Work was still taking place to create Avenham Park, in Preston when revellers descended to roll their Easter eggs 150 years ago.

We’re certainly living in uncertain times, but don’t be daunted by the prospect of house arrest – Matt Preston has the lowdown on surviving isolation in style.

But why were these created in the first place, and why were they in this specific location?

These tie dye Easter eggs were so easy to make! I have to admit, I was a little nervous about the idea of tie dying something. It sounds like it should be scary. Or complicated. Or at the very least, messy. But you know what? It wasn't any of those things! As long as you wear rubber gloves... if you choose not wear rubber gloves and you get food colouring all over your hands, don't say I didn't warn you. I don't have very many Easter posts on the blog. How crazy is that!? Last year I had to go

Hundreds of people braved the wet weather yesterday to take part in the annual Easter Egg Rolling competition in Avenham Park. View videos below from the

A couple of years back I shared a fun tutorial on decorating Easter eggs with doodles and a Sharpie pen. This year I couldn't resist putting another twist on this project! This time around I doodled geometric patterns and I filled that pattern with black and grey watercolor to add shading and contrast. These might be my eggs yet! Have a look at all the tutorials I've shared over the years! 1. watercolor eggs 2. everyday decorated eggs 3. doodle eggs 4. colorful canvas eggs 5. scrappy little eggs 6.eggs and nest 7. altered plastic eggs 8. whimsical eggs 9. speckled eggs

Dress up your steak with Matt Preston's vibrant chimichurri sauce.

A peek at a morning of holiday shopping in New Preston and Washington, Connecticut.

Prepare for the season premiere of MasterChef Australia with our best-ever recipes from Matt Preston and George Calombaris.

Matt Preston has given the traditional French coq au vin an Easter touch by drawing inspiration from Italian and Spanish-style sauces where red wine is sometimes enriched with a little bitter chocolate.

The family of a dead Cold War Spy Maxwell Wilcock believe he bought the Faberge egg in 1952 for £1,250 and placed it in a bank vault in his native Preston. Now the egg is worth £30 million.

I've been on a mini blogging hiatus! The weather was beautiful over the weekend and I must admit that teaching and blogging was the last thing on my mind. I even took home a few things to grade and they are still sitting in my car. But I did have time to make this Easter ABC order! Just click the picture to download!

"This is a reworking of a classic beef stew that's been in my family since 1765 and was originally cooked over a fire... my beef a la mode. This 18th century beef stew can be made equally deliciously,  but at home in a slow cooker." - Matt Preston. Traditional, rich beef stew flavours (but with a 21st century twist) Fortunately for us home cooks, recreating Matt's famous family recipe can be made without having to build a fire. All you need is a slow cooker and some key ingredients for added flavour. This version combines tender beef, aromatic herbs, and a medley of vegetables that bubble away in a delicious, red-wined based broth in the slow cooker. As the beef simmers, it becomes irresistibly tender and will just melt in your mouth with every forkful! The best thing about this dish is that – unlike its 18th century ancestor – it takes just 30 minutes of preparation, so you can organise your ingredients in the morning, switch that convenient slow cooker on, enjoy your day and a few hours later you’ll be dishing up plates of the hearty goodness of Matt Preston’s slow cooker beef a la mode.

This recipe for homemade dinner rolls (also known as Preston rolls around these parts) is easy and results in the most heavenly-smelling freshly-baked soft yeast rolls.

We’re getting our Greek on and celebrating everything from tzatziki to koulourakia, and so should you.

