Even when the centerpiece of your Easter brunch is a spiral-cut ham – that does not mean you can’t throw in a little bacon too!

The original Southern Living recipe called for a cast-iron skillet. Since my cast-iron skillet was in a storage cupboard in the garage that was blocked by a bunch of boxes and folding chairs, I used a large heavy skillet instead.

I’ve mentioned this tip before, but it’s worth repeating. If you have a pot or pan that needs to go in the oven that does not have an oven-safe handle, or even if you’re not quite sure if it is oven-safe or not. You can still use that pan. Just double wrap the handle in heavy-duty foil (or wrap 4 times with standard foil) and just like magic, you have an oven-safe pan.

Hash Brown-Asparagus-Bacon Quiché

• 6 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 8 ounces fresh asparagus, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 4 cups frozen shredded hash browns (about 12 ounces)
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt, divided
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 1 cup shredded Gruyère cheese (about 4 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions
• Fresh minced chives, for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook bacon in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet or another oven-safe heavy skillet over medium until browned and almost crisp, but still tender, about 6 minutes. Transfer bacon to a plate lined with paper towels. Reserve drippings in skillet, and let cool slightly.

Add asparagus to skillet, and cook over medium-high, stirring often, until lightly browned and just beginning to soften, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer asparagus to a medium bowl.

Add hash browns, bacon, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper to hot drippings in skillet over medium-high; stir to combine.

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This was our Easter cocktail. For the non-drinkers, I made up a batch of the citrus mix, sans the brandy, and added flavored La Croix sparkling water instead of Prosecco.

The lemonade ice cubes make the drink so festive. Since I have this long ice-cube tray to work with, I served the cocktail in champagne glasses. If I was using a standard tray, I’d have used wine glasses instead.

Sparkling Citrus Brunch Cocktail

Ice Cubes

• 1 lemon, thinly sliced
• 1 lime, thinly sliced
• 1 orange, thinly sliced
• 1 to 2 cups prepared lemonade

Cocktail

• 1 ½ cups fresh orange juice
• 1 cup fresh Ruby Red grapefruit juice
• 1 (750-milliliter) bottle Prosecco, chilled
• 1/4 cup (2 ounces) brandy
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• Citrus slices for garnish

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Of all the dishes I made for our Easter brunch, this was just about everybody’s favorite. Well maybe, except for the biscuits, because, come on, they’re biscuits! So that’s a given.

I especially love the herb dressing. I’ll be making it again and again.

I used a mix of colored potatoes from Trader Joe’s but you can just use regular new potatoes. Other than that, I followed this recipe pretty much to a T.  The link to the original recipe from Southern Living is at the bottom of this post.

When you measure the 2 cups of radishes, it doesn’t matter if you measure them before cutting or after, it comes out just about the same either way.

And when asparagus goes out of season, long green beans will be just as pretty and just as tasty.

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It sounds like the start of a joke. “Two kinds of butter, a mayo, and a spread walk into a bar…”

But this is no joke, these are what I served with my biscuits and ham at our Easter brunch. My entire Easter menu was inspired by the Easter menu featured in this year’s Southern Living Magazine.  Although, I made several changes in recipes and menu choices to fit my taste. For instance, their menu featured Creole Mayo, I am a fan of Sriracha Mayo, so that is what I made. More Easter brunch recipes will follow in the coming days, for today, let’s look at these four.

I took a poll at brunch and asked for everyone’s favorites. The radish-chive butter won hands down. The second favorite was the other butter, made with orange marmalade and apricot preserves. The final two were tied for third. All four make for a perfect ham and biscuit sandwich.

Radish and Chive Butter

• 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped radishes
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives, plus more for garnish

Beat salted butter and salt with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

Gently stir in finely chopped radishes and chopped fresh chives. Scrape compound butter into a serving bowl, and sprinkle with more chives. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

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You have a week to pull off these two pranks. It only took me about 15 minutes to “make” my fruit and vegetable Easter chocolates. I can’t wait to see the reactions!

I went to Target to shop for the foil-covered chocolate eggs. After carefully examining what was available, I decided on the Nestle Crunch Nest Eggs over the traditional Hershey’s Eggs because they were slightly larger. You see, you’ll be swapping out the chocolate eggs for grapes, so a similar size is a necessity. The Nestle Butterfinger Nest Eggs were a perfect size too, but the foil isn’t as pretty or “Eastery”  – yes that’s a word!

April Fool’s Fruit and Vegetable Easter Chocolates

• Nestle Crunch Nest Eggs
• grapes
• Ferrero Rocher Chocolates
• Brussels sprouts
• a bit of patience

Very carefully and slowly loosen the foil on a Crunch Chocolate Egg. On the first one I attempted, I made the mistake of completely opening up the foil. Don’t do that! It is too hard to fold it back together nicely.

Instead, open the foil just enough to remove the chocolate egg.

When choosing your grape, go a little smaller, rather than larger or the exact same size. I used the grape on the left.

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This year we get two holidays for the price of one on April 1st.

I suppose April Fool’s Day isn’t a true holiday, especially when compared to the importance and holiness of Easter, but I’m going to give you cute ways to celebrate both anyhow.

Today is a fun and messy, yet clean, way to color Easter eggs, and tomorrow a couple of fun Easter-themed April Fool’s jokes to play on family and friends.

Shaving Cream-Dyed Easter Eggs

• Hard-cooked eggs
• White vinegar
• White shaving cream
• Food coloring
• Lots of paper towels

Place the eggs in a bowl and pour in enough white vinegar to cover. Let sit for 3 to 4 minutes and then remove eggs from the vinegar and set aside. Soaking the cooked eggs in vinegar before dying gives you more vibrant colors. The vinegar may then be poured back into the bottle and used again, no reason to waste it.

