An Edible Easter Tale

Easter is so traditional in our family, it may be the most traditional of all holidays. I say that because it never, just never seems to vary. “I will not have ham this year”, I declared. “We have ham every year and I’m very tired of it – we will have something different!”

Out come the cookbooks, special attention is paid to the Food Section of the two daily newspapers, Epicurious is visited several times a day, along with various other food/recipe sites. We will not have ham this year.

There it was in one of my favorite cookbooks: Stuffed Leg of Lamb with Hazelnuts and Spinach – well there you go! Something to get a bit excited about. Something to spice up the old Easter table. Something for everyone to ‘ewww and ahhh’ over, something to make me feel special. There, that’s settled. Easy enough to fill in with the side dishes, though they too will need to be something varied and special.

Lamb used to be my meat of choice at any good restaurant. Lamb chops with mint jelly just felt good and right. Rack of Lamb was so majestic and Leg of Lamb always took me back to the home of an old friend of Greek origin where it always took center stage on holidays. One spring day back in the 80’s George and I were driving through the Oregon countryside when I exclaimed “Oh George, look at all the adorable baby lambs!”

Adorable they were as they clumsily made their way over the hills, vales, glens and hollows of the surrounding pastures. In a microsecond of realization I made the connection and haven’t eaten lamb since. So….call me unsophisticated.

But now things were different. We were having lamb for Easter.

As I happily ran about doing my shopping for Easter treats as well as food for the dinner, I felt very cosmopolitan indeed! No pheasant ham for this family…no ham and potatoe salad…no ham and potatoe salad and sweet potatoes…nosiree. We would have stuffed leg of lamb and equally impressive side dishes.

Well now, of course, I need to rethink the appetizers. Can’t have the old stand-bys of cheese tray with fruit, fresh veggie platter with assorted dips and brie with sherried fruit. Oh no…stuffed leg of lamb definitely calls for something a bit more upscale.

Okay, this sounds good. Quail eggs with sesame salt. Well, not sure where to find quail eggs at this late date, so chicken eggs will have to do. I can quarter them and it’ll be almost the same. Now, what else?

Snow peas in sesame oil. What’s not to like about snow peas? Healty, sweet, crunchy….sounds good. Snow peas in sesame oil it is.

Sun dried tomato spread with roasted peppers and garlic, served on a platter with sliced fennel. Hmmm hmmm hmmm.

Rushing around on Friday I must pick out the lamb and have it butterflied. Ohmigosh, I probably should have called the butcher and ordered it just to make sure I could get the right size. Oh well, here’s an entire case of leg of lamb. Ok, sifting through and looking at the various weights and looking at the lamb…and sifting through…and looking at the lamb…and looking at the lamb…and remembering the glens, hollows and vales.

Easter dinner was quite tasty. We had ham with a spicy cardoman/pepper rub served with mustard sauce, fresh steamed asparagus with lemon, corn pudding, stuffed potatoes, a variety of breads and strawberry cheesecake.

We did have the eggs with sesame salt for appetizers, together with the snow peas and sundried tomato spread. Everybody was complimentary and fun was had by all. Both of my sons, at different times, asked why there was no cheese tray and ‘hey’, what about the veggies and dip???

I guess Easter will remain very traditional with us. Some things just shouldn’t change. And by the way…the ham was very good.