Easter Sunday in Ohio

Easter Sunday for me started with prepping the macaroni and cheese I'd be contributing to my family's Sunday dinner. For most of the rest of the family, it began with church. Different strokes, different folks. Once K. and A. returned from church, we got ourselves together (they took off their fancy church clothes while I put on something other than my pajamas) and headed over to my aunt and uncle's house. A. went and picked up his kids, W. and K. and thus this photograph was possible.

And this one.

And this one, where it almost looks like W. doesn't have a head and is only a body carrying K. around.

M. and A. took control over the marinating and grilling of a number of veggies, which included asparagus, carrots and peppers.

A salad and a lot of fresh fruit were also available.

Not to mention a crock pot roasted turkey breast.

And a ham. And lactose-free potatoes and lactose-full macaroni and cheese (in this version there's a mix of cheddar, fontina, mozzarella, gouda, colby jack and that may be it).

As the family expands so do the tables L. and E. have to pull out so that we can all fit. But we do all fit!

Baby R. with some treat in her mouth I think.

This year was definitely chillier than last year. Fewer flowers had bloomed and jackets were definitely needed to fight off a chill in the air. While that's all true, it wasn't so cold or gloomy that kids couldn't make quick work finding the 64 plastic eggs I hid around the backyard.

And of course there were about a million different tasty sweet treats to choose from for dessert.

Brownies. Sweet potato cookies. Etc.

Another good Easter. We then watched more March madness, including that sad moment for the player with the leg from Louisville.

Easter Dinner Etc

Easter dinner included mashed potatoes (I forget what the specific name for this particular method of preparing them was), chicken breasts, ham, carrots and a fruit salad to boot.
Those potatoes. My god.



A lovely meal. Great folks. I was glad I chose to go the Ohio way for Easter in 2012.

The Hunt

After feeding ourselves well, we had M.'s grandmother judge our Easter eggs...she was the only one who had not been present during their making, thus was as impartial an egg judger as we were going to get. Many eggs caught her eye...because they were all pretty great...she liked mine best. Heh. I am a jerk.

Then there was the hunt. First we walked the boundaries.

Then we had the hunt, of which there is not a single photograph. I did, however, get some video...but I am too lazy to deal with it...which probably means it will rot in a folder for all eternity. Poor video. It seems that I am an egg finding machine...ie I found the most eggs. It was a good day. It was an eggtory (you know, victory but with eggs?).

Easter Cake

For Easter supper we started with cake...okay, that's not true in the least! But there was a cake, and it went through a number of stages before its inevitable slide down our gullets.
I brought a Malbec to have during dinner. We opened it before the food hit the table, it was nice.
Easter supper was lamb chops and twice baked potatoes. Oh man. The lamb was wonderful but the potatoes? Like magic. Potato magic. Magic in a nightshade skin. Some sort of crazy root vegetable, starchy miracle. They don't look like they have that much mojo going on, but believe me...they do. There was cheese and bacon and sour cream and something else right delicious. Oh man.
So the cake was really rich and had a souffle-like quality to it. The recipe (Nigella somebody?) then called for chocolate whipped cream to be spread in the depression that resulted from the cake 'falling'. This is M. whisking that chocolate whipped cream, see how fast her hand is moving? At the speed of chocolate.
A. felt very strongly that a Cadbury Cream Egg (it was actually a caramel one) should be centered in the cake. Skepticism abounded, but his dream was realized.
I believe it was also A. that thought a smattering of Peeps would also add to the overall aesthetic look of the cake. He was the only dude, and I think he had a room full of women rolling their eyes in his general peep putting direction. Are you looking at the lovely layers going on? Are you? Take a look.

Eggadoos

The day, while pretty, was not without a certain cold bite in the air...and a considerable wind (moreso since the house is on a hill). The lack of outside warmth was not a problem, however, because we had egg dyeing to do. There was the option of 'tye dye' eggs...but when I made my hippie dippie attempts the results were not as interesting or amazing as I had hoped.
These eggs were made by M.
These were eggs made by me.
A., an egg purist, refused any eggsperimentation and went for straight up solid colors (though later on he branched out a little and made a Swedish egg).
This is the best egg I made. I employed rubber bands and tape.
This is the second time I have dyed Easter eggs with M. and A. Our first experience was, gosh, two years ago? One year ago? Two. Sigh, I have no idea what has happened to my life and ability to recall things.

Easter Candy

So Easter happened with no comment on my part. This is mainly because we didn't do anything for the holiday and last year's Easter was so amazing that I could hardly even think about it. But when, last week, I went grocery shopping and found myself in the left over Easter candy aisle, well, I just had to get a little of everything: kit kats in the shape of bunnies, snickers eggs, reese's eggs etc.

Easter Part II

So after the egg hunt there was fresh guacamole made by the high school friend and martinis. I made mine small and dirty with three olives.
For dinner there were artichokes, duck, leeks and asparagus. I forgot (until I remembered) how absolutely awesome and satisfying a whole artichoke is...especially when it's accompanied by a Hollandaise sauce made by the high school friend. So good!
Actually, everything was "so good". The duck came with an orangey sauce and was grilled on the barbeque.
I'll say it again (or for the first time, I can't remember) thanks so much to the hosts...it was an amazing day.