Easter Round-Up

Happy Easter, dear readers! Today I'm sharing a round-up of recipes that would be perfect for your holiday table. Whether you're celebrating with breakfast, lunch, or dinner, we've got you covered.

Let's get cooking!
Erin

Let's get our day started with Herbed Egg Bake. The fresh herbs hint at the Spring garden goodness that's heading our way.

Make these Carrot Coconut Muffins the night before and serve them with a schmear of butter. The Easter bunny will appreciate a few carrots, don't you think?

Use up any leftovers from your Easter egg hunt to make this Deviled Egg Sampler. Are you a traditionalist or will you add a pinch of curry to your deviled eggs?

Easter begs for ham, and this Apricot Mustard Glazed Ham is my very favorite. Bonus: It's as simple to prepare as it is delicious to eat.

Asparagus is so fresh and tender this time of year. And since it's seasonal, it'll probably be on sale this weekend. Roasted Asparagus with Lemon is my favorite way to serve this springtime veggie.

Lemon Buttermilk Cake is a refreshing and delicious dessert. I recommend piling it high with berries and freshly whipped cream.

Pot Roast with Mushroom Gravy

Last year around this time I described an illness that had settled over my house: Christmas Disease. Recently, I started noticing the onset of the 2011 strain of Christmas Disease. It began when I was trying to sleep. Instead of counting sheep, I counted the shopping days left in December. I get nostalgic and misty-eyed when I see houses glowing with icicle lights and trees trimmed with tinsel. The butterflies in my belly can be attributed only to holiday excitement...or one too many Christmas cookies. 

Since I'm practicallly bed-laden with my illness, tethered to the couch with re-runs of "A Christmas Story" on TBS, I can't be expected for much in the kitchen. So today I offer up another fabulously easy crockpot meal. This will bubble away on your counter while you deck the halls, croon carols, and cut-out cookies. And when you're ready for a piping hot dinner, it will nurish your soul as much as your body.

Enjoy...and happy holidays!

Pot Roast with Mushroom Gravy

Serves: 6-8

1 onion, peeled and cut into large wedges

3.5 pounds of your favorite "roast" cut of beef (May I suggest top loin roast or bottom round roast?)

8 ounces white mushrooms, halved

2 sprigs of rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Water

Salt and pepper to taste

In your crock pot, layer onions, roast, mushrooms, rosemary, and bay leaf. Pour cream of mushroom soup over everything. Fill the empty soup can with water and pour that over the top. Cook on low heat for 10-12 hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Helpful tip: I place everything except the liquid ingredients in my crock pot before bed and store it in the fridge over night. Before work the next morning, all I had to do was dump the liquid ingredients in and turn on my slowcooker! That made it slightly less likely that I was late for work.

Side Dish Idea: Pot Roast with Mushroom Gravy pairs well with Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes, another make-ahead wonder.

Pesto Chicken

Thanksgiving is next week. Then the whirlwind of December kicks in: holiday concerts at school,  trimming the tree, fighting the crowds to finish your shopping, Christmas pageants... The list goes on and on.

With all this hustle coming up, I thought you'd appreciate a super-simple dinner idea. I know I did.

Pesto Chicken
Serves: 2

2 chicken breasts
2-4 tablespoons prepared pesto

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in a baking dish and schmear each chicken breast with 1-2 tablespoons pesto, depending on how pesto-y you like things.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken reaches 165 degrees.

P.S. Pesto Chicken is fabulous served with pasta. Use your favorite alfredo sauce or more of the pesto.

All-Star Thanksgiving

Today I'm revisiting some Hot Dinner favorites to create an all-star Thanksgiving menu.

Drinks: Make a batch of Spiked Cider and allow your guests to serve themselves. As an added bonus, this libation will perfume your home with the scents of the holidays. And these wine picks from the Lady of the House are certain crowd-pleasers.

Appetizers: Have enough nibbles so your guests don't chew their hands off awaiting the main event, but not enough that they spoil their appetite. These make-ahead hors d'oeuvres are the perfect choice.
Spicy Nuts:

Goat Cheese Spread:

First Course: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup is simple, earthy, and delicious with all the flavors of fall. The best part? You can prepare it a few days ahead and warm it up on the stove just before serving.

Main Course: 
Turkey: Brining your bird takes ho-hum poultry to a whole new level.

Mashed Potatoes: Making as many dishes as possible before your guests arrive is key to sanity on Thanksgiving day. Heat these spuds through in the oven before serving.

Roasted Root Vegetables with Honey-Balsamic Glaze: Celebrate the bounty of autumn with gorgeous roasted vegetables.

Stuffing with Sausage, Pecans, and Cranberries: Savory and sweet stuffing pleases every palate.

Cranberry Sauce: This jewel-toned side dish is a compliment to every part of the meal.

Dessert:
Apple Pie: Piled high with fruit and topped with a crisp, flaky, butter crust. This is the pie of your dreams.

Black Bean and Cheese Chimichangas

The husband was watching the Packers game last Sunday, and I decided to make him some hot dinner. Sunday night meals often consists of PB&J or cereal, but the husband had a hard day working in the garage, and I thought he deserved something special.

I would fry him something.

I should mention that the husband loves fried food. I should also mention that I'm afraid of frying food. Shortly after we got hitched, I tried to make taquitos. My first attempt at frying went, shall we say, poorly. It tasted like we were eating little, round sponges of oil. Bleck. Also, with dubious ventilation in our kitchen, it smelled like the state fair in our house for far too long. Not classy.

But despite my fear, I was determined to fry up some grub for the husband. I tweaked a taquito filling recipe I found in Real Simple last month, and went to town. The first two chimichangas didn't turn out quite right. They were...burnt.

Take two, however, was much better. When I presented the chimichangas to the husband, I was a bit nervous. Would they meet the same fate as my taquitos? To my utter delight, the husband had a big smile on his face after tasting my creation. "These are GOOD!" he exclaimed.

From now on I will be known as Erin, the happy housewife who's not afraid to fry.

Black Bean and Cheese Chimichangas
Serves 2-4

15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon lime juice (juice of 1/2 lime)
Salt and pepper
4 flour tortillas
Vegetable oil for frying

In a medium-sized bowl, mash together beans, cheese, chili powder, garlic powder, and lime juice.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Evenly divide bean mixture among tortillas. Roll tortillas up tightly.

Heat 1/2" of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. (Err on the medium side of medium-high.) Test to make sure the oil is hot enough for frying by dropping a small piece of tortilla into the oil. If the oil bubbles immediately and the tortilla rises up to the top, the oil is the right temperature. (If the oil is too cold, you'll end up with a soggy, greasy mess. A la my tacquito situation.)

Gently place the rolled-up tortillas into the oil, seam-side down. Fry for about 2 minutes on each side until the tortillas are crisp and golden.

Set tortillas on a paper-towel lined plate to sop up any extra oil. Serve with salsa and sour cream.