Monday, April 5, 2010

Easter 2010



Easter Dinner was at our house this year - a gathering of long-time friends and family, people we've enjoyed many a meal with and a couple of new faces, a few folks missing and missed, all dear to our hearts.
A special pleasure to pull out the crystal, polish the silver, and, since I forgot to get chocolate bunnies, to make little bunny napkin folds.....In anticipation (it was Sunday afternoon after all) I set the champagne flutes out.
We started out with lox that our neighbor makes, the requisite deviled eggs, and a lusciously runny cheese, the Mt. Townsend Creamery Cirrus. And, miracle of miracles, Scharffenberger bubbly.
We made a Jerry's Double-smoked ham, soaked overnight in water and then baked slowly for 4 hours and glazed with a Honey Mustard Bourbon glaze (thanks to our friend Elizabeth for sending some magnificent stout-hearted Bourbon from Bourbon country), accompanied by oven-roasted cauliflower and beets, vinaigrette potato salad, fabulously garlicky and lemony carrots rapé, and really flaky wonderful warm biscuits. The biscuit maker was embarrassed thinking they'd failed to rise and brought some store-bought challah - not even close. The biscuits were a hit. Followed by a delicious green salad dressed with mandarin oranges, nuts, and craisens in a light oil and vinegar dressing.
Wine flowed - Layer Cake Malbec, AN/2, Guigal Coates du Rhones, Dry Creek Heritage Zinfandel. La Posta Cucina Blend, Kung Fu Girl Riesling, Goats du Roam Rosé. We also enjoyed a slightly effervescent "100% Good" Elderflower Pressé.
Dessert was fabulous - a coconut and lime cheesecake with whipped cream, I'm hoping Joan will share the recipe. We have one non-cheesecake eater in the crowd, and happened to have some little oranges that needed to be used, so I made some Ambrosia out of them. A friend recently sent us the new Edna Lewis Southern Cooking cookbook, and I used her recipe. On the facing page was a recipe for Glazed Strawberries - you cook a sugar syrup to 300°F, then dip fresh (dry) strawberries in it creating a little crystal sugar glaze on them - really quite delightful.
The light-weights peeled off about this time, but the rest of us finished the evening with a jolly round of Apples to Apples.
It is spring, and we are truly lucky and well-blessed. So many reasons to be thankful.

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