Happy Easter!

I am a sucker for the Food Network website. Tonight I opted to make prime rib for supper. Mmmm….encrusted with horseradish, garlic, rosemary, thyme, and olive oil. Can you smell it cooking? Last Christmas, I knocked off a Tyler Florence recipe, adapting it because I lacked some of the ingredients. You rub the meat with the mixture and bake it at 350 for an hour and 50 minutes. When it’s finished, you take the beef drippings, mix them with Shiraz red wine, some butter, olive oil, heavy cream, a little sugar, salt, and pepper. It makes a delicious sauce. Heaven, I tell you. I also have homemade yeast rolls in the breadmaker, which must be generously slathered in butter before I bake them.

But back to Food Network. I wanted to try out a new recipe for mashed potatoes. The last time I tried to do garlic mashed potatoes, they weren’t all that different from regular potatoes. This time, I’m trying another Tyler recipe where supposedly you mash the potatoes and in a small saucepan heat up some heavy cream, butter, garlic, and thyme. Then you slowly add the heated cream mixture to the potatoes. I’ll give it a try and see how it goes.

Tonight my husband and I will hide the plastic Easter eggs for the kids to find after Mass. It’s a fun tradition, letting them try to find what they can to supplement their baskets. We’re going to attend the 7:30 a.m. service, in the hopes of avoiding the crowds. We’ll see how that goes. My poor daughter will be subjected to wearing The Easter Dress. It’s pink with ribbons. I always dress the kids up for Easter–maybe it’s a southern thing. It’s a good thing I couldn’t find a straw hat and gloves.

And we had snow this morning! The first snow in southern VA that we’ve had all season (at least, the only accumulation). My kids made an eight-inch snow man, but I liked the neighbors’ version. They made a 4-foot Easter bunny made of snow, complete with a basket of Easter eggs. And someone made a snowman sunning himself beside their above-ground pool. That one cracked me up because by the end of the morning, he looked like a dying snowman, screaming out, “I’m melting! I’m melting!”

What do you serve in your household for Easter dinner?