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Friday, April 10, 2009

F2: Friday's Feast, Easter Menu Light

My good bloggy friend CaJoh has created a recurring feature post called Friday's Feast, dedicated to all things epicurean.  If you're interested in his vision for the feature, click here.  


This week seemed like a no-brainer.  It's Easter weekend.  Time to meditate core beliefs.  Time to celebrate hope and new life.  Time, also, to eat.  Time to eat a lot.  I guess one upside here is that, opposed to Christmas Season which runs a month complete, Easter feasting generally only lasts the weekend.  That's a little easier on the waistline.

The past few years, however, I have tried to lighten up our Easter dinner, mostly to lessen the guilt of eating my weight in jelly beans, m&ms, and Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs.  I have given up some of the traditional foods that I grew up on and adore, but I have found the replacements to be quite elegant.

Traditional:      
  • Ham
  • Cheese Potatoes (funeral-style)  
  • Artichokes
  • Jello-Salad
  • Rolls
  • Several Desserts

New:
  • Roasted Pork Loin
  • Roasted Sweet Potatoes
  • Asparagus
  • Fresh Fruit Salad
  • Orange Rolls (This one is worse.)
  • Green Salad
  • Carrot Cake bunnies

I got a recipe from Kelly a few years ago for a spiced maple marinade that gives the slightest sweet crust to the pork loin.  The sweet potatoes I peel, cube, and toss with a little olive oil and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and allspice before roasting.  The asparagus is only better than the artichokes because of the dipping factor.  I saute´ them in a little olive oil and freshly pressed garlic.  Now the rolls.  Regular rolls are healthier than these orange rolls of my grandma's that are an unglazed cinnamon-style roll.  They are scrumptious, though, and remind me of my grandma.  So they stay.

The carrot cake I make is pretty good, if I do say so myself.  It is my mother's recipe, lightened up just a touch.  It gets rave reviews.  I use applesauce in place of the oil, and I use neufchatel
 cheese in the frosting.  Still not a diet food, by any stretch, but I like to pretend it's healthier.  I need to try it sometime with wheat flour to see what that does to the recipe.  But not on Easter.  I make the bunnies by baking two 9" round cakes.  Each round makes one bunny.  Cut the round in half across the diameter and frost together taco-style.  It will sit on it's cut ends.  You then carve out a little chunk to create a neck and stick that on the other end of the cake for a tail.  You end up with a three-humped cake.  Frost that.  Add jellybean eyes and nose to the head.  The ears you can cut from construction paper and insert into the head.  I often surround the little guys with green tinted coconut and more jelly beans.  (The photo I got on-line.  I don't cover my bunny with coconut, because some of my kids don't like it.  I also make a slightly smaller head by cutting the notch further down the arc.  I think it's a little cuter that way.)

Have a blessed Easter weekend!   And bon apetit!

13 fishy comments:

Cajoh said...

Thanks for participating in the Feast. Sorry to hear you don't have a decent replacement for the rolls I have a recipe for Bacon Buns— not dietary conscience, but yummy.

Anonymous said...

another bunny idea: I've thought before it could be adorable to make little brown bunnies out of german chocolate cake and coconut pecan frosting. Cute, right? And yummy!

Unknown said...

Mmm! Sounds good. We don't ever have a tradtitional Easter dinner. I never realized it....

the cake looks great! Yummy!

Loralee and the gang... said...

Cute cake! And I'd better get the turkey out of the freezer to thaw! (yes, we like turkey for Easter. So sue me...)
:~D

Kristina P. said...

I need to come to your place for dinner! But I would pass on the cake.

I hate the texture of coconut. My mom made a bunny cake for my birthday when I was 5. I was traumatized forever.

Heatherlyn said...

I love your bunny cake! It is so great! I might have to try to make one.

My grandma would curl chocolate and have a "brown" bunny. Your cake is more 3-D and I like that.

Jen said...

We're still doing the traditional Easter ham, but I'm liking your menu! Do you have room for 4 more at your table? :) Have a wonderful Easter weekend.

mCat said...

What time is dinner? Sounds totally better than whatever my mother comes up with...

carrhop said...

Sounds fab! The ten of us can be there around 6:30,,,

Blessings!

Just SO said...

Yum! I think we'll be having pork roast and mashed potatoes or maybe twice baked with some type of veggie. Or maybe potato salad? I don't know. I really don't like cooking. Is that bad?

susette said...

This sounds like an absolutely delightful meal! Thanks for sharing your cooking secrets too. I wanna try it all!

Wendyburd1 said...

Nooooo NOT the funeral potatoes, I HATE those! That is why I am NOT going to my Aunt's on Sunday! J/K! I am not going but it is because I have the concussion pain, she and my Liz won't be there until after 4:30 (they should have shortened church for the people who have it at 1pm!!)and I don't eat kielbasa and no ham since my surgery...and they are serving our church's famous funeral potatoes....NOOOOOOO!!!

Rebecca Irvine said...

I love the new menu ideas, they sound great! I especially love the roasted veggies and pork loin.