Easter Menus

[Kim Shook]

I am recovering from some surgery and unable to stand for very long or use my arms to do much (no lifting or pressing or pulling yet) so I am suffering from severe cooking withdrawal. I am not making it any better by spending my time at egullet or watching FoodTV. So with all of this obsessing about food {sidebar: this is totally off topic but when I was drugged in the hospital I did some inadvertent eavesdropping and heard my mother say that she was really disturbed by my 'obsession' with food and that it was obviously a 'cover up' for something that was missing in my life . Well. That is an interesting take on what I had always thought of as my full, interesting pretty great life .} Anyway, back to topic. With all this ‘obsessing’, I have already come up with my Easter menu:

Lamb w/ mint sauce & gravy

Ham

Deviled Eggs

Gouda Potatoes Au Gratin

Scalloped Tomatoes

My fruit salad

Lettuce & Cauliflower Salad w/ Parmesan

Green Beans

Asparagus

Yeast rolls

Coconut Layer Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrot Cake Bars

Three Berry Pie w/ whipped cream

Anyone else in the planning stages yet? Any input here? I realize that it may seem like a bit of overkill, but Mr. Kim and I REQUIRE lamb for Easter, but many of our guests have that weird lamb horror and so we must serve ham, too. The fact that we are serving lamb AND ham explains the various vegetable thingies, too.

[jgm]

{Did we have the same mother?

Mine once suggested I take zinc to try to deal with my chocolate obsession. She was utterly disgusted when I asked her why I'd want to do that, when I could have a candy bar.}

I think the menu sounds wonderful. How are you planning to cook the green beans and the asparagus?

The scalloped tomatoes dish sounds yummy.

How many people are you serving?

[Kim Shook]

Wow. Moms - gotta love 'em. Mine is trying to convince me to stop doing my big (and beloved by me) Xmas eve dinner because no one else really cares about it. The funny thing is that I know for a fact that this woman ADORES me and would lay down her life for me! Go figure .

Anyway - the asparagus (to go with the lamb) will be tossed with EVOO, sea salt, pepper and fresh rosemary and roasted at 425 degrees until crisp/tender and served room temp. The green beans (to go with the ham) will be done Southern style - with side meat, a little brown sugar, LOTS of pepper and cooked to death. Here's the recipe for the scalloped tomatoes: Scalloped Tomatoes. They really are so good. Mr. Kim & I do NOT like stewed tomatoes at ALL, so we just took enough to be polite when his stepmom served these a couple of years ago at some family dinner. We were amazed and ended up taking the leftovers home! To answer your last question, we should be serving anywhere from 20 to 30 folks. I have a SIL who doesn't decide until the last minute in case she gets a better offer (Mr. Kim's theory), so I always cook for the higher number.

[rooftop1000]

We do the ham and lamb thing to but just because the ham is cheaper than the lamb and being Italian I feel the need to toss a baked pasta in ...just in case

So for 12 to 15 people it will be

Cheese and snacky stuff

Baked ham

BBQ butterflied leg of lamb with tons of paprika and garlic and oregano

Baked ziti or lasagna

Grilled eggplant, zuchini, asparagus, and onions...under-done the day before and nuked

Roasted red potatoes

Mom asked for the rainbow chard I have been talking up...boiled then sauteed with olive oil and garlic

Biscuits and pita points

Dill sauce for the lamb...like on a Gyro

Mother in law does dessert...very nicely

tracey

this works out perfect since the only last min thing is the lamb and guys are on the porch cocktailing it up anyway....so they get to watch it

[maggiethecat]

I haven't begun to think about Easter dinner yet, although I'm definitely going to try those scalloped tomatoes.

What I do think is that someone should start a thread about how our Moms feel about our fondness for food and love of cooking. Sheesh, Kim, that's quite a story.

[jayhay]

I haven't yet finalized our Easter dinner....but one thing is a given & it's TURKEY! Ham is okay at other times, but not on any of the "official" holidays.

The tomato dish sounds lovely, just not certain we have canned tomato wedges available here. Should I substitute regular canned tomatoes, or use fresh?

[suzilightning]

can i come to your house, please? i can wash dishes and do kitchen cleanup...

i just happens that easter falls on my brother-in-law's birthday(almost) and i have to work friday, saturday and monday - so johnnybird will go up and they will have a big party on saturday. i am not allowed to cook lamb at home( i do go to aag if lou has the lamb sandwich for lunch specil) so i have no freaking idea what i may cook........

gumbo?

chicken?

spaghetti with meatballs?

whatever it has to have leftovers for monday since we both work then......