While Christmas dinner has a strong association in Australia with turkey, Easter has far weaker links with a protein unless we are talking about the Australian Greek community where a lamb slowly turning on a spit is the dream Easter lunch. Looking at supermarket sales, however, it seems that pork is making a play to take the role of the meat of the moment and certainly with its delicate blushing meat and golden crackling it hits all the right celebratory notes. The perfect crackling There is much stress about getting your pork crackling right and it is understandable. For me, and all those who stress about crackling, we know that there is no point having pork if there isn’t any crackling. There are a few key steps to sure fire pork crackling: Pick the right pork — shoulder, pork belly, rolled loin or rack are my picks. The first two are best with long slow cooking; the latter two have far less fat and so need quicker treatment. Get your butcher to slash the pork fat or use a craft blade like a Stanley knife. Only cut the fat and avoid cutting into the meat. Those parallel slashes need to be about 1cm apart. It is important to dry the pork skin and fat before roasting. This is ideally started the day before. First dry the skin of the pork with kitchen paper. Then rub salt into the skin and into the slits. Leave it in the fridge overnight. The next day, carefully brush all the damp salt off and dry the skin again with paper. Rub the skin with olive oil, and either vinegar or lemon juice, to help conduct the heat of the oven to the skin. Turn the oven to at least 230C and blast the joint with heat for about 30 minutes or until the skin starts to bubble and brown. Then with pork shoulder and belly continue cooking slow (about 120C) until done. For a shoulder, I like to cook it until the meat falls apart. So that’s between three to eight hours depending on the texture you want from your meat. With the rolled loin or chops use less time but a higher temperature, say 160C to 180C, as there is less fat both to render and to keep the meat moist. Oh, and if all that doesn’t give you perfect crackle just peel it off after cooking and place it skin side up under the grill. Watch it doesn’t burn and remove when the skin has gone all puffy and golden. The alternative is to turn up the heat and finish the pork off at 180C until the skin cracks, but again beware that the crackling doesn’t burn. What to serve with your roast pork You know when we were discussing the directions we could take our Easter roast pork, clarity came best when thinking of those countries where pork is a much loved staple. Good pork roast is rich, a little fatty, a little salty and crunchy. In my book that means it needs to be paired with sour or sweet flavours. In England, fruit is traditional with pork, whether it’s an apple sauce or a pineapple ring on top of a chop. Roast apples or brining your pork in pineapple juice serve on slow-braised baked beans are two more creative ways of bringing those flavours. A burnt orange sauce also sings with pork, especially if you are using a Chinese spice rub on your pork belly. You can pick up the fennel flavours of the five spice with a crisp fennel and orange segment salad — or even some roast fennel. Other winter fruits to play with are roast quinces, perhaps in a chutney, red-wine roasted pears, its sweetness balanced by a little red wine vinegar or served with a witlof, blue cheese, walnuts and pear salad. Cabbage is another classic partner for pork, whether it’s sweet and sour red cabbage cooked with sugar and vinegar and dotted with currants, or a tangy side of either Korean kimchi or German sauerkraut, which, at their best, have that wonderful tang of fermentation. Root veg, including parsnips, celeriac, pumpkin and swedes all have that natural sweetness that goes wonderfully with pork. Try my MasterChef chum, Gary’s trick of serving pork with buttered swedes with loads of black pepper. For me, a more American approach of rubbing the pork with a spice rub of allspice and paprika would work brilliantly with roast sweet potatoes, barbecued corn, and gravy sweetened with maple syrup and maybe a splash of bourbon. Yum! Follow Matt Preston on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mattscravat

While Christmas dinner has a strong association in Australia with turkey, Easter has far weaker links with a protein unless we are talking about the Australian Greek community where a lamb slowly turning on a spit is the dream Easter lunch. Looking at supermarket sales, however, it seems that pork is making a play to take the role of the meat of the moment and certainly with its delicate blushing meat and golden crackling it hits all the right celebratory notes. The perfect crackling There is much stress about getting your pork crackling right and it is understandable. For me, and all those who stress about crackling, we know that there is no point having pork if there isn’t any crackling. There are a few key steps to sure fire pork crackling: Pick the right pork — shoulder, pork belly, rolled loin or rack are my picks. The first two are best with long slow cooking; the latter two have far less fat and so need quicker treatment. Get your butcher to slash the pork fat or use a craft blade like a Stanley knife. Only cut the fat and avoid cutting into the meat. Those parallel slashes need to be about 1cm apart. It is important to dry the pork skin and fat before roasting. This is ideally started the day before. First dry the skin of the pork with kitchen paper. Then rub salt into the skin and into the slits. Leave it in the fridge overnight. The next day, carefully brush all the damp salt off and dry the skin again with paper. Rub the skin with olive oil, and either vinegar or lemon juice, to help conduct the heat of the oven to the skin. Turn the oven to at least 230C and blast the joint with heat for about 30 minutes or until the skin starts to bubble and brown. Then with pork shoulder and belly continue cooking slow (about 120C) until done. For a shoulder, I like to cook it until the meat falls apart. So that’s between three to eight hours depending on the texture you want from your meat. With the rolled loin or chops use less time but a higher temperature, say 160C to 180C, as there is less fat both to render and to keep the meat moist. Oh, and if all that doesn’t give you perfect crackle just peel it off after cooking and place it skin side up under the grill. Watch it doesn’t burn and remove when the skin has gone all puffy and golden. The alternative is to turn up the heat and finish the pork off at 180C until the skin cracks, but again beware that the crackling doesn’t burn. What to serve with your roast pork You know when we were discussing the directions we could take our Easter roast pork, clarity came best when thinking of those countries where pork is a much loved staple. Good pork roast is rich, a little fatty, a little salty and crunchy. In my book that means it needs to be paired with sour or sweet flavours. In England, fruit is traditional with pork, whether it’s an apple sauce or a pineapple ring on top of a chop. Roast apples or brining your pork in pineapple juice serve on slow-braised baked beans are two more creative ways of bringing those flavours. A burnt orange sauce also sings with pork, especially if you are using a Chinese spice rub on your pork belly. You can pick up the fennel flavours of the five spice with a crisp fennel and orange segment salad — or even some roast fennel. Other winter fruits to play with are roast quinces, perhaps in a chutney, red-wine roasted pears, its sweetness balanced by a little red wine vinegar or served with a witlof, blue cheese, walnuts and pear salad. Cabbage is another classic partner for pork, whether it’s sweet and sour red cabbage cooked with sugar and vinegar and dotted with currants, or a tangy side of either Korean kimchi or German sauerkraut, which, at their best, have that wonderful tang of fermentation. Root veg, including parsnips, celeriac, pumpkin and swedes all have that natural sweetness that goes wonderfully with pork. Try my MasterChef chum, Gary’s trick of serving pork with buttered swedes with loads of black pepper. For me, a more American approach of rubbing the pork with a spice rub of allspice and paprika would work brilliantly with roast sweet potatoes, barbecued corn, and gravy sweetened with maple syrup and maybe a splash of bourbon. Yum! Follow Matt Preston on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mattscravat

