Easter at home?

There's a new thread about where LTHers are going out to eat for Easter, but I know at least a few of us will be dining at home.

Here at Chez Wildebeest, Chouxfly will be smoking a semi-boneless leg of lamb (why is it called that? Isn't being boneless like being pregnant... either you are or you aren't?)... I have some old branches of rosemary from last year's garden I'll give him to toss in with the wood chips; asparagus sautéed in butter, garlic-roasted purple and orange cauliflower; some kind of kid-friendly side dish being brought by friends; and a gluten-free carrot cake that may or may not be shaped into a bunny (depending on my energy level). Nibbles will include some fancy salami, plenty of brightly colored hard-boiled eggs, and a little chunk of NY cheddar I've been saving for a special occasion. I might do some gf buns for breakfast, or gf biscuits and gravy with Nottoli hot fennel sausage, washed down with freshly squeezed Valencia OJ and a splash of Yellowtail moscato as pseudo-mimosas.

What's the plan for YOUR fEaster?

If I were only coming the Wildebeest home...that all sounds wonderful!

We'll be joining my mother in the dining room at her community for their Easter buffet. I'm expecting bland.

Will be cooking at my mom's due to her health issues. Making Pork Roast, sauerkraut, knedlicky and fresh asparagus. Probably will pick up a pie at Whole Foods or some other such place.

Pizza. Got a new wood fired oven that I will be using for the first time.

Easter pizza, love it! Great possibilities for shaping/decorating; I'm imagining pepperoni-polka-dotted eggs.

Family's coming that does not appreciate lamb or I'd have a leg destined for the Weber as well. Instead I'll be doing my first ever standing rib roast (reverse sear) on the smoke. Haven't decided on sides yet. Probably grill some spuds as well.

If you like smoked things, you should try smoking some hard boiled (and peeled eggs) using a little cherry. Makes awesome deviled eggs or egg salad.

A WSM was Chouxfly's Christmas gift this year... he's just finished going through all the lessons in Gwiv's book. We scored some cherry (and a few other woods) during a Menard's sale last weekend, but I don't know which one he's planning for the lamb. I looked at the rib roasts but the prices had me going back to the lamb. The eggs sound amazing and I might slip a few in this afternoon just for the hey of it!

Happy Easter, all!

About as boring as you can get - a ham, asparagus w/ hollandaise, scalloped potatoes, croissants, a few different pies, and in my family - “where 2 or more of you are gathered, lasagna shall be there” (AmerItalians 3:31)

We are heading for Wisconsin, ruby pickled eggs in tow -- along with matzo crack. I often make Chinese tea eggs and/or German mustard-pickled eggs as well, but soy sauce and mustard aren't kosher for Passover, so they'll have to manage without I'm willing to bet anything the matzo will be more popular on the Easter table than the eggs.

Hi,

We had no nieces this year for Easter, so I did what I wanted: lamb. No eggs, either, which nobody commented on.

Last year's Easter seemed to tilt Korean, this year Greek-Argentinean-French.

I was at Woodmen's last week, they had marked down a boneless leg of lamb from $18 to $10. At just over three pounds, this was more than enough for four people. The French influence was more like The French Chef Julia Child. I rubbed soy sauce over the roast, studded it with garlic, then rubbed olive oil over it. I cooked it at 275 degrees until it had an internal temperature of 130 degrees. While it rested, it climbed to 140 degrees. I had planned to sear it in the oven, but didn't want this lamb to cook more.

I made Greek cabbage salad (finely chopped cabbage, wine vinegar, olive oil, chopped parsley and feta cheese), roasted beets with some Balsamic vinegar stirred in and skordalia to go with the beets. The wee bit of Argentine influence was chimichurri sauce for the meat.

Dessert was peach pie from peaches frozen in 2011.

Nine hours later, I can still taste the garlic.

Cathy2 wrote:...
Nine hours later, I can still taste the garlic.

mamagotcha wrote:A WSM was Chouxfly's Christmas gift this year...

(with apologies for the thread drift) Merry Christmas! If he enjoys participating in forums, he should check out the Weber Kettle Club though normal people might find the fanaticism toward Weber products a little alarming.

Sounds great, Cathy2!

And thanks for the pointer, HankB; I shall pass it on!

