The Caterist Files ~ Celebrate Easter!

Easter Spirit is happy, celebratory, renewal, and most importantly, God's love, which makes all of the aforementioned possible! We celebrate Easter with our family and friends, and are joyful that we have one another! The traditional meal celebration for Easter is Brunch! That mix of breakfast and lunch, with some gourmet twists in between. The Southern tradition of Easter Brunch is a deliciously decadent one!! As ours begins at 11:00 a.m., we've got the first group still hungry for breakfast type items! You'll find breakfast items ranging from Simple Scrambled Eggs, to Eggs in Purgatory and onward to Quiche! Our buffets might run the gamut from Brown Sugared Pepper Bacon (aka 'Pig Candy'), to my homemade sausage blend patties on the breakfast end, to Glazed Baked Ham as the crossover item, and onward to Roast Turkey, Glazed Salmon ....Roast Beef or even Prime Rib Roast! What? Us, excessive??? Nahhh!! And the Sides!!! How wonderful!!! Fresh Fruit Salad crosses all lines! And our Baby Greens Salad helps bridge from breakfast to lunch...we'd better get decorating, so we can get to cooking!! Thanks, Pinterest posters, for these awesome ideas!

I do love the Spring decorations, with Easter being a special favorite!! We finally get to move beyond the dark hues of Winter, the crimsons, the deep greens and navy blues! It's on to the lovely pastels, the colors of new!!! Where colors blend gently and get along beautifully! Above, we see lilac, pale teal, turquoise blending with a touch of nature in the birdnests, to create a unique and memorable place setting!

To create the speckled egg effect, dye your eggs a pale base color and set aside to dry. In two separate plasticware rounds, big enough to shake an egg in, add about a cup of rice, each. Put a few drops of your contrast color into one container, shake to coat the rice; and repeat with the second container, in a different color. Add the dried, colored egg and gently bounce and roll the egg, to speckle it. Then do it with the other color, for a second speckling!

This Country Chic tablesetting in bright yelows and white is so uplifting!! The simple, yet elegant wicker chargers with alternating white and yellow plates is adorable, especially with those cute egg holders! And the monogrammed eggs! Too cute! And, the egg and bunny candle covers are sweet and functional centerpiece in this outdoors setting, and could cover your citronella candles!

I love, love, love the colors in this melon colored setting!!! What I might do, would be to use this melon color as the runner color on a backdrop of a white tablecloth. It brings the mood of the setting without the expense of having to buy a melon colored full tablecloth! Those tulips are divine, aren't they?? With the smaller. varied white bowls of vari-colored jelly beans, the color accents are just perfectly in line with the mood! Love, love, love!!!

What I might do differently, is place one of these cuties...the Easter Chick Deviled Eggs...onto a little spinach nest, of sorts, on that plate where you see the carrots. Wouldn't that be cute?? Everyone gets their own little deviled chick in its very own Easter nest!

Much more fun!!!

I'm still trying to decide what color is my favorite!! So, let's go back to that menu ...

For our family Easter Brunch, we're going to go classic. Classic, as in Easter Ham. With Ham Gravy...and Cheddar Biscuits....yum!!! Let's start!

There are as many ways to glaze and cook a ham as there are cooks in the South! This one's going to be about a 15# ham, not pre-sliced. You can do this with a spiral cut ham, just follow the directions with your ham, and use this glaze during the last 45 minutes. I like a nice skin cap on the ham, and do a diamond cut across the top and down the sides. This helps the flavoring to soak into the ham. Our family is split on the whole 'clove' thing...I love the flavor they give to the sauce...the kids, not so much.

You do what your family likes...we're going to pretend that my family all loves the clove, and we're going to place a clove in each diamond intersection.

Place the ham on a rack in a roasting pan, and place a good two cups of ham stock or chicken stock in the pan bottom, so the drippings don't burn. If you want a sweet sauce, put in a can of Dr. Pepper, Coke or Cherry Coke...or Root Beer... in the pot instead of stock.

Bake the ham in a 325 oven for 2 hours, or according to your ham size. While it's baking, mix the glaze and reduce it.

For the glaze, mix 1-1/2 cups brown sugar, 1/4 cup of spicy brown mustard, 1-1/2 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, and a cup of apricot or pineapple jam. Heat over medium low until the glaze is well mixed and reduced.

After the first 2 hours of bake time, take the ham out of the oven and brush a nice coating of glaze over it. For the next hour, glaze the ham every 15 minutes. Take the ham out, remove it on the rack to a cutting board, and let rest.

While the ham is resting, make the gravy. Pour the juices out of the roasting pan into a large clear measuring cup or bowl. Skim off 1/4 cup of the fat after it rises to the top and put into the roasting pan over a low heat. Add a half stick of butter. Scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Slowly sprinkle in 1/2 cup of flour and whisk to cook out the raw flour flavor. Whisk in a cup of the de-fatted ham juice. Then, we gradually add 4 cups of whole milk, whisking the entire time. Add more, as needed, to your desired gravy thickness. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This makes the most awesome Ham Biscuits & Gravy!!

For Cheddar Chive Biscuits, take 2 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon of baking powder and 1-1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt, combine in a large bowl. Cut in 1/2 cup of cold, diced butter until well combined. Stir in half cup of buttermilk, one beaten large egg, a cup of grated sharp cheddar and 2 tablespoons of chopped chives. Mix just to combine. Turn out onto a well floured board, top with flour, and knead a few times to make a manageable dough.

