easter in quarantine

I have been so busy with pandemic-related tasks that I barely saw Easter approaching and, when I did, I discovered that getting Easter swag was going to be a challenge.

Now, mind, Matthew and Joshua are teenagers and particularly mature ones at that. They don’t think that a bunny comes around and hides eggs in the yard or poops out little foil-covered confections. As for myself, I’m not a fan of cheap milk chocolate in quantity. If I am going to take on the calorie load of some chocolate, I’ll opt for quality over quantity. So our tradition has become that the children wake up to a tasteful basket, usually from a fabulous local chocolatier, usually with one large chocolate bunny and a small, tasteful assortment of miniature chocolate bunnies and eggs of exquisite quality.

This year, the chocolatier is closed, as are other traditional purveyors of Easter goodies.

This year, I am avoiding going out. I have to get out in the community too much anyway for my essential job. Yes, I can always pull my doctor card and travel around unimpeded, but then I would be doing the very thing that I am trying to get everyone else to stop doing. So, no.

I tried adding Easter goodies to my regular grocery order, but I couldn’t actually get anything that wasn’t trash.

So, yesterday, I told Matthew and Joshua that there weren’t going to be any Easter goodies. They said that they understood, and that they didn’t mind. They’ve taken the whole quarantine thing well. But I sensed (or at least projected) a little disappointment.

Last night, going to bed, I was still stewing. There had to be something I could do. I got back up and searched for Easter cookie recipes, but they were just run-of-the-mill sugar cookies. Nothing that would honor our chocolate-bunny tradition.

Then I found a recipe for chocolate bunny cookies. They’re simple. I have all the skills and ingredients except for one thing: while she was here, Helen purged a lot of my baking supplies (I’m not sure why) and donated them — including my bunny cookie cutter. I thought about freehanding cutting them, but I know my limits and any such cookies would be better suited to Rorschach testing than to holiday celebrations.

Then I had another inspiration. I just got a new 3-D printer to increase my capacity for printing face shields and ventilator parts. I also had a little food-safe PLA sitting around. A quick search found a bunny cookie cutter model on Thingiverse. I printed one at the specified size, and I’m now printing another at 140%.

The butter is softening. I have some high-quality cocoa in stock. The chocolate Easter bunny might be a few hours late, but he will make an appearance.

Pandemic be damned.