A few weeks ago, Britta, Kaitlyn and I decided to put our heads together and come up with a simple, tasteful (as in, full of taste!) Easter dinner celebration that was both affordable and doable. I love celebrating ANY holiday, but sometimes I think we get carried away with all the frills, flourishes, and festooning! 🙂 This celebration is something that you can easily put together for your family and feel great about doing so. Let’s start with the decorations!
My daughter-in-law Kaitlyn loves finding ways to decorate that are festive, fun and frugal…and she’s darn good at it! 🙂
Here are a few of her Easter tablescape tips:
Place Settings
Blue and Yellow Plates: Target
White Plates: Jillee’s
Don’t be afraid to mix and match plates! It adds interest to the table. Check out thrift stores for fun, colorful plates.
Placemats: Scrapbook paper we had on hand.
Just like the plates – mix and match scrapbook paper! I was able to add some fun colors and patterns to the table without spending a dime.
Silverware: Clear plastic silverware we had on hand tied with colorful ribbon that I bought for a couple bucks at Walmart.
Napkins: Found on clearance at TJ Maxx at Christmas.
Mini Flower Pots: Found at Target. They came with seeds for $2.99. I wish I could have found empty ones but I haven’t been able to find this size anywhere else! Filled them with Cadberry Mini Eggs.
Drinks: Lemon Pelligrino – I liked that the colors of the can matched our décor.
Burlap: I found rolls of Burlap ribbon at Walmart.
Centerpiece
Plastic eggs: The yellow and pink are from Walmart and the gold ones are from Smith’s.
Real eggs: I hardboiled white and brown eggs and added them to the centerpiece. Bonus – you can eat these for lunch the next day!
Flowers: Pink tulips from Costco. They have great prices on flowers and they seem to last forever! I put them in quart sized mason jars we had on hand.
Preserved Sheet Moss: Found at Walmart on the craft aisle. I ended up using 5 packages and just pieced them together.
Blue Candles: Walmart
Bunny Votive Candle Holders: Target for $2.99 a piece
Banners
Burlap Bunnies: Target for $5.99
Eggs: The colorful eggs are from Walmart and the gold eggs are from Smith’s. Have you ever noticed that plastic Easter eggs have small holes on the ends? I used a large needle and some yellow baker’s twine to string the eggs together.
Now that our table is set….it’s time for the main attraction….the FOOD!
Britta and I handled the cooking for our Easter feast and we chose fairly traditional dishes of Glazed Ham, Maple Glazed Carrots, Grilled Asparagus Salad, Fleming’s Steakhouse Potatoes and Strawberry Shortcake Cookies!
Every recipe we made turned out SO delicious we were all ooo’ing & aaahh’ing (and mmmm’ing) all day long! I personally was completely smitten with the potatoes! There’s a reason they are the signature side dish of this award-winning chain of steakhouses! But, honestly, ANY of these dishes would be a wonderful addition to your Easter dinner!
Dr. Pepper Glazed Ham
Ingredients
- 1 Picnic Ham (5 – 10 pounds)
- Whole Cloves
- 1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar
- 1/4 cup Dijon Mustard
- 1 can Dr Pepper (or Coke will work as well)
- 3 Tbls Apple Cider Vinegar
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Score the surface of the ham in a diamond pattern about 1/8 to 1/4 – inch deep. Place cloves in the middle of each diamond.
Place the ham in a roasting pan with a rack, tent it with foil, and bake for 1 1/2 to 2/12 hours, or until the center registers 100 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer (should take about 17 minutes per pound.)
While the ham bakes, bring the brown sugar, mustard, Dr Pepper, and vinegar to a simmer in a medium saucepan and cook until syrupy and reduced (about 10 minutes.)
After about 2 hours, remove the foil from the ham and brush on the glaze. Return it to the oven, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, add more glaze, return to oven again for another 20 minutes. Repeat until nice and glossy then allow to rest 15-20 minutes before slicing.
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman
Fleming’s Steakhouse Signature Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 3 small leeks, white part only, diced
- 2 medium jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely diced
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- 3 lbs russet potatoes, thinly sliced
Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add leeks and next 3 ingredients; saute 4 minutes or until tender.
Add cream and half-and-half; bring to a simmer. Remove from heat; add cheeses, stirring until melted.
Add potatoes to cream mixture; toss gently. Pour mixture into a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour. Remove foil and bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Maple Glazed Carrots
Ingredients
- 1 bunch of uniformly-sized carrots
- 2 Tbls butter
- 2 Tbls pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup slivered almonds
- 1/2 tsp salt
Directions
Heat up a large skillet over medium heat (I used my dutch oven,) and melt the butter. Cook it for just a couple of minutes until it turns a golden brown color.
Add the carrots and cook for another 5 minutes, tossing the carrots every minute or so.
Add the maple syrup, slivered almonds, and salt to the pan.
Cook the carrots for another 3-5 minutes until the glaze is sticky sweet and the carrots are fork tender.
Adapted from Fifteen Spatulas
Grilled Asparagus Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound asparagus
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
- 2 cups arugula
- 1 cup pea shoots (or bean sprouts)
- 1 tsp fresh chives, thinly sliced
Lemon Vinaigrette
- 3 Tbls fresh lemon juice
- Zest from 1 lemon
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 small shallot, finely minced
- 3 tsp honey
- Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Directions
Preheat your grill (stovetop grill pan) on high. Prepare the asparagus by breaking off the tough ends of each spear.
Toss the asparagus with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Grill the asparagus for 5 to 10 minutes until browned and tender, turning them every few minutes.
For the vinaigrette, whisk together the lemon juice, zest, olive oil, shallots, honey, and salt & pepper.
Layer the arugula and pea shoots (or bean sprouts) on a serving plate and top with the grilled asparagus. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the asparagus and sprinkle with fresh chives. SO good!
adapted from Free People Blog
Strawberry Shortcake Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup diced strawberries
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (I used a gluten free flour blend)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons cold butter, grated
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Hull and dice the strawberries into small pieces (approximately the size of M&M’s).
Add the flour, baking soda, salt and sugar to a medium bowl and whisk together to combine.
Next, add the grated butter and cut it in to the dry mixture using a pastry cutter or two knives.
You want the butter to be evenly dispersed throughout the flour mixture.
Add the heavy cream and strawberries to the dough and stir until just combined.
Form 12 balls of dough (if the dough is too sticky, just add a bit more flour) and place them onto the cookie sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Immediately remove the cookies from the baking sheet and transfer to a cooling rack.
adapted from Food Fanatic
I hope you enjoyed this post as much as we did putting it together! But more importantly, I hope something we’ve shared will help make your Easter celebration more memorable and delightful!
