Children's Easter Morning Eggs

If you have children in your family, giving them this dish will start their Easter in a special, appealing way. The recipe comes from a very old library cookbook whose name and author, alas, has been lost. Nevertheless, the author declared in his book that these eggs were traditional in his home all during his growing up years.

• Ready In: 40 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 6  hard-cooked eggs
•  butter, as needed
• 1  cup  finely ground  cooked chicken or 1  cup ham
• 1  teaspoon  chopped parsley
•  salt and pepper
•  cream, to moisten (alternately may use softened butter)
• 1  cup  hot  cream, sauce (recipe below)
•  parsley (to garnish)
• 1 (5 count) package  yellow marshmallow peeps (chicks)

Directions

1. Separate whites and yolks of eggs and cut the whites into long thin strips. Set these aside in a warm oven to keep warm. Butter them now and then to keep them from drying.
2. Mix the yolks with the ground meat. (Note that you can substitute canned deviled ham, if desired.) Add the parsley, salt, and pepper to the yolk mixture and mix. Add a little cream or softened butter to the mixture to moisten.
3. Shape the yolk mixture into balls the size of robin's eggs. Heap these eggs on a festive serving dish. Arrange the whites around them like a nest.
4. Around all this pour over the hot cream sauce. You can make this using your own favorite recipe or try this one, based on white sauce, from About.com. Two tablespoons each butter and flour combined with 1 cup hot milk and 1/3 cup heavy cream. Season with salt, white pepper and freshly ground nutmeg. Add fresh mixed herbs, if desired or Parmesan cheese.
5. Arrange parsley around like an emerald lawn and on this "lawn" parade as many yellow peeps as desired to be eaten for dessert by the children.