[Marlene]

I'll be smoking a turkey this Easter. Not sure about sides yet other than traditional mashed potatoes. Help?

[rooftop1000]

can i come to your  house, please?  i can wash dishes and do kitchen cleanup...

i just happens that easter falls on my brother-in-law's birthday(almost) and i have to work friday, saturday and monday - so johnnybird will go up and they will have a big party on saturday.  i am not allowed to cook lamb at home( i do go to aag if lou has the lamb sandwich for lunch specil) so i have no freaking idea what i may cook........

gumbo?

chicken?

spaghetti with meatballs?

whatever it has to have leftovers for monday since we both work then......

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Suzi you can come down to West Milford and visit us if ya want ....but you get a salad fork for dinner just like the nephews...we dont have enough silver

tracey

[suzilightning]

Suzi you can come down to West Milford and visit us if ya want ....but you get a salad fork for dinner just like the nephews...we dont have enough silver

tracey

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actually that's UP to West Milford...thanks and pm me if you are serious...

[bleudauvergne]

Easter. What's the traditional fare? We usually just had chocolate when I was growing up.

[Marlene]

ham and scalloped potatoes were traditional when we were growing up. (yes chocolate too!), but I detest scalloped potatoes really.

[Jake]

I'll be smoking a turkey this Easter.  Not sure about sides yet other than traditional mashed potatoes.  Help?

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Greens! And you have to eat them too.

Seriously, green beans with a compound butter (easy to blanche ahead and warm with the butter).

Of course no one will bother with anything when they see the smoked bird..

[Marlene]

I'lll have you know, I had greens last night and will again tonight too. Green beans sound really good though.

[Jake]

I'lll have you know, I had greens last night and will again tonight too.   Green beans sound really good though.

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Parsley as a garnish does NOT count.

[Kouign Aman]

Easter....

I've never cooked lamb. My mom loves it. I like lamb chops, hate leg 'o lamb, love lamb in stews/curries etc. Any recommendations for a lame-lamb-beginner for Easter dinner?

[racheld]

Easter.  What's the traditional fare?  We usually just had chocolate when I was growing up.

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The first coconut cake of the season, with seven-minute (or creamcheese) frosting, orange velvet layers and laboriously-cracked, scraped and grated fresh coconut.

OR, if there's a lot going on, lots of company and egg dyeing, etc., I do the SL thing and toss the flaked (bought) coconut in a bowl in which I've stirred together a little milk, a little sugar, and a couple of drops of coconut extract...it makes a lovely moist covering, and is splendid at Easter.

This cake became a tradition when my children were small, and they would do a bit of the coconut with green food color, shake it in a jar, and make little nests all round the perimeter of the cake, to be filled with whatever birdie-egg candy was popular that year. One year we found a couple of dozen exquisite robins' eggs, the loveliest of blues, filled with ganache.

The orange is the wedding cake layers I was making so many of during that time, and they thought it was nice to have one of those that didn't have to go out of the house. We named it "Ambrosia Cake" because it's a baked version of the fruit salad which lives in cut-glass dishes in the South.

This Year's Menu:

Mimosas and Dirty Marys with Puff Pastry Straws

Pimiento Cheese on Salty Crackers

Chris' Grill-baked Ham with Grilled Pineapple Sticks

Grilled slender Eggplant and Zucchini, Sesame marinade

Three-Cheese Penne baked crisp on top

Roasted Asparagus with Lemony Hollandaise or mayo

Baby Romaine Hearts, Celery and Snow Peas with Cucumber Raita

Devilled Eggs with Olive Garnish

Sweet Potato Casserole with Tiny marshmallows (This year we found FLOWERS--they may or may not be recognizable coming out of the oven)

Ambrosia Cake

Mini-Cheesecakes with Three Sauces (Strawberry, Lemon Curd, Hot Fudge)

Strawberries with Ricotta/Turbinado dip

Amaretto Sticks with Coffee and Tea

Free rein on Chocolate Rabbits, Eggs, Chicks, Ducks, Bars, Drops, Squares, Sticks or a BIG bowl of M&M's---I love the pastels and have to be restrained from scattering them all down the table.

[jackal10]

Some more traditional Easter foods:

Simnel cake (really Mothering Sunday, but often slips to Easter)

Hot Cross Buns/ Saffron Bun (of course)

Good Friday Fish Pie and Leek Tart (strictly its still Lent)

Pease Pottage (to go with the ham)

Easter Eggs! (both multicoloured boiled eggs, and the chocolate sort)

Then, of course there are the escaped Passsover foods...

