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Savoring life in the Berkshires

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Easter Eats

Published on April 25, 2011 By Emily. Updated on July 7, 2013

Every once in a while I feel like I have a day or a weekend that makes up for any lack of serious cooking that has occurred during the week.  This weekend was one of those weekends:  I made a dish to bring to our church’s sunrise service and my in-laws came to our place for Easter lunch.

There was a time (3 months ago?) when I got really stressed out about cooking for other people.  The stress has diminished, but I still worry about providing what other people like to eat.   What’s the point in cooking for other people if they’re not going to like it? Brian and I have been together for almost 8 years (crazy, I know) so I have a pretty good idea of what his family likes.

Coming up with a dish to bring for the sunrise service was a little more stressful.  I sent out a message on Twitter hoping to get some good suggestions.  My mother-in-law, who does not have Twitter but follows my tweets anyway, sent me a recipe for baked French toast with pecans.  Despite not winning any awards for being healthy, it was super easy to make and popular with the other attendees.  Next year I’m definitely making a quiche or some other egg dish though because there were 3 French toasts this year and the couple of egg dishes were gone really fast.

I’ve been planning our Easter lunch for a while.  I realized a couple of weeks ago that I’d be cool with serving the traditional ham for Easter lunch, if I could find one from a local farm.  I posted to the Berkshire Grown Online Farmers Market on Facebook asking if anyone had ham steaks available and received one reply.  I sent that farm an email.  The next day I had 2 emails in my inbox: one from the farm letting me know that they did not have ham after all, the other from our CSA letting us know about a farmer’s market that was happening the next day.  Perfect.  We ventured to the farmer’s market and successfully procured 2 ham steaks.  Beyond that semi-last minute trip, I decided to keep things simple.

Easter Lunch Menu:
Ham steaks (from the farmer’s market)
Potato, Spinach and Goat Cheese Gratin (made Saturday afternoon)
Green beans (from the supermarket)
Bread (picked up at our CSA on Saturday)

IMG_4041

Looking at this tablescape makes me really happy.  I just feel like it looks so nice (maybe because Brian and I rarely eat our meals at the table).  We even broke out the cloth napkins for the occasion.  It makes me very excited for the days when we’ll have a house and I can accumulate more serving dishes and place mats and such.

Dinner was pretty good.  One of these days I’ll learn how to not overcook meat, but we eat it so rarely I never quite know what I’m doing.  Still, it was more than edible.  While prepping the gratin, I went into a brief panic because I’d forgotten that it contained parmesan cheese, which my father-in-law doesn’t like.  I couldn’t come up with an immediate substitution, so I added it anyway.  Turns out he’s changed his mind about parmesan, so it all worked out.  My mother-in-law brought a couple tasty desserts (and left us with leftovers!)  The whole thing was very low-key, which just makes me want to host people for meals even more.  As far as hosting holiday meals is concerned, this Easter was definitely a good place to start and a success.

Related Posts

What I Cooked: Easter Edition
Highlights: Date Night & A Sponsor Shout Out
Highlights: Earth Day
Birthdays Galore
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Filed Under: food Tagged With: holiday, hosting

« Happy Easter!
Why I’m Still On Week 4 of My Push Up Program »

Comments

  1. Carol Pious says

    April 26, 2011 at 8:20 am

    And the fellowship was encouraging! You both made us feel welcome and special. What a perfect way to celebrate Jesus!

Trackbacks

  1. » What I Cooked: Easter Edition » Relishments says:
    April 10, 2012 at 5:01 pm

    […] I hosted Easter dinner for the second year in a row.  Last year my in-laws joined us for a fairly traditional meal of ham, potato gratin and green beans.  This year I had the bright idea to invite Cynthia and her […]

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Emily
Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring a sitter for a rare night out. We went to dinner at @publicna and took advantage of the opportunity with drinks, appetizers and dessert.

Pictured:
- Citrus Braised Beef Tacos
- "Chicken and Waffles"
- House Fries with Garlic Aioli
- Fried Chickpeas
- Blood Orange Cheesecake
It was no surprise that Public was close to full on a Wednesday night - everything was so good. 

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#igers413_food #igers413 #BerkshireFoodies #InTheBerkshires #EatLocal #WesternMA #WesternMass #Berkshires  #VisitTheBerkshires #NorthAdams #NAmazing #PublicEatAndDrink
New year, new theme word! This year's word is "enr New year, new theme word!
This year's word is "enrich" and I'm really excited about it.

