Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend!  The weather was glorious and we were finally able to welcome spring!  

Someone was glued to the tv for March Madness, especially the Gator game, so we had to have our apps indoors.

But don't worry.  I enjoyed myself on the porch in between cooking times and as I shuttled Parker House roll dough to and from the car.  Did you know that a warm car is an excellent place for your dough to rise?  It's a trick I learned from my dad.  


This year's table (left) was only slightly different than last year's (right) ...

After reading an interesting New York Times article about the differences between a country and city ham, I tried to find my own country ham.  I wasn't so successful.  Part of the problem could have been I didn't go searching until the Saturday before Easter.  Ha.  Anyway, I did find a fully cooked, uncured ham that was free of antibiotics, preservatives, etc from Whole Paycheck Foods.  It was the last one and wasn't quite large enough - - I wanted this meal to enable us to have leftovers for days!   So I also bought a similarly sized ham from my regular grocer.  I thought it would be neat to have the two at the same time and compare them.  Well, the fancy ham was worth it.  It was so much more flavorful and even looked more appetizing.  It had more marbling and a more natural texture.  

I prepared the ham as I always do - with Ina Garten's Baked Virginia Ham recipe.

We also had:
Baked Pineapple Casserole
Whipped Sweet Potatoes - I just baked and peeled the potatoes, then added a bit of brown sugar, butter, and light cream.  Then I topped them with some toasted pecans.
Green Beans
Roasted Cauliflower - I just tossed the cauliflower and a few sliced onions with some olive oil, salt, and paper. 
Parker House Rolls - The cookbook with this recipe has a little blurb about the history of these rolls.  Did you know that Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh once worked at the Parker House Hotel in Boston?  

Of course, we also had some iced sweet tea.  The meal would not have been nearly as good without it!  Then, for dessert we had Blueberry Nectarine Buckle with vanilla ice cream.  

It was a great day and a great meal!