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| the bench on my front porch |
Sunday lunch (we did our Easter family meal at lunch and scrambled for ourselves for dinner that night)
Baked ham
Homemade dinner rolls, using an overnight, refrigerator roll dough recipe
Marinated asparagus salad, with deiced roasted red peppers and celery (the only food item I bought especially for Easter was the asparagus)
Carrot sticks and celery sticks w/ bottled creamy Italian salad dressing (clearance rack) for a dip
Deviled eggs, olives, watermelon pickles
Pretzels and crackers w/ cream cheese, Craisin, pecan spread
Apple slices
Pecan pie
Rhubarb pie
Monday
Baked potatoes, topped w/
Sauteed kale, onions, ham dices, and smothered in
Cheddar cheese sauce
Steamed carrot chunks
Choice of leftover pie
Tuesday
Potato, egg, cheese, ham, kale and onion casserole, (made Monday as I made that night's dinner)
Fruit salad of bananas, apples, dried cranberries and almond slices
Last of the leftover pie
Wednesday
Ham and bean soup
Dinner rolls (using last of the refrigerator roll dough)
Cabbage, carrot and kale slaw
Rhubarb-blackberry sauce
Thursday
Kale and onion baked frittata
Oven-roasted sweet potato chunks
Brown rice with peas
Toffee bars
Just a short week this week. I didn't record the various menus from last week. Although I recall a batch of chicken enchiladas on evening, an easy rice bake another evening, and a ramen soup, made with 2 Cup of Noodles, some beaten eggs, frozen peas, shredded cabbage, onion powder, garlic powder and soy sauce made in minutes when we walked in the door returning from our trip. It was about 8 PM and my husband hadn't eaten yet. So, I made a pot of soup for the 4 of us and called it dinner.
When I make ham stock, I roast the bone first, then simmer in water. roasting improves the overall flavor. With this ham bone, I actually roasted and simmered it twice. After the first time, I picked off as much meat as possible. But a fair amount of fat remained attached to the bone. So I roasted it again, refrigerated overnight, and simmered in water the next day. I didn't get any more meat the second roasting/simmering. But I was able to make some pretty decent stock with the second round. And it rendered just enough fat to leave in the roasting pan for my oven-roasted sweet potatoes on Thursday evening. The second batch of ham stock is now in the freezer to use as a soup base for the next pot of bean soup.
Since returning from my trip, I've been trying to cook double batches as much as possible. My instinct is to cook just enough for one meal at a time. So this is mental work to overcome that instinct. But the end result is worth it, as I am gaining additional afternoon work time, on almost half of my days, for gardening. And now I have a few extra main dishes in the freezer to pull out on very busy nights. You may have noticed, Tuesday's casserole used very similar ingredients to Monday's main dish. I have baked extra potatoes, and sauteed extra kale, onion and ham. For the casserole, I sliced up some of the baked potatoes, and layered with the kale, onion and ham mixture. Then I poured milk and eggs over the top and some grated cheese. It was very hearty.
Tell me, what was on your menu this past week? Did you do an Easter ham, or do you have other Easter menu traditions at your house? We had pie for dessert on Easter. Does your family have a traditional Easter dessert?