I don't have class pics of this yet, but wanted to post it for all of you last minute planners (like myself). Easy prep math fun! Print out the math slips 1-10 on the first page 11-20 on the second. Copy the recording sheet (double sided). Cut and place the slips into eggs and hide in room, or have in a basket. Students can work in pairs, groups, independently. It can be a competition or not! Click {HERE} to grab your freebie! Oh! and I wanted to share that the family whom I'm donating my proceeds to (for the fallen officer-read more here) Lyndsey had her baby today, Brad Jr. Mom and baby are doing well. Thanks again for all of your support too! I can't wait to give them a donation to their family. (And-just to clarify, I do NOT know this family at all. I only have heard things through a friend on Facebook--of course!) Article about the birth {HERE}.

“You can start this recipe a day ahead” - Matt Preston.

Preston Court Wedding With Bride In Sassi Holford & Groom In Checked Suit By Jack Bunneys With Images From Claire Penn Photography

Here in Rochester - and most of the northeast - we will not be having an outdoor egg hunt on Easter. The snow is melting, but the ground is soggier than your socks after some puddle jumping. In preparation for our indoor festivities, my five-year-old helped me put together some fun, kid-tested, and kid-approved Easter games. We hope you find them helpful in planning your Easter festivities. 1. Egg Hunt Players go on a scavenger hunt to find eggs, eggs, and more eggs! Materials needed: plastic eggs small age-appropriate prizes or treats to place in the eggs (optional) baskets or containers for each player To keep the hunt fair for all ages, one egg-hunt method is to hide different color eggs for each player. When the hunt begins, players must only find their own color eggs and put them in their basket; they leave the other color eggs alone. Another method is a group egg hunt. Hide clues in the eggs - instead of or in addition to the treats, with the final clue leading them to their Easter baskets. Be sure to have one clue ready to direct them to the first egg. Or, you could go the more traditional route of hiding a ton of eggs and letting the kids go crazy. 2. Egg Tac Toe Toss plastic eggs and try to get them into 3 cups in a row Materials needed: 1 empty box 9 plastic cups glue gun, glue dots, or craft glue green construction paper scissors Use glue to adhere cups into the empty box. Cut slits into green paper to make grass; glue onto outer sides of box, overlapping pieces of paper as necessary. Player tosses plastic eggs and tries to get them into three cups in a row. Depending on ages of children playing, you can limit the number of eggs they toss. For younger kids, let them keep going until they get it...and everyone is a winner. 3. Bocce Eggs Roll plastic eggs and try to get your egg closest to the center target. Materials needed: painter's tape plastic eggs (a different color per player) Use painter's tape to create your target on the floor. Each player gets 3 plastic eggs of the same color (a different color for each player). Players take turns rolling one egg at a time, trying to get closest to the center. The egg closest to the center wins. Variation: Assign each area of the target a different number of points; add up each player's points to determine the winner. 4. Egg Race Players use a straw to blow their plastic egg from the starting line to the finish line. Materials needed: plastic straw for each player plastic egg for each player painter's tape Use painter's tape to mark the starting and finish lines. Give each player a straw and a plastic egg. Say, "Ready, set, go," to start the race. Players use their straw to blow their egg across the finish line. 5. Egg-on-a-Spoon Race Players try to be the first one to cross the finish line, without letting their egg fall off the spoon. Materials needed: painter's tape spoon for each player plastic egg for each player Mark a start and finish line on the floor with painter's tape, or use the same set up as the Egg Race, above. Each player puts a plastic egg on his or her spoon and then stands on the starting line. Say, "Ready, set, go," to start the race. Players walk to the finish line; if an egg falls off the spoon, the player picks up the egg and goes back to the starting line to try again. 