Easter Eating

This entry is dedicated to my mother-in-law who is generally no slouch in the kitchen but totally managed to knock everybody's socks off with a dish she prepared for Easter brunch. It was a savory tart with wild mushrooms, leeks and Gruyere cheese. I swear it was right up there with one of the best things I have ever tasted. I made her promise to make it every Easter (if I can wait that long..)

I took on Easter dinner and prepared Anchovy and Rosemary Roasted Lamb...

(has anyone bought a leg of lamb recently? They are pricey! Maybe I should start raising lambs. But then again, I could never actually slaughter one so I'd just end up with all of these sheep as pets ... I guess I should stop complaining about the price, right?)

...Asparagus, Green Onion, Cucumber, and Herb Salad

....and boiled new potatoes that I mashed with a little cream and butter and blended with a healthy amount of a spring pesto I created using olive oil, pine nuts, cilantro, chives, mint, a jalapeno chili, garlic, salt and pepper.

I have to credit Chef Mortimer (again) for the pesto/potato idea. He mentioned it in his last cooking class. However, I had to refrain from appearing hypocritical and using a traditional basil pesto (after whining in an earlier blog about how I felt using basil in the spring was just somehow wrong...) so I chose different herbs for this dish.

The whole meal came together beautifully - and rather quickly. I did discover in the cooking process that I own three different instant-read meat thermometers and that none of them are even remotely accurate.

It might have something to do with the fact that they are all electronic and that my three-year-old likes the different beeping noises they make when he presses all of the buttons at the same time ...

I had to borrow my mother-in-law's.

I recruited my husband for help with the dessert. It was very hands-on, and baking and pastry 'cheffing' are not my strong suits. We made Chocolate-covered Poached Pears with Apricot-Pecan Stuffing and Chile Sabayon

(I researched the word 'Sabayon' and discovered that it is just a fancy French word for the Italian dessert known as zabaglione -- which is sort of humorous since the dessert above is described as being a staple at Mexican passovers -- talk about fusion..)

My family enjoyed all of this with a Salvestrin Rettagio and a Buena Vista Pinot Noir.

(...and you know us. Of course there were more wines opened - they just aren't worth mentioning here...)

What?

It was Easter , after all....