[Marlene]

I'lll have you know, I had greens last night and will again tonight too.   Green beans sound really good though.

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Parsley as a garnish does NOT count.

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hmph. I had green beans last night and will have brocoli tonight. So there.

Jack, I love hot cross buns. I wonder why you only see them at Easter? I'll pass on the fish pie though. Sorry.

[Kim Shook]

I haven't yet finalized our Easter dinner....but one thing is a given & it's TURKEY!  Ham is okay at other times, but not on any of the "official" holidays. 

The tomato dish sounds lovely, just not certain we have canned tomato wedges available here.  Should I substitute regular canned tomatoes, or use fresh?

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Sorry, jayhay - I wasn't ignoring you - we went to the beach for a few days. I would just use canned whole tomatoes cut into wedges and drained slightly.

[suzilightning]

Easter. What's the traditional fare? We usually just had chocolate when I was growing up.

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Free rein on Chocolate Rabbits, Eggs, Chicks, Ducks, Bars, Drops, Squares, Sticks or a BIG bowl of M&M's---I love the pastels and have to be restrained from scattering them all down the table.

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and how many of those bunnies were missing their ears?

rachel - your foods sound yummy. johnnybird just informed me he will be home about 3 on sunday so i guess i'd better start thinking about what to make.

growing up we always had lamb but john can't abide it. for the last 15 years or so if we aren't in poughkeepsie we tend to be eating pb & j sandwiches on a mountain somewhere(i always find a place to go to mass on saturday!!). if in pok it is a preformed ham(that my mil buys) or lasagna, asparagus and sweet potatoes with brown sugar and of course heavenly mush(cool whip, coconut, grapes and mandarin oranges).

mid april - i'm thinking i want to see what the weather is like. if it is cool up here maybe a lasagna john can eat with lactose free cottage cheese instead of ricotta, asparagus and something i was known for when i worked in the kitchens - lemon charlotte made with a lemon mousse and homemade lemon ladyfingers. if it's warm maybe something on the grill (lamb burgers for me and duck for johnnybird) and grilled asparagus, yellow and green squash.

[rooftop1000]

Oh heck if he gets duck get yourself a small rack of lamb....you may even be able to work a sauce for both of them ....a cabernet reduction or something...cherries in his fresh mint in yours

T

[racheld]

Everybody is pretty considerate of everyone else's basket stuff, so unless there's a homemade truffle or Kahlua brownie with someone else's teethmarks, no one poaches on anothers' rabbitears or chick heads. And the Peeps are ALL for Chris. Nobody else can stand the gritty, stretchy stuff. And they're year-round now, pumpkins and wreaths and hearts, getting them a pretty good footing in a holiday market that grows and grows.

I came back to edit my menu post, but it was too late. I took a trial run on the "flower" marshmallows Tuesday night, getting all set to sit down with our Gilmore Girls (not allowing for the NBA's greedy takeover of the airwaves at will), and made our plates in the kitchen.

I made Chris fried chicken livers and I had some curry chicken salad left from lunch. Sides were a pot of field peas and snaps with tiny fingers of baby okra steamed just SOFT, not mushy, on top; a vinegary slaw, and we shared a baked sweet potato, taken out of the shell and mashed with brown sugar/butter/vanilla, then topped with a few of the marshmallows and baked in a little gratin dish.

Glad I made them for an early trial---they were AWFUL. I got them for the Granddaughters' Easter box, since they won't be here this year. They were pretty little things, pale pink ruffly "petals" around a creamy yellow center circle, and they tasted just like regular marshmallows...one of those "cute" things the candymakers burst forth with all the time.

They lay atop the creamy potato mixture in the heat of the oven, gently spreading a bit as they softened. Next peek in the door revealed blobs of pink goo, with clops of yellow bubbling in the center, bits of browned marshmallow appearing as it crisped a bit. I said "Oh, Well, they'll taste OK," and set them aside for a few minutes while serving up the dinner.

The scoop of the spoon down through the potatoes disarranged all the colors, spreading a strange rainbow amongst the deep rust/orange, and when served upon the plate, the stuff was NOT attractive. Chris looked at his plate, said a few admiring words about the livers and other dishes, then said, "What IS that?"

