I’m not sure if I’ve had this much fun creating and executing a menu. I think because I tried a lot of new things, had a very open minded audience, and love this special season so much it just was particularly enjoyable to plan. In my “Easter and Eggs” post I asked for your info and was able to narrow down our menu from there. I had intended to do a beef tenderloin but had some trouble finding an affordable option. So I switched to the Perfect Pot Roast. Otherwise I selected things for my initial post and more than half of the recipes were new to me. If you ask me the hidden gem was the cold brew vanilla bean coffee… 🙂 I think putting some intention behind the drinks menu was just that extra touch that made it feel fun and special.
Appetizer
– Asparagus wraps
Side dishes
– Honey Brown Sugar Roasted Carrots
– Gorgonzola, Grape and Grilled Chicken Pasta Salad
– Ultimate Scalloped Potatoes
Maincourse
– Perfect Pot Roast with Rosemary and Thyme
Dessert
– Lemon Mousse
– Easter Egg Chocolate Truffles
Drinks
– Shirley Temples
– Vanilla Bean Cold Brew
The appetizer was so easy, totally tasty, and they disappeared off the plate! I might need to make a double batch next time. Plus I love that when I couldn’t find pancetta I just made the switch to prosciutto and it was delicious. The ingredients are easy to have on hand for a quick party appetizer.
The carrots were absolutely scrumptious! Cooking them 20 minutes left them a little bit firm which my guests happened to like. But for next time I might cook them a little bit longer. The recipe was unexpectedly delicious. Not to mention simple! Roasting the carrots was the last thing I did while the roast “set.”
I prepped and seared the roast in the morning before we did our family Easter egg hunt and it cooked for about three hours at a low temperature. The meat fell apart and was absolutely delicious. We can use leftovers for French dips which also delights me!
I’ll be honest several of these recipes would have been really easy to prep ahead of time, but since we wanted to play on Friday I decided to wait until the day of. The Gorgonzola, chicken, grape pasta salad would’ve been a great one to make the day before. Especially because it is the best chilled. (I set aside some extra plain chicken and grapes for kiddos who might otherwise not find something they liked at the table.)
And honestly the baby carrots made in the dutch oven with the roast might’ve been my favorite veggie! They were significantly softer and the kids loved them.
When we came in from hunting eggs I immediately got the scalloped potato dish in because it takes an hour to cook and a bit longer to “set up.” Thankful for a brother-in-law who did some peeling and slicing… And a husband who grilled aa chicke breast or two for me. Once the potatoes were in the oven I tossed the appetizers together and in to bake, then did the prep work for the penne pasta salad. The appetizers baked quickly so it was a great thing to be able to sit out for guests while everything else cooked.
The Ultimate Scallop Potato recipe is one I’ve used before and is perfect for our Easter gathering. I think I will keep this as my go to Easter potato dish. In fact my sisters both asked for the recipe! That’s always a good sign. I have a different favorite potato dish I use around Thanksgiving and Christmas and that includes yams and Yukon Gold potatoes, it’s hard to pick between the two but having two in my repertoire is nice as well.
As far as the drink options, honestly I’m not one to typically think about specialty drinks. But I wanted my guests to feel special today, and I wanted options for alcohol free drinks so I made Shirley Temples just using Sprite and grenadine, and the cold brew with homemade vanilla bean syrup was a total hit! Another thing that I prepped the day before was the cold brew as it needs to steep overnight. In the end that made things really simple. Coffee ice cubes, homemade vanilla bean syrup, half-and-half and cold brew made for a really fun special adult drink!
Then there was dessert! The Oreo truffles were way more delicious than beautiful. I have the hardest time melting chocolate. It seems I have terrible luck, so if you have any tips I’ll take them! The truffle inside was perfect and ready to be dipped in smooth silky chocolate, but my chocolate just wasn’t that way. Plus I had a bunch a little helping hands so in the end they weren’t quite as lovely as Pinterest and the originally demonstrated them to be. Some might dub it a “Pinterest fail” but not me because they were delicious!
Oh my, yummmmo, the lemon mousse got rave reviews all around! I will have to do some research on making mouse though because both when I made my cousin’s delicious chocolate mousse, and also this time I feel like there was a problem with the consistency. This seemed a little bit more like pudding that mouse. But the guests loved the bright, not heavy nature of the lemon which is what I was hoping for. I will definitely be doing this recipe again and perfecting my execution. Stay tuned for my tips on that!
And of course we made resurrection rolls with the kids! Watching Ben and Emily teach their kids about this fun family tradition was really special!
The family headed outside for a fire and playtime followed by a hotdog roast and music. It was truly a perfect day to remember the ultimate gift we’ve been given of salvation. We serve a good God and I’m grateful for days like today to remember that.
