This year I handled most of Easter Dinner, and I’m curious what others do.
Usually my mother-in-law gets me to go to the Honey-Baked Ham store and buy a couple pounds of their signature ham–but this year I found the store had moved a half hour away, and I was like bugger that, I can honey bake a ham myself. So I got a hickory quarter-ham (like 5 pounds), made a spiced honey/brown sugar glaze, and damn if it wasn’t tasty.
That, plus buttermilk biscuits and buttered asparagus, were our super-Southern dinner; my wife made a coconut pie for dessert, and deviled eggs for appetizers.
I’m alone this Easter, so I just had some leftover baked chicken in barbecue sauce, mixed in with some rice and peas. With a root beer float for dessert.
Tomorrow will be the same, except with a leftover pork chop I have to eat up.
We were at my in-laws. My SIL did a spiral sliced ham but just sliced it, didn’t heat it. Worked for me, by the time you bother to heat and slice it, it cools off too much anyway and spirals sometimes get dry. It was good.
Spiral ham from the local grocery store (we’ve been around the block with ham and decided the grocery store ham is just fine.) Pierogis from a meat market near my cousin. Potato salad from my aunt. Slovak Potato Sausage from my other cousin. Slovak Easter “cheese”, and paska bread. Lamb cake, nut roll (potica) and kolachky for dessert.
Hmm we didn’t even bother with veggies lol
My mom hosted and did all the prep work (including having the food blessed!) and I came by at noon for all the setup, cooking, serving and cleanup.
Bone-in ham from grocery store (warm up in oven 10 minutes/lb.; couldn’t be any easier), potato salad, kielbasi, green bean casserole. The only actual effort was making the Italian Love Cake for dessert, and that was almost autopilot while watching ballgames Friday night.
Same thing as most years: A long hike around a lake with dogs, followed by a grilled ham and swiss sandwich picnic. And the best part, my annual surprise Easter basket full of chocolate-peanut butter eggs! Hopefully they’ll last at least until Wednesday.
My extended family gathers around 4:00PM, and we do a family potluck. It’s always pretty much the same dishes hallowed by “ancient” tradition :D.
I bring the breads or rolls or croissants. This time it was James Beard’s recipe for challah. I’d intended on doing the croissants, but left the recipe book at the church and when I realized it last night it was too late to get it. Lots of desserts. My cousin’s husband is a very good pie baker, and his Key Lime pie was to die for.
Folks visit after eating, and some of us played cards.
Leftover ham and mashed potatoes, a couple of pies that my mom and uncle picked up somewhere… and lots and lots of dandelion salad, which is the only part of it that the three of us really care about. I’ve had that salad every Easter of my life, and don’t intend to stop.
Oh, and a neighbor dropped off a loaf of egg bread*, some rice-pudding pie, and a bag of angel wings**. I don’t care much about the first two, but angel wings are always welcome.
*As in, bread with an egg in it. Not an egg mixed into the dough, an egg in the bread. A whole egg, still in the shell. We’re not entirely sure what the meaning of that tradition is.
**Basically, fried strips of doughnut dough, covered in powdered sugar.
We had a big Polish breakfast of eggs, kielbasa (with horseradish) and baba, so went light with dinner with just a few potato/cheese pierogi. Followed by more baba, of course.
A few of us went to a local Italian restaurant I had not been to before. I had an arugula salad with pears and a few other things, then roasted (baked?) salmon for the main course. Delizioso!!
Since it was just me and my daughter I bought a ham and glazed it but it wasn’t that great. It was rubbery and salty under the glaze. I let my daughter pick the side and she chose french fries. I wanted sweet potato casserole. So we had ham and potatoes and potatoes. And Hawaiian rolls. Such a healthy meal.
A lovely dinner at a neighbor’s home featuring ham (from a pig I knew), roasted brussel sprouts, yams, coleslaw, pasta salad, etc. After dinner the men were offered bourbon (?) which was so good I requested several refills.
I took over Easter dinner this year. It’s getting tough for my mom to do it. We had 20 people. All I had to do was cook the ham. Everyone else brought the rest.
Spiral grocery store ham that had a package of glaze attached to it that I applied 1/2 hour before ham was ready to come out of the oven. It was very good.
Cheesy potatoes, veggie dish similar to the green bean thing only with mixed veggies instead, Hawaiian rolls, corn and a chicken cashew salad. Dessert was brownies, cherry cheesecake, chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, and fruit pizza.
Easter snuck up on us - we have been ailing off and on, lots of stuff going on. I bought a lot of asparagus, always cheaper around Easter, and had some meatloaf I mixed up ready to cook in the freezer. Dug out some small golf-ball size potatoes from the pantry and snapped off the sprouts! My husband likes to cut them up, spice them, pour melted butter on, and roast them. So those, and the meat loaf, asparagus, and Pillsbury crescent rolls, ready in an hour, and we considered ourselves fed…there are only the three of us now, I miss going out to a buffet.
Home-made pierogi, kielbasa (both fresh and smoked) with horseradish, spiral sliced ham, potato salad, roasted brussels sprouts, green beans, fruit salad, and way too many desserts.
mmm
We went to the same truck stop where we have Thanksgiving dinner, but on Easter they have their regular menu plus a ham-or-pork-loin special. My father had pork loin; I had omelet with swiss and mushroom, sausage on the side.
