Early Easter

It's a rare year when the St. Patrick's Day celebration runs right into Easter; when you can use leftover cabbage for corned beef to make coleslaw to go with the Easter ham. This year Easter fell extraordinarily early -- in fact as early as I'll ever see in my lifetime. I ended up writing a story for the Ventura County Star that looked at the way Easter Sunday is determined and all of the other odd and fun traditions associated with the holiday.

This year's Easter was a real celebration for us. The weather here in Southern California couldn't have been any nicer. The temperatures were in the mid-80s by mid-morning, but then they cooled a bit. We were able to eat outside on the patio, which was great.

One of the things I noticed about Southern California is the lack of bugs. Pretty much everywhere I've lived, whenever the weather gets warm, the bugs come out and having picnics and outdoor dining becomes annoying at best as mosquitoes try to feast on you as flies try to feast on your food. Here, even though it's warm all year 'round, we don't have many bugs.

I've always posited that it's because they spray so much insecticide around here -- Ventura County tops the lists for strawberry and lemon production. Whatever it is, it sure makes for some pleasant dining al fresco. As a result of the bucolic settings, outdoor picnics are part and parcel of life in this part of the world. As Rob and I came home Easter morning from the Ojai farmer's market (No. Our good friends Mary and Ted weren't there this time.) we noticed that Foster Park, which lies right next to the Ventura River was almost full and there was a line of cars waiting to get in.

I was pondering all of this when I got an email from my cousin John, who lives in northern Vermont and spent Easter snowed in under piles of snow.

Um, ewwwwwwww! as we say here in SoCal.

This year everyone came over. Lindsay and Dena have arrived at some kind of detente, which is wonderful for those of us on the sidelines who just wanted them to get along, so we could all get along. This meant that not only did we have the usual suspects for Easter dinner -- Rob's nephews Sean and Colin, along with Gen, Kaia and Tracy, but we also had Lindsay and Ryan and Dena and her boyfriend Chris (who BTW has a man-crush on Rob, but doesn't everyone?). Then Shelby and Casey came by and Tressa stopped over.

So we had the whole big passel of people I love to have around during holidays. We were able to get a super-duper bargain on the ham and the lamb was also on sale. I also made everyone's favorite scalloped potatoes, the recipe is from Epicurious and Rhodes rolls. I grilled the lamb outside and it got away from me even in a turned-down grill, but I just cut off the burnt parts and the inside was delicious. The ham was a departure from Honeybaked Ham, which I love, but I found one on sale for $.79 a pound and cooked it up. It was fabulous.

The key is to pour about a cup of apple juice with a splash of vinegar and wrap it with parchment paper topped with aluminum foil and cook in in a slow oven for about three hours. It made the meat really tender and sweet. I finished it off with a glaze of brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, horseradish mustard and cloves. I got this recipe also from Epicurious.

Kaia came over the day before and we died eggs and made cupcakes. This recipe from Cook's Illustrated is the best I've tried for yellow cake and foolproof chocolate frosting. I put them on one of those three-tier-thingies they sell at Linens and Things-type places, nestled in Easter grass. They were quite the hit.

I used leftover cabbage (organic from the farmers market)to make coleslaw to go with everything. This is a recipe I got from my former mother-in-law. I've fiddled with it a bit.


Coleslaw
1 large head of cabbage or 2 small cabbages, sliced and chopped into fairly small slaw-like pieces
4 peeled carrots, shredded on a box grater
3 large stalks of celery cut into small (1/4-inch) pieces
1 1/2 cups Miracle Whip
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1-2 tablespoons sugar (use more if you're using buttermilk
1/4 cup milk or buttermilk
salt
pepper
1 teaspoon celery seed

Mix everything together and taste often for seasoning. Put in refrigerator and prior to serving taste again and adjust seasonings as necessary.


Kaia ended up sprawled on the coach complaining, "I think I've had too much sugar," which is actually probably not far from the truth. Rob and I sat around as everyone chatted before they headed out, enveloping ourselves in the warmth of their companionship.

It was definitely a wonderful day.