I had a rack of mutton I got from Mint Creek Farms. I've never dealt with mutton before this. I trimmed the bones, ending up with a loin of mutton. The bones became a demi glaze. The loin was the tied and marinated with yogurt, garlic and rosemary (s&p, of course) overnight. We fired up the charcoal grill, let it die down and slow roasted, probably for about an hour. The meat came out wonderfully tender and rare, very flavorful. It reminded me of the lamb I used to love as a kid--so much more full flavored than the New Zealand or even domestic lamb they sell today (Have you noticed that they've also bred all the heat out of jalapenos?). I'm glad we've got a fair amount left over for sandwiches.

LAZ wrote:I'm willing to bet anything the matzo will be more popular on the Easter table than the eggs.

Didn't get to check this out, because the car didn't cooperate. The eggs turned out really good, though. But not as good as toffee-and-chocolate-covered matzo.

We had a medium sized crowd at our house for Greek Easter this year. It happened to fall on the same day as American Easter this year. The showpiece of the dinner was this leg of lamb that I cooked on the spit using my Weber kettle.

That looks great, Steve! Having decided late Friday to host Easter dinner on Sunday, we ended up with a Honey Bear ham. I wanted lamb, but didn't have the time or inclination to call and/or drive all over the city to find a leg of lamb. We had a simple meal of ham, roasted asparagus and scalloped potatoes.

Had the traditional family stuff at my sisters - ham, etc.

Hit Woodmans on the way back south from Geneva for dinner supplies. Grilled some chicken breasts(Woodmans has a couple natural choices -), used the grilled breasts to top a heavy cream and butter parmesan and garlic laden alfredo sauce over some fettuccine. Carrot sticks and slices of cucumber with some ranch for dipping to munch on finished it out.

stevez, that looks positively smashing!

Nothing super spectacular this year; I wanted to keep it simple so I could enjoy the day, too. Chouxfly made homemade bagels for a brunch guest (with lox/cream cheese/red onion/capers); I supplemented with scrambled eggs, oven bacon, griddled hashbrowns, and Mariano's OJ spiked with prosecco.

Gluten-free chocolate quinoa cake (this turned out to be marvelous), strawberries, whipped cream, and Robins Egg ice cream were supposed to be dessert after dinner, but we broke into 'em around lunchtime and they hit the spot.

Dinner was a leg of lamb with a wet rub of lemon juice/rosemary/garlic, roasted over potatoes, and steamed asparagus with lemon butter. The vegetarian had tofu and potatoes baked with the same rub. A relatively cheap bottle of Côtes-du-Rhône topped things off nicely.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend... how nice that the weather cooperated and we could have the windows open all day!

We dined at moetchandon's sister's home. I got a Nueske city ham (never had one before). It's amazing what a difference it made compared to supermarket (water added) hams. It had much more of a full, "hammy" taste than most city hams I've had in the past. I made a glaze with brown sugar, grainy mustard, orange marmalade and a bit go clove, which seemed to work well. Best of all, we have lots of leftover ham.

Oh, and the Hoosier Mama Chocolate Cream pie wasn't a bad way to finish things off.

I boned out a US leg of Lamb and rubbed the interior with a paste of rosemary, garlic S&P and EVOO.
Vac sealed it and sous vide it for 14 hours at 135˚then foil/towel/cooler for 2 hours (on the way the grandmas house) and drained the bag, dried the outside of the tied boneless leg and placed in a 475˚oven for 20 min. carved a few min after taking it out of the oven. The SV time added to the tenderness and the uniformity of the doneness. Next time I'll fire up the grill at my folks hours and finish over charcoal for another flavor level.

Since I'm not fond of ham, and a few of my inlaws don't like lamb, I suggested brunch this year, and it went over very well. For 13 people, we poached 26 eggs (9 were left over), similar quantity of english muffins, with smoked salmon, bacon, sausage, ham, asparagus, spinach, artichoke dip, feta, cheddar, and a big batch of hollandaise. Also served were coffee cakes, orange-honey rolls (which SueF got the recipe from someone at the dessert exchange), a blintz souffle, and a hash brown casserole. Oh and the obligatory relish tray.

What was your secret for successfully poaching so many eggs? I struggle to do one well

Had ham just two weeks ago or so, so I wasn't ready for ham again yet. I was glad to find last week that Costco was selling boneless leg of lamb for $4.99/lb, which was the best price I saw anywhere around here -- though why we can get lamb from Australia cheaper than we can from Colorado I still don't understand.

Rubbed the boneless leg of lamb inside and out with olive oil, crushed garlic, salt, pepper, and rosemary and roasted it in the oven. Along with scalloped potatoes and asparagus, it was a lovely spring meal on a lovely spring evening.

boudreaulicious wrote:What was your secret for successfully poaching so many eggs? I struggle to do one well

Really big saute pan (almost a wok) with a lot of high simmer/low boil water, with some champagne vinegar added.
Undercooked them (four at a time, with two just in, two ready to come out at any given time), drained with a skimmer, slid into ramekins that sat on a big hotplate.

