Happy Easter! … Continue reading
Category Archives: Easter
I’ve got one more Spring decoration idea for you. When I bought pussy willows for my Easter Decorations, they were about four feet long, and I cut them down to fit into my small centerpieces. That left me with lots of extra branches. I took eight branches of about equal length and formed a rectangle by alternating which branch overlapped (like a lattice). Then I used wire to secure the joints. Finally, I added a ribbon and a length of artificial red dogwood flowers. Finally, I hung it on the door. Fortunately, Marc knocked into the wreathe and it slipped down to a corner. The diamond hanging configuration looked way better than the rectangle. Funny how that works sometimes. Below you can see a closeup of the corner when I fastened the ribbon and the flowers. Gorgeous and inexpensive. I think the whole wreathe was less than $8. … Continue reading
When it comes to using up leftover Easter Ham, it doesn’t get much better, or much easier than Kitchen Sink Black Bean and Ham Soup. And I got to run down some of the odds and ends I’d stashed in my freezer. That’s not to say that this improvised cooking project didn’t require a little creativity and flexibility. In one of my previous lives, I was a high school English teacher, and I taught Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. To introduce the book, I’d always start with Robert Burns poem, To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough. I often quote from his beautiful poem, (from which Of Mice and Men takes its name) when things don’t work out as I’ve expected. In my terrible Scottish accent I say, “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley.” That phrase inspired a whole category of recipes I call “Gang aft agley” and it includes Beet Gnocchi, an amazing artichoke tale you can read all about before making Artichoke and Preserved Lemon Soup and to a lesser degree, this Kitchen Sink Black Bean and Ham Soup. I started in the crockpot, but I didn’t end … Continue reading
Easter candy is all about chocolate: chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, and whatever else you can get your paws on- pun intended. Just because you’re a grown up doesn’t mean you don’t wish to get in on all the chocolate decadence. This Chocolate Hazelnut Crêpes Cake won’t disappoint in that department. It’s really rich and dense and perfect for Easter Brunch since the Chocolate Hazelnut Crêpes Cake is made of a large stack of crêpes. Then they’re layered with a fluffy hazelnut butter cream and piled high. Finally, they’re coated in a deep dark chocolate ganache. To answer your question, yes, it’s seriously rich. And just check out that picture… This Chocolate Hazelnut Crêpes Cake looks amazing once you cut into it because of it’s layered structure. I can’t take all the credit for this recipe; it’s based on a Martha Stewart recipe I found long ago, but I can take credit for simplifying it. The filling is now easy to make (and even more important, easy to find the ingredients), which was not the case in the original. I’ve also upped the impact by using really dark chocolate for my Chocolate Hazelnut Crêpes Cake. All you need is a little sliver … Continue reading
What’s so great about this Sweet and Spicy Jalapeño Glazed Baked Ham? My brother likes to make ham, and over the years, he’s introduced me to coca cola glazes, pineapple glazes, coffee glazes, and a few more I can’t recall at the moment. For some reason he was often in charge of Easter. One thing I’ve learned about ham over the years (mostly from my brother Ivan) is that no matter what you do to prep it, it pretty much just tastes like ham, which is a good thing, since ham is so delicious. That said, it’s fun to try new glazes and preps and this year, I recommend this Sweet and Spicy Jalapeño Glazed Baked Ham as the main dish for Easter Brunch. There’s a hint of spice and lots of sweet. But the very best reason to make this Sweet and Spicy Jalapeño Glazed Baked Ham is that it pairs really nicely with the poblano potato gratin. Trust me, you want to have an excuse to make the gratin. Because it’s amazing. Also, while I just told you that you can’t really mess up ham… full disclosure… that’s only true if you start off with a good ham. In … Continue reading
Salads are way more fun to eat if you put lots of goodies on them, and this Easter Egg Beet and Citrus Salad is no exception. I always make lots extra of all the good stuff and then keep it on hand all week, to encourage me to eat my greens. The beautiful jewel colored beets, rhubarb and orange segments hide in the greens like tiny dyed eggs, ready for us to find just in time for Easter Brunch. The cheese adds just a little cream to break up the acid and the pea leaves and mint are both seasonal and give the Easter Egg Beet and Citrus Salad something a little extra and unexpected in terms of texture and flavor. They’re so much more fun than just plain greens, but when I can’t find them, I use a mix of baby spinach and baby salad mix. I always try to make a salad that is so good it can hold its own against other strong and perhaps richer dishes. And this salad definitely did that. In fact, it was the only dish I made that was completely gone by the end of the meal. I was glad I roasted … Continue reading
After you’ve got your guests settled in with a Pamplemosa, it’s time to bring out the Rhubarb Coffee Cake with Crumb Topping to keep them happy while the rest of Easter Brunch heats up. This is my go-to coffee cake- sort of. The truth is I’m a kitchen-sinker when it comes to lots of classics, so while this is a good framework for how I make coffeecake, there’s lots of ingredients I substitute in and out based on what’s in the fridge and what’s in season. Yogurt, sour cream, creme fraiche, even ricotta all work for the sour cream and I sub them in whilly nilly. And I have to admit that every since I made it with ricotta last spring… Oh man. So good. And that’s not all that changes. I make it with different fruit throughout the year, and tweak the spices. Sometime I make blueberry with lemon or orange zest and cardamom. I make fresh peach in the summer, or frozen sour cherries in the winter, but I think best of all, is the when rhubarb is in season. There’s something about the Rhubarb Coffee Cake with Crumb Topping that has my guests begging for the recipe. … Continue reading
Believe it or not, here at the Dirty Laundry Kitchen we’re already thinking about Easter. I have lots of ideas for Easter decorations that will make your Easter table simple but gorgeous this year, in robin’s egg blues and and array of greens. I made little grass nests for beautiful blue eggs with wheatgrass and forsythia from the grocery store. Blown eggs from Araucana chickens were an important part of my Easter Decorations this year. It’s easy to do. Buy a dozen now, and prep them in the next couple of weeks while you’re doing your regular cooking. I use a pairing knife to notch a small hole into each end of the egg. The smaller it is, the cleaner the eggs look from the outside, but the harder they are to empty out. Once both holes are complete use your lungs to force the egg out of the shell. It’s surprisingly hard work, so you’ll be glad you planned ahead and don’t have to do them all at once. You can save some for dyeing, too. This way you have eggs that can be out on the table without risking disease and death! Sometimes I remember to plant some … Continue reading
This Poblano Potato Gratin has become a holiday favorite. I made it originally for Mexican Thanksgiving 2012 and it was so good (and popular) that it resurfaced this year for Easter Brunch 2014. I did tone down the fat quite a bit from the original, because hey, every little bit helps, right? I also tweaked the assembly of the Poblano Potato Gratin so that it looks much more visually dramatic. The genius of the dish is that poblanos provide a little heat in a dish that is traditionally mild and creamy; it makes the potatoes more interesting and tempers the heat of the peppers- even people who like mild can usually handle the Poblano Potato Gratin and even add it to their request list. 1 ½ pounds fresh poblano chiles (about 5) 1 pound onions; sliced thin 1 cup white wine 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 3 pounds large Yukon Gold potatoes ¾ cups heavy cream 1 ½ cup milk (any percent you like… there’s heavy cream, so I use 1%) 2 teaspoons sea salt (and maybe a little more) 8 servings –scaled very well if you need to double it Roast the poblanos on a cookie sheet about 2 inches … Continue reading