I told him, and he said the first and only uncomplimentary thing about my cooking that he's EVER said in all our twenty years: "Looks like a doll died in a pile of poop."

I took a look, and we both fell out laughing. There was the little ruffly bonnet surrounding a small pale face, with strands and streamers of pink circled all through, and the contrast to the deep gold potatoes...well, it was just too much.

THEN, he capped it all by saying of the browned bits, "I can see its little eyes!"

Glad we got THAT out of the way before we inflicted that stuff on company.

[ludja]

Easter.  What's the traditional fare?  We usually just had chocolate when I was growing up.

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I don't think it's too early to plan! Easter dinner is one of my favorite dining celebrations because I feel more latitude in changing the menu from year to year as long as I keep a strong focus on wonderful spring ingredients.

In the northeast where I grew up ham was very tradtional. Now my Mom usually has lamb as well. For us, asparagus as a harbinger of spring is de rigeur, either as a warm vegetable side dish or served cold with a vinagrette or sauce gribiche. Other typical sides dishes are buttered, parslied new potatoes, English peas (maybe with a mint butter) and creamed onions. In a nod to our Austrian roots we usually have freshly grated horseradish with the ham.

It's early for strawberries in New England, but dessert is usually something lighter, maybe something with a focus on pineapple, rhubarb, lime or lemon, for example. We always make a great Austrian Easter Braid bread that has raisins in it. This is for breakfast with sweet butter slathered on it.

My tradition out in CA has evolved to include either a ham or leg of lamb as the main dish. Out here it is also a great time to get fresh spring salmon which is less rich and oily this time of year. I've made a wonderful first course salad with it and spring vegetables (inspired by Bertolli formerly of Chez Panisse) and one year I served salmon as the main course with a green olive butter. I also like to incorporate as many CA spring vegetables as possible into the menu--artichokes, fava beans, spring onions, baby carrots, fennel, pea shoots, etc. When I had vegetarian guests one year I made an artichoke tart as an alternative entree.

For dessert I make dishes similar to those described above or else I make some type of ricotta type dessert like ricotta filled cream puffs or a ricotta pie or tart. I think these are traditional in some Italian Easter desserts and they just feel right to me for Easter.

The biggest influences on my Easter dinners out here was becoming inspired by the regional and seasonal cooking and general aesthetics in the Chez Panisse cookbooks and having access to truly great locally grown spring vegetables at Eastertime. (It can be early for some items in New England.) I also love going to the Easter vigil mass the night before so that on Easter I just have the whole morning to play with the spring vegetables as I listen to La Traviata! I try to make dinner early, around 1:00. so we can change and fit in a small walk after dinner in the nearby foothills.

I'm having a smaller group this year so I'm considering a simpler menu and plenty of time for a walk after dinner. I haven't finalized it yet but here is my first draft:

Proscuitto or Westphalian Ham

green olives

radishes

good bread with sweet butter and salt

Shrimp paste on toast points

Elderberry Flower Champagne Cocktails

Steamed artichoke with beurre blanc

Fennel Cream soup with some crostini (Black olive tapanade, smoked trout and avocado?)

Spring Salmon Salad with Cucumber vinagrette, scallions, fresh peas, fava beans, asparagus and young greens

Ricotta ice cream with a Rhubarb compote or Boulud's Rhubarb Napolean with Orange Flower Cream or an Erdbeeroberstorte (Strawberry Cream Torte)

or

a fresh strawberry/pineapple compote followed by homemade cannoli with pistachios (I do need to try and use my cannoli molds sometime soon... )

Thanks for kickstarting my remembrances and planning. There are too many great options for Easter dinner!

edited to add: We color Easter eggs and make up Easter baskets as well. The easter eggs go great with leftover ham sandwiches after Easter (one big flaw of my menu above).

Edited March 23, 2006 by ludja (log)

[ludja]

...

Chris looked at his plate, said a few admiring words about the livers and other dishes, then said, "What IS that?"

I told him, and he said the first and only uncomplimentary thing about my cooking that he's EVER said in all our twenty years:  "Looks like a doll died in a pile of poop."

I took a look, and we both fell out laughing.  There was the little ruffly bonnet surrounding a small pale face, with strands and streamers of pink circled all through, and the contrast to the deep gold potatoes...well, it was just too much.

THEN, he capped it all by saying of the browned bits, "I can see its little eyes!"

Glad we got THAT out of the way before we inflicted that stuff on company.

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Pretty funny, and one of those times when one *is* truly glad that the decision to make a trial run was made!