Easter All Day

We always color eggs for Easter. We became engaged on Easter 20 years ago and we just love spending the day grazing around on goodies and enjoying each other's company and just life in general. Springtime is so nice and we had a lovely sunny day here in paradise.

This is how our eggs came out this year. We started the day with some easy apple strudel, frozen from Trader Joe's, simply bake one, it comes two to the pack, then split it. I almost burned it, but it was still good. Then we each had an egg, can you guess which ones went first? The ones with stickers! They cracked while cooking, so could not dye them.....

A few hours later, we had some champagne, and I had made another quiche, so just had to heat that up. We sipped champagne and watched "Ben Hur" whilst reading the paper, taking outside breaks, and relaxing.

This is our dinner, obviously I would have liked to show this picture last, but I'm still struggling with attaching pictures correctly. It was herb crusted rack of lamb and roasted vegetables. I just baked the vegetables first at 400; peeled baby carrots, sliced parsnips, and a Yukon Gold potato, salt and pepper, drizzle olive oil and tossed around (by the way I always line my pans with Reynolds Release foil - makes cleaning easy). After roasting for 30 minutes, toss again and gather all toward one end of the pan. Meantime, prepare the rack by pulsing your favorite fresh herbs (I used tarragon, mint, thyme, rosemary, and rue - about 1 tablespoon each), with some bottled garlic (1 teasp.), about 1/3 cup Panko crumbs, drizzle olive oil, generous salt and pepper.

Spread the rack (Costco's, incidentally) with a combination of three scant teaspoons of your favorite mustards (I always have at least 3 going), and add horseradish to taste, generous salt and pepper, and a touch of white wine or champagne just to make it spreadable. Then pat on your herb crust. Bake along side the vegetables for about 35 -45 more minutes, or until done (I like medium for lamb), I'd say 15 minutes per pound till I think about 145 degrees, then keep vegetables warm on a 200 degree toaster oven. Let lamb rack rest, covered loosely with foil, for about 10 to 15 minutes, to allow finishing of cocktails before eating! Slice up and dinner is on the table with little effort in the kitchen.

Really, really good, I also made a quick mint sauce by microwaving equal parts of maple syrup and apple cider vinegar, a little water, and a good handful of chopped mint. Microwave for one minute, and let sit while everything is roasting. You can also use brown sugar instead of syrup.



This is our appetizer mini crab cakes, I'm still tweaking this recipe, but it was good, sorry the picture turned the wrong way when I uploaded it, another problem I'm having.

We also had deviled eggs - I used up the less pretty ones for my classic eggs, just a little mayo, mustard, sweet pickle relish, salt and pepper, I mix in with the yolks in a sturdy plastic bag, cut off the tip and pipe into shells. You have to sprinkle them with paprika and make them a little ahead of time so the filling firms up somewhat, at least I prefer them chilled that way.

Again, sorry for the weird picture.

Later, here was our cocktail hour setting.

Cute ceramic Easter baskets. We don't eat a lot of candy, so the Easter bunny was right on this year! One raspberry whip dark chocolate egg and only three small dark Dove chocolate eggs! How did the Easter bunny know we love dark chocolate if we are to indulge???

Of course, Miss Kitty had to get in on the action. That is the same basket I have been putting out for at least 10 years now! That's about it. Hope your Easter was as nice as ours.

We took a Sunday afternoon drive (prior to cocktail hour) came back, got dinner going, and we watched "Easter Parade", which we have on tape, so we can fast forward through a lot of it. I love Judy Garland and Fred Astaire, such talent....we've seen it a million times though, so some of songs get skipped, check out Anne Miller's dancing scene sometime though when she "Shakes the Blues Away".

Oh, and wasn't that great Easter Sunday news to hear how the Navy Seals rescued Captain Phillips? What a story that crew is telling, it's totally awesome!