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Easter Menu Ideas

One of the worst things about life after divorce is Holidays. The every other year arrangement really makes it hard to develop traditions, and I happen to enjoy traditions especially where food is involved. This Easter my kids are with Dad for Easter Dinner, so Easter Sunday will become Easter Saturday in my house. I really hope the Easter Bunny doesn’t get thrown off by our playing with the days like this. (If you click on this Easter Bunny you’ll be taken to a coloring page you can print out for your favorite little Peep.)

I am bucking the pig pressure of all the supermarkets and am going to cook leg of lamb. Since this is only the second time I have made leg of lamb, I asked my friends on Twitter for some ideas on making it a little more special. @cmcadams gave me instructions including oven temp in under 140 characters, pretty impressive. <<lamb. butterfly and stuff with chopped olives, garlic, rosemary, tie up, salt, pepper, rosemary again, cook at 225 to 135>> Sounds pretty good but I’m not a huge fan of olives. If you are, give this recipe a try and let me know how it turns out.

I do like his idea of stuffing the lamb with something and I came across this recipe that incororates Anchovies, garlic and bacon. Now, we’re talking. I will report on the results after Easter Saturday. I know Mint Jelly is the traditional condiment for Lamb, but to be honest, I think mint jelly is disgusting. So, I hopped on over (bunny reference) to Harry & Davids and picked up my favorite accompaniment to lamb, Pepper Jelly. When I saw their selection, I had to try more than one. The Onion and Garlic pepper jelly sounds divine and if the Sweet Red and Ancho Chili Pepper spread tastes as fabulous as it sounds, I am going to be in lamb heaven. The jellies and spreads are 3 for $13 right now, so hop on over and get some before I end up buying them all.

For side dishes, we will be having Orzo with Tomato, Basil and Feta. This was one of the first recipes I ever posted to Jersey Bites and you can tell by the really crummy picture. I promise to take new pictures and update that post. Yikes. Don’t let the picture deter you though. It is such a great side dish, especially with lamb. Our vegetable for the evening will be oven roasted asparagus with grated Parmesan cheese; super easy and always delicious.

I’ve always wanted to make Easter Pie but I was afraid I just would’t have the time this weekend. I found a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis that provides an easy option by using Phyllo dough instead of pie crust. I’ll be reporting back on this one too. Please if you’ve made this recipe, let me know your thoughts.

I think desert has to be carrot cake or maybe carrot cupcakes. Easter seems to inspire the cupcake-aholics in all of us. Just look at all the pictures I found. Some of them are so creative. I think the eggs on top of coconut nests are just adorable.

So, Easter Saturday is today. I’ve got to go getting cooking and hiding eggs. I’d love to hear what’s on the menu in your house. Please leave a comment if you’d like to share. You know I’m nosy that way. Happy Easter or Happy Passover depending on your faith. (I found a great company that I want to hit up for a Win It Wednesday next year during Passover. Matzel Toff. They were on Martha Stewart the other day and their chocolate and caramel covered Matzah look divine.)

Enjoy your Holiday everyone!!

Friday, April 10th, 2009, by Deborah Smith, Executive Editor and is filed under "Holidays, easy entertaining, Easter ". You can leave a response here, or send a Trackback from your own site.