Spray the shaving cream into a cake pan or onto a rimmed baking sheet or baking dish. Use a spoon or spatula to press down the shaking cream to make it smooth and dense.

Add 4 or 5 drops of two different colors of food coloring, of your choice, to a small area of the pan.

Then run the tip of a paring knife or a toothpick through the two colors to “marble” the colors together.

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If you haven’t dyed your Easter eggs yet, there is still time. Time to do something more creative than the dye kits from the grocery store.

Many years ago, when my now 20-something kids were in grade school and we had our own egg-laying chickens, I tried dyeing our eggs with natural ingredients for Easter.

I used onion skins, beets, coffee, Red-Zinger tea bags, spinach, turmeric, chili powder, and red cabbage. The only ones I remember turning out as beautiful as the ones I’d seen Martha Stewart do were the eggs dyed with red cabbage. Maybe that is because instead of getting the red or purple eggs one would expect, the cabbage eggs come out a lovely shade of robin’s egg blue.

I was inspired to make these gold speckled robin’s eggs when I thought back on those red cabbage blue eggs combined with the memory of the Robin’s Nest Cake I made last Easter.

This is a “Do as I say – Not as I do” sort of recipe. I didn’t use enough cabbage and water to completely cover the eggs.

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Today and tomorrow will round out the posts from Easter. The problem is, I can’t decide which to do first, the dessert or the tablescape. So while I’m thinking about it – I’ll begin with this, the last entry from my Austin trip.

First, there was our boat cruise on Lady Bird Lake to watch the bats, then we got on the lake once again. This time on WaterBikes.

It’s an easy and fun way to cruise down the river and you’re just about guaranteed to stay dry. It would take some real effort to tip one of these over or fall off. I like staying dry! Plus, look at that gorgeous view of downtown Austin. Totally worth it!

We had a good variety of meals while I was there. I already told you about the Gospel Brunch at Stubb’s BBQ. We also enjoyed wonderful seafood at the very cute and quaint Clark’s Oyster Bar where we, of course, had oysters.

Our high-end night out was at Lenoir Restaurant, a farm-to-table – prix-fixe menu, sort of place.

What I enjoyed most about Lenoir was that they let you choose your three prix-fixe items from any part of the menu you wish. Generally, you must pick one dish from each category; let’s say one from Field, one from Sea, one from Land, and/or a dish from Dream. Here, you can have all three of your selections from Sea if that’s what you want to do. Nice!

Clockwise from the Top we had: Tuna Crudo, Cashew Ginger Soup, Braised Pork, Smoked Duck, Herb Stozzapreti, and Almond Crusted Snapper. I think this was Marissa’s favorite meal of the weekend.

My favorite was at a place much more casual, El Alma, which is within walking distance from the kids’ apartment. Marissa had the vegetarian Enchiladas Placeras, while Jeff and I had the Shrimp and Crab Relleno. The best Relleno I’ve had in a very long time! I’ll be dreaming about it until I get my fix the next time I visit!

That wraps up Austin. And posting that helped me decide that today it would be best to share the Easter tablescape with you. The dessert, a cake, has so many photos to go along with it, that I’ll save that for tomorrow when I have no more travel photos to share.

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Two Sundays ago was Easter and I’m still posting Easter recipes. This past Sunday I was in Austin and Marissa and Jeff took me to Gospel Brunch – it was AMAZING!

There are several restaurants in Austin that serve brunch with a side of gospel music, we went to Stubb’s BBQ and heard The Original Bells of Joy. What an absolute JOY it was. Thanks, M & J!

The night before that we took a boat cruise out on Lady Bird Lake and watched as the 750,000 pregnant Mexican bats started out for a night of hunting.

You can read all about it HERE. It is a truly beautiful and fascinating sight to behold.

My Easter ham was a no-brainer.  I bought a spiral-cut ham at Costco. I mixed together some whole-grain Dijon mustard (1/4 cup) with 1/2 cup each of the following; maple syrup, brown sugar, and fresh orange juice. I spread that all over the ham put it on a rack and stuck it in a 325-degree oven for 90 minutes. That was it. No recipe is needed and no photos were taken of the easy process.

The lamb was almost as simple, though I do have a recipe and photos for you. I bought a little French-trimmed rack of lamb at Costco, cut it into chops, and served the chops with a chimichurri sauce.

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The weekend after I turned 16 years old, my best friend, Laura Galloway, and I went in search of our first jobs. Laura’s birthday is the day after mine, so we ventured out together, filling out applications in just about every store at Scottsdale Fashion Square.

At that time SFS was a small outdoor mall with two anchor stores (Goldwater’s and Diamonds) and a couple of dozen shops.

We each got part-time seasonal jobs; Laura was a gift-wrapper at Switzer’s, a women’s clothing store, while I was making cheese balls and cheese logs across the way at Hickory Farms.

My favorite cheese at Hickory Farms was Jarlsberg, a Norwegian Swiss-type cheese with a mild buttery and nutty flavor.

After being “knee-high” in the cheese used in the cheese balls and logs, to this day, I can’t stand even the smell of those particular cheese blends, but I still love Jarlsberg and decided to use it in my asparagus tart for Easter.

Before I get to the recipe, take a look at this beautiful photo that Marissa took in Round Top, Texas. We went in search of fun vintage items during the 48th Annual Spring Antique Show. It was the final day of the 2-week long event but there was still plenty to see.

Of course, the real problem was not the number of goods, but rather the size. Having to limit my purchases to what could fit in a suitcase, I missed out on the stuff that really interested me.

The most heartbreaking is this amazing reclaimed barn wood sink for backyard entertaining. I’ll be dreaming about this beauty for a long time to come!

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