Easter Feast

I got the April 2014 issue of Better Homes and Gardens in the mail. The recipes in One Happy Easter Feast intrigued me. They had taken all sorts of Easter classics and gave them new spins. I normally don't like to try a bunch of new recipes at once but hey, there's a first time for everything. I wouldn't do this often especially when it's hard to gauge time with a lot of unfamiliar recipes. It would be awesome if these special meal plans would also have a timetable on what time to start each stage of the recipes.

The raspberry glaze for the ham was perfect. I'm not a huge fan of raspberries. But the glaze with it's honey and orange juice made the ham scrumptiously sweet.

The garlic potato rolls were made with roasted garlic and purple potatoes. The recipe called for 2-3 bulbs of garlic. I'll admit that I thought it said cloves when I went shopping. So I roasted one bulb. I think that was wise especially with younger children. I don't think they would eat it if it was packed with 2-3 bulbs of garlic. My husband agreed that 1 bulb seemed just right. These rolls tasted like they were from some specialty bakery. Yummy!

I thought the pink deviled eggs would tickle my daughter and have her eating more. No such luck. The relish was replaced with pickled beets which didn't really change the flavor, only the appearance.

The asparagus with lemon sauce will be made tomorrow night with the leftovers. The lemon sauce seems a bit involved with folding and monitoring temperature. I didn't feel like I could get it done with the major meal cooking. We steamed some brussel sprouts instead.

The Happy Easter mashed potatoes was the only fail. It tastes ok. The idea was to add a secret ingredient that would keep people guessing. Yes, it would be hard to guess that it had white chocolate in it. But it didn't add any great flavor. Only a little sweetness which seemed out of place with the rosemary. If I could do it over, I would make the potatoes without the chocolate and only a splash of cream instead of a whole cup.

Hope everyone is having a Blessed Easter celebration. We've had a wonderful Easter Vigil last night (the kids were pretty awesome to be up past bed time), an Easter egg hunt this morning, an Easter feast and a nap for the cook.