The Easter the Oven Died.

Many many years ago, my Mom prepared our Easter feast.  Her plan was to prepare everything, even my favorite scalloped potatoes, and have it bake while we were at church.  The thought was that by the time we got home, it would be time to eat!

We walked in with the expectations of amazing smells coming from the kitchen.  Even me, who hardly has any sense of smell at all (which is probably why Tony married me!) didn’t smell a thing!

Yep, the oven died that year.  There was no way a repairman was coming out to fix it on Easter Sunday.  So we went to a Chinese restaurant and practically had the whole restaurant to ourselves!

Saturday Tony and I were bringing in the groceries only to find our own Easter bunny.  Can you find him in this picture?  He sat still for several minutes, until I got too close and he ran away.

It was actually nice enough for us to sit outside Saturday night and sip some wine while we grilled.  On the menu?  A grilled chuck roast.  Before Tony, I never would have thought you could grill this cut of meat – who knew?  I always thought it was crock pot or Dutch oven worthy – low and slow.

This marinade couldn’t be simpler – 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon brown sugar and 3 tablespoons soy sauce.  I like this picture because you can see me in the reflection in the bowl!

It marinated for about 3 hours.

I like how this picture turned out too – the reflection of my camera in my red wine.

We seared the meat over the hot coals on both sides, then removed it to the side and let it finish cooking under the indirect heat.  About 45 minutes later, it was done.

Tony gave this two big thumbs up – super flavorful and tender.  Next time you grill, try a chuck roast!

We really had no plans for Easter this year.  Hannah was spending it with her boyfriends family, Tony’s sister was still out of town on spring break.  But my Momma didn’t have any plans either, so she came over.  Then we called our nephew and he was free too, so we had dinner plans after all!

I made this German Potato Salad with Bacon and Vinegar.  The recipe had me at vinegar!  I of course omitted the onions and I used a Bavarian sweet mustard.  I also boiled my sliced potatoes instead of steaming them, worked just fine.  I also made this on Saturday so it was super flavorful.

And of course, no Easter would be complete without deviled eggs.   Since I had such a hard time with peeling the eggs with Tony’s egg salad sandwich on Saturday, I knew there had to be a better way to get perfect eggs.

Thanks to Pinterest – I found it!   You can go to that link for detailed instructions, but the part I thought was unique was that after you brought the eggs to a boil, removed from heat and let them sit for 15 minutes and then into an ice bath for 10 minutes, you put the eggs back in the pan, cover with 1 inch of the ice water and then shake the eggs gently back and forth for one minute.  The shells came off like a jacket!

My Mom ended up bringing her ingredients and making one of her dishes at my house – spoon bread.  Have you ever had it before? It’s a southern dish, delicious with butter and salt and pepper.  Momma at work stirring the corn meal.

She also brought a fruit salad – delish!

And I was determined to make dinner rolls.  Light, fluffy dinner rolls, not little balls of Artisan bread!  Again, thanks to Pinterest, I found the right recipe!  Check it out here – honey butter dinner rolls.

I could tell almost immediately that this dough was different.  I don’t know how to describe it, it just felt softer to me.

Mix in the stand mixer for 6 minutes.  Divide the dough into 12 rolls.  Put in a pie pan and let rise for 30 minutes.  Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. 

One word:  Amazeballs.  Delicious, light and fluffy – I have redeemed myself with dinner roll success!

We did our ham on the Weber grill.  It took about 3 hours to get to temperature.  We wanted to grill it cut side down, but it was too big so we had to cook it on the side in a cast iron skillet.

With about 30 minutes until the ham was ready, I started our first course.  Grilled Caesar Salad.  Simply brush the cut side of Romaine lettuce with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Grill cut side down for just a minute or two, then flip and cook an additional minute. 

I used this Caesar salad dressing recipe and I’ll never use another one – so creamy and delicious.  I used my smoothie maker to mix it up so it was super light and airy.

I also made roasted asparagus with a lemon zest bread crumb topping.

Our spread.  And in case you are wondering, it’s perfectly acceptable to drink wine out of a snowman wine glass at Easter.

My plate:

And this was the picture I sent to family via text message to wish them a Happy Easter!

And Charlie and Jennifer?  Mom admitted to me yesterday that I am her favorite child.  Of course, I already knew that, but it was nice to hear it.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  I never packed my gym bag over the weekend so I have to get a move on.  Make it a great day!