberry Buckle. But we did not stop there - we decided to make them fancy by adding chopped smoked salmon, capers, and chives. Catherine was very skeptical when she saw me preparing the salmon for the eggs. She told me how she had tried smoked salmon for the first time at a cafe in Paris and had almost thrown up after taking a large bite. She had expected it to be warm and was very much disturbed by how "slimy" it was. I assured her that she would like it in the eggs just fine.

Sure enough, everyone adored these deviled eggs. They were so good. The salmon and capers add some briny, salty flavors to the eggs while the chives lend a freshness. They were pretty filling, yet none of us could stop eating them. Paul was especially wild about them - he loves smoked salmon. I can't wait to make them again!

Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs
adapted from The Barefoot Contessa

10-12 large hard boiled eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives, plus extra for garnish
6 ounces smoked salmon, minced
Pinch of Salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Capers, drained, for garnish


Peel the eggs and then slice them in half lengthwise. Remove the yolks carefully. Place the yolks in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and arrange the whites on a platter in a single layer with the cut sides up and sprinkle with salt.

To the egg yolks, add the sour cream, cream cheese, mayonnaise, lemon juice, chives, salmon, salt, and pepper. Beat on medium speed until fluffy. With a small spoon, fill the egg whites with the egg yolk mixture. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes for the flavors to blend.

When ready to serve, garnish with the capers and some extra chopped chives.