Perfect? Hardly. I should have used the "drain the loose white" approach, because the pan was full of white fluff several times through (which led to happy dog), and lots of "tentacles". Some were nearly hard-cooked, some a little on the raw side.

A noble effort in any case.

For Easter, I went to the store for rib roast. I favor the reverse method, so it went into 200 degree oven just before 8:00 am. The internal temperature was 115 by the time I checked at 11:45 am, It reached 125 degrees by 12:15 pm.

Turned up the oven to 450 to begin making popovers. They cooked for 15 minutes, then I turned up the temperature to 500. They were finished 5-10 minutes later. The roast went it for the final browning.

For the sides, I made:
- Whipped cream with horseradish folded in. It was a recipe from Saveur where they added sugar. I did not add sugar, then was surprised it was sweet. I forgot this Polish horseradish already had sugar in it.
- Asparagus spears - stems peeled and cooked in salted water
- Mashed potatoes with cream and butter
- My sister made green beans with bacon and onion

My sister made dessert: Oma's cheesecake made with quark instead of cream cheese

As we finished eating, another sister did a video conference.

By 3 pm, the entire household was asleep.

We live in exciting times!

Happy Easter!

Cathy2

Hi,

A home like every year, because that's just the way it is.

For a while, I have been dickering between city ham, turkey or rib roast. All of them have been in suspended animation in the freezer waiting for their moment. I was leaning toward rib roast until I read about encasing a ham in brioche dough to simultaneously steam and roast. Curious to see how it works, we are having ham en croute.

I am making pineapple gratin, which I made several times last year. We treated it more like dessert, it was so good.

Dad is tired of asparagus, so that will not be in play.

Dessert will be a homemade lamb cake, now that I know how!

Planning will continue, though we have a good start.

Regards,
Cathy2

When it comes to meal planning my thoughts dart from idea to idea.

Earlier I was contemplating rib roast, turkey or ham. Ham won after I saw a blog post by Michael Mech for ham en croute. Two days after I set the ham to defrost, I found lamb shoulder on sale. If I had only known just a little earlier, it would have won.
This morning, I put the ham in a stockpot filled with hot tap water, which was changed after 45 minutes, for a 90 minute warm up.

Meanwhile, I made a Japanese milk bread dough instead of brioche to cover the ham.

After 90 minutes, I trimmed off the fat and any skin that went to the freezer for some baked beans someday. I scored the ham, smeared it with mustard and packed on the brown sugar. I preheated the oven to 400 degrees.

I then rolled out the Japanese milk bread dough to encase the upper region of the ham, but not the bottom. I should have taken a picture, it was so beautiful. I then placed it in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes, then lowered to 325 degrees for the next 90 minutes.
Once the ham registered 145, it was removed to rest for 20 minutes.



During the last 30 minutes of baking the ham, I added a pineapple gratin (pineapple, some flour, cheese and buttered Ritz crackers). After the ham left the oven, a potato gratin which was largely cooked on the stove went into the oven to melt the cheese.



Dessert was a lamb cake unadorned with frosting, which allowed the detail of the mold to shine through. It was an inspiration from a German cooking website. The mold was my Oma's who died in 1975, though I was recently gifted. It was partially eaten before I remembered I intended to take a picture.

Happy Easter!

To please my parents, I made hot cross buns. I actually made a half recipe, because I kept finding recipes to feed a lot.

I grabbed a recipe for no-knead hot cross buns. I was attracted initially to the idea of the dough could be refrigerated over five days. I thought of baking them fresh for a couple of mornings. When it came time to bake, I did them all at once.
I think I made roughly 14 80-gram buns. I made a full recipe of the butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and maple syrup frosting. It sounded so good, it could be used as a spread. I'm glad I did, because I liked the frosting more than the buns.

I had two issues with these buns: the recipe is effectively low on the sweet side, which seems common among hot cross buns. The frost was really saved the low sweet dynamic for me.

I felt the buns were over baked. When I read the recipe, I thought 25 minute bake for a small roll was too much. I should have gone with my thoughts. Instead I let them bake for the full time, to find they were 209 degrees. This temperature would have been fine for a bread absent of eggs and butter, but too high for an enriched dough. It should have stopped in the range of 180-190 degrees.

Hopefully next year they will be better.