I've written more about this year's theme on the blog. Click in the link in my profile or follow the link below to read the post.
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https://www.relishments.com/blog/my-2023-theme-word-enrich/
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#YearlyTheme #MyOneWord #2023 #enrich2023 #NewYearsResolution
It's not New Year's Eve without a Top 9 post. It's It's not New Year's Eve without a Top 9 post.
It's almost all #Berkshires content this year, which is great.
1. A pasta salad reel that took longer to create than the recipe took to make.
2. A reel from North Carolina where I could have watched birds all day.
3. The @thelazygenius book giveaway.
4.@plantconnector 
5. @berkshiremuseum 
6.@sculpture.now at @themountlenox 
7. @massmoca 
8. @mountainviewfarm413 
9. The #AshuwillticookRailTrail
New on the blog: My 2022 reflections on last year' New on the blog: My 2022 reflections on last year's theme word - resume. 

I was able to get back to many activities that were meaningful to me this year and I'm calling this theme a success. Follow the link below or click the link in my profile to read more.
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https://www.relishments.com/blog/reflections-on-resuming-in-2022/
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#resume2022 #newyearsresolution #myoneword #yearlytheme
New on the blog: My Favorite Recipes of 2022. For New on the blog: My Favorite Recipes of 2022.

For the fourth year, I've recapped the best new (to me) recipes I made this year in the hope that they'll give you some new dishes to try. This year's list is short, but delicious. It includes @budgetbytes My Favorite Recipes of 2022
Published on December 30, 2022 By Emily. Updated on December 30, 2022

It’s hard to believe that 2022 is basically behind us. Though overall this year found me getting back to the person I want to be (post-babies and “post”-pandemic), I did not try nearly as many new recipes this year as I used to. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I’d made note of any new-to-me recipes I wanted to share in this post. This year’s list is short, but delicious. It includes recipes from @budgetbytes, @smittenkitchen and @howsweeteats.
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Read the post by visiting the link in my profile or 
https://www.relishments.com/blog/my-favorite-recipes-of-2022/
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#RecipeRoundUp #BestRecipes2022 #FavoriteRecipes
@coastalmainebotanicalgardens continues to be one @coastalmainebotanicalgardens continues to be one of the highlights of all my return trips to Boothbay and their annual Gardens Aglow event continues to impress. It was great to be back to walking the gardens instead of the pandemic drive through and there seemed to be more lights than ever.  I'm already looking forward to next year.
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#Boothbay #BoothbayMaine #CoastalMaineBotanicalGardens #GardensAglow #BotanicalGarden #MidcoastMaine
It has been a while, but there is finally a new CS It has been a while, but there is finally a new CSA menu plan on the blog! Visit the link below or in my profile to see how I plan to make use of some of the @mightyfoodfarm produce seen here.
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https://www.relishments.com/blog/welcome-to-winter-farm-share-csa-menu-plan-148/
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#MightyFoodFarm #EatLocal #EatSeasonal #VermontGrown #CSApickup #CSAshare #KnowYourFarmerKnowYourFood #MenuPlanning #MealPlanning #igers413 #igers413_food #BerkshireFoodies
Fall in the Berkshires is always incredible, but t Fall in the Berkshires is always incredible, but this year we've had weather that has also been outstanding. The past 2 weekends have included time at Jaeschke Orchards, the Greylock Glen, and the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail as well as stopping to photograph any random foliage I see. 
Check out the last slide for video of some feathered friends we saw on a walk.
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#igers413 #InTheBerkshires #EatLocal #WesternMA #WesternMass #Berkshires  #VisitTheBerkshires #FallFoliage #FallColors #autumn #AshuwillticookRailTrail #JaeschkeOrchards #GreylockGlen
@freshgrassfestival continues to be one of my favo @freshgrassfestival continues to be one of my favorite events each year, and it doesn't hurt that it's just minutes away from home. Enjoying the festival with my kids is definitely a different experience than without, but it's still a good time. The weather was especially cooperative today which was great for all the laps I did around the @massmoca campus pushing a stroller. I'm already looking forward to next year.
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#igers413 #InTheBerkshires #WesternMA #WesternMass #Berkshires  #VisitTheBerkshires #NorthAdams #NAmazing #FreshGrass #FreshGrassFestival #MassMoCA #MusicFestival
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