Pat out to about a 5 x 10" rectangle and cut out your biscuits. This recipe is a small batch of 8 biscuits, but can be easily doubled. You will, probably, want more!! Place the biscuits on a parchment lined sheet pan and brush the tops with either melted butter or egg wash. If you want, sprinkle with a little flaked sea salt, coarse cracked black pepper or even poppyseeds. Bake at 425 for 20 to 25 minutes, until nice and golden. Here are a couple of tips... when cutting the biscuits, press firmly straight down, without twisting! The twisting tends to pinch the edges and the biscuits won't rise as much as they could. Who knew??? Now, some folks like their biscuits all soft and tender, and others enjoy a golden crust, of sorts, with the tender insides. For crustier biscuits, place the biscuits about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. For tender biscuits, set them in a round, with sides touching. They'll also rise higher this way, as there's not room to spread out.

While the ham bakes, we've got plenty of time to work on other items! We'll have a Spring Fling Chopped Salad for the Salad Course. And, of course, there will be Deviled Eggs! And Red Beet Eggs, which is an old time family tradition from my mother's family. Those are actually done at least a day ahead, as the longer they set up, the more vibrant the color becomes!

For our Spring Fling Chopped Salad,

we're using crisp romaine, halved grape tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, black olives, bits of cheddar, with croutons and a variety of dressings on the side.

For our next trick, we're going to do the Red Beet Eggs. These are an old Pennsylvania Dutch tradition, and the color is strikingly beautiful.

Behold, the beautiful, magenta colored egg!! Sweet & tangy, they are worth a try!! I do love these!

These are best started a few days ahead, as the longer they are allowed to set, the more vibrant the color. We start with a dozen hard boiled, peeled eggs.

Place them in a nice, roomy jar on top of a red onion, sliced thinly and the beets from two cans of sliced or quartered beets. Place the beet juice into a saucepan along with 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of white vinegar. Bring this mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.

Pour the hot pickling liquid gently over the eggs. If the liquid does not cover the eggs, add just enough water to make it right. Place the lid on the jar, gently turn the jar over a few times, to ensure even distribution , then place it in your refrigerator to become beautiful!

These are delicious simply halved, on quartered on a salad.

Of course, you can always devil the yolks and garnish with a bit of dill!

I have actually served these, at Kinsloe House, as part of the appetizer salad, in their simply quartered form, and our ladies were pleasantly surprised! They complete a Spring Beet Salad!

So, anyway, let's move on to do the Individual Mini Quiches! Your call on the filling!

You can even mix/match!! Start with a refrigerated pie dough, and cut out rounds to fit into your muffin tin. Spray the muffin tin with non stick spray and gently tuck a pie round down into each space.

Of course, you can use your own, homemade pie crust, I'm cutting corners here.

Fill with your desired filling. This is the Bacon, Spinach, Tomato Quiche.

Make the bacon ahead and crumble it into bits, or take a shortcut and use packaged real bacom pieces. Thoroughly thaw and drain frozen chopped spinach. Dry it well!

Finely dice fresh roma tomatoes. Mix your filling together and put a pinch into each shell. In a spouted measuring cup whisk 1-1/2 cups of half & half with 5 eggs, a nice grate of fresh nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

Pour over the filling and top with cheese.

You'll have enough egg mixture for several dozen.

Bake these at 350 for about 15 minutes, until golden delicious.

Let them rest for a few minutes before removing them to cool on a rack.

Try any number of filling items...cooked sausage, diced ham, crispy bacon, scallions, blanched broccoli, drained spinach, sauteed mushrooms, onion and bell pepper, jalapeno, diced fresh tomato, the list is endless! Cheddar, Swiss, Asiago, Parmesan...whatever you like!!

And all are tasty and good!! They can be served warm or at room temperature, so making a perfect buffet item! Should you have any left over, you can wrap and re-heat the next day for breakfast!

Let's swing on over to the Lunchy side of Brunch!! That ham is glorious, and serves both sides of the Brunch...which is why we got a big one!

For this brunch, I'm doing a mash up between Scalloped Potatoes and Cowboy Hash. It's the best of both worlds! Just add your favorite recipe of cheese sauce after the hash is cooked, top with some extra cheddar and broil till golden and delicious...or serve as they are!!!

Nothing says Spring like Asparagus!!! The first soldier to pop up in the vegetable garden is a welcome herald to our Easter holiday! I like to use the medium large sized asparagus for this application, as they're sturdy enough to handle the heat, but not so large that you only get 2 per person! We treat them simply, with a wrap of bacon (half slice is enough), the asparagus bundles are placed seam side down on a non stick foil lined baking sheet. Brush generously with a good quality balsamic vinaigrette and sprinkle with a bit of brown sugar, kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper. Bake at 425 for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the bacon and asparagus are done to your liking.

Another of our Easter favorites is Baby Carrots & Snap Peas...I steam ours separately as I like my snap peas crisp, but my carrots tender! Then toss them together, toss them in a warming honey dijon butter just before serving...add in some orange zest and a squeeze of the juice if you like, kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste to finish it off!

And dessert!! No, we've done enough here! Unless you've got extra time on your hands, don't feel guilty about picking up a nice dessert from the bakery! After helping everyone to get ready, dressed in their Sunday's finest, getting to services, the Easter egg hunt afterward, the family dinner, you deserve to relax a bit! Pat yourself on the back, for a job well done !

Here are a couple of easy ideas, though, if the kids would be heartbroken without a home made cake!

idea by moco choco

idea diagram by thewhoot.com.au

And, with that, my friends, I wish you a Blessed Easter! Hoppy Easter Day!!!!

#Easterbrunch #Easterdecorating