6. Bunny Hop Relay Players hop to a basket with an egg under their chin, and drop the egg in to fill the basket. Materials needed: 2 baskets per team plastic eggs bunny ears (optional) Divide players into two teams (for younger kids or a small group, you may want to just play together on one team...more of a team-building game rather than a competitive game). Place a basket full of plastic eggs near the players; place an empty basket on the other side of the room. Say, "Ready, set, go," to begin the game. Players take turns placing an egg under their chin, hopping with it to the empty basket, and dropping the egg into the basket. That player hops back, and the next player goes. In a competitive version, the game ends when one team fills their basket. In a team-building version, the game is over when all the eggs are in the second basket. 7. Easter Moves Players show off their moves, and shake out their sillies by picking two cards and following the instructions. Materials needed: 2 baskets 2 colors of construction paper, 2 sheets each scissors marker Easter-themed stickers Cut each sheet of paper into roughly 2.5" x 2.5" squares. On one color, write a number from one through six on each square. There will be multiple copies of the same number. On the other color, use the Easter-themed stickers to put an image on each square; we used bunnies, chicks, eggs, and flowers. Fold the squares and place them in a basket, keeping the colors separate. Each player selects one card from each basket and follows the instructions. In our game, the stickers represent the following: Bunny sticker = hop Chick sticker = flap your wings and say, "Tweet!" Egg sticker = roll on the floor (or a somersault) Flower = do a crazy shake For example, if a player picks a number "2" card and a "Bunny" card, he or she must hop like a bunny two times. Continue until all of the cards have been used. 8. Bunny This game is similar to Cootie, except players are building an Easter bunny instead of a bug. Materials needed: white card stock (6-7 sheets) construction paper: pink, black, and assorted colors for the bows scissors pencil black marker 1 glue stick per player 1 white paper plate per player 1 die markers or crayons for each player Use the card stock, construction paper, pencil, marker, and scissors to make features for the Bunnies: eyes, noses, cheeks, mouths with tongues/teeth, ears, and bows. This was my free-hand guide: To play, each player will need a paper plate and a glue stick. Everyone takes turns rolling the die and selecting a feature for their bunny based on the number rolled: Eyes Nose Cheeks Mouth Ears Bow As each feature is acquired, the player glues that piece onto their plate to create a Bunny face. Continue playing until everyone completes his or her Bunny. Provide crayons or markers at the end to add whiskers or other details. 9. Easter BINGO Use jelly beans as Bingo markers and try to get five in a row. Materials needed: Easter-themed Bingo cards and calling cards (free download) jelly beans for each player Each player gets a Bingo card and some jelly beans; everyone places a jelly bean on Free Space. Use the calling cards to call out an object and players place a jelly bean on the matching square on their own card. First player to get five in a row wins (and all players get to eat their Bingo markers at the end). 10. Pin the Nose on the Easter Bunny Just like Pin the Tail on the Donkey! Materials needed: Easter Bunny face (hand-made or purchased decoration) pink construction paper scissors masking tape blindfold Use the pink paper and scissors to cut enough noses for each player; place a roll of masking tape on the back of each nose. Hang the Easter Bunny face low enough that the players can reach easily. Players take turns getting blindfolded (optional for younger players), spun around, and then trying to place the nose on the Bunny - as close to the real nose as possible. Whether you have a winner for each game, or make everyone a winner for participating, we hope these games provide tons of entertainment and laughs at your Easter celebration. As always, thanks for reading.

This recipe for homemade dinner rolls (also known as Preston rolls around these parts) is easy and results in the most heavenly-smelling freshly-baked soft yeast rolls.