Easter dinner
dishes that are simple to prepare and cook, using inexpensive ingredient,s can be just as delicious as more involved recipes. There are some traditional dishes that many associate with Easter, but the ingredients you choose and the dishes you serve are entirely up to you. You can adapt basic meals with a few extra ingredients and different flavors without any extra expense or difficulty.
Ham
Ham is the traditional Easter meat, but it needn't be plain. People often bake ham with a sweet glaze, and there are infinite simple variations on that idea. You can use brown sugar, honey and maple syrup to glaze a ham, but if you make your own glaze, you can transform the flavors of the meat. Consider adding flavorful ingredients like chopped garlic, lemon juice and rind, chopped nuts or mustard to the glaze. Try reducing wine, balsamic vinegar or soy sauce with sugar, honey or syrup for an interesting twist. Apple sauce and fruit jams make delicious glazes too.
Instead of a whole ham, you could purchase some thick ham steaks, which you can prepare in many different ways. You could coat the steaks in breadcrumbs and bake or fry them, or barbecue or broil them with a sauce. A simple and tasty topping of apple sauce and cheddar cheese on ham steaks is delicious when broiled until golden and bubbling.
Vegetables
Easter dinner usually includes spring vegetables like baby carrots, green beans and asparagus. When the vegetables are fresh, they need little fuss and are delicious simply steamed and topped with a dab of butter and chopped fresh herbs. A different way of cooking vegetables like carrots and onions is to roast them in a low oven for about an hour. They will get toasty edges and the flavors will be sweet and concentrated. Roasted vegetables are good hot or cold, and if coated with a vinaigrette dressing make a great salad dish. If you are celebrating Easter in a warm climate, local spring vegetables may include artichokes and asparagus, which together make a simple but tasty salad.
Desserts
If you make something that you can decorate with frosting, like cookies and cupcakes, your Easter dessert can include appropriate motifs like colorful eggs, chicks and bunnies. You can cut cookie dough into egg shapes with a knife, or you can find Easter-themed cookie cutters in stores.
You can make birds' nest shapes out of a mixture of crushed breakfast cereal, melted chocolate and melted marshmallows. Spread the mixture to the inside of a greased bowl or paper cups, make an indentation in the middle and allow the nest to set. You can make individual nests and place a few small chocolate eggs inside, use them to serve ice cream, or make one large nest and use it as an edible bowl for fresh fruit.
Another idea is to make chocolate truffle eggs. Hand roll spoonfuls of truffle mixture into egg shapes; roll them in powdered sugar, chopped nuts or cocoa powder to coat; and refrigerate. Serve one of each coating to each person as a simple dessert.
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