Easter Dinner, April 1, 2018

Easter dinner is nearly always the same menu for me, the same menu my grandmom made when I was growing up, for the most part. We have ham, au gratin potatoes, asparagus, rolls, and some kind of dessert. My wife is usually in charge of the ham and potatoes (just boxed, doctored up). She often takes care of the rolls, as well, leaving asparagus and dessert to me. However, I really want to learn to make good yeast rolls from scratch, so that may become my job, if I have any success at all. Since she's not much of a lemon buff, I don't usually go with my first Easter instinct, which is to make some kind of lemon pie or cake. Often, I make the lamb cake my grandmom made. Other times, just a simple white cake with white icing and pastel sprinkles.

This year, though, I made a carrot cake. I used to hate carrot cake, but it's been growing on me in the last few years, especially with cream cheese frosting. I just made a boxed cake mix yesterday, with tub frosting, not nearly as good as from scratch would be. I forgot I have my friend Nicola's secret family recipe for carrot cake. Next time I make it, I shall use that. However, for last night, the Duncan Hines mix was not the worst thing in the world. Y'all should have smelled the wonderful aromas floating from my kitchen! I decided to try the non-iced edges look when my tub of frosting fell short of a thorough coat of icing all over. I actually really liked how it turned out. I tossed some large polka dot sugar confetti atop the cake, much to the delight of my wee boy, who ended up helping with that part (while tucking a few bits directly into his mouth).

I made a couple different things this year, too. I made scalloped pineapple and strawberry Jello Jigglers--so retro! The Jigglers were my son's favorite part of the meal. The pineapple wasn't as good as the version I remember from women's group at church when I attended as a kid with my grandmom, but it was tasty. It was less pineapply and more bread and eggy than that, but my wife loved it. It would make a nice brunch dish. I'll make the church version next time, if it's in the Taste and See cookbook.

Scalloped Pineapple

1 stick butter, room temperature

1/2 c. sugar

4 eggs

20 oz. can crushed pineapple

6 slices white bread, cubed (I just left the crusts on my Wonder bread)

1/4 c. milk (I used 2%)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs. Mix in pineapple. Gently add cubed bread and milk, combining thoroughly. Place in a greased 2-quart casserole and bake for an hour. Serves 6-8.