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Easter with southern flavor


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Note: crocs and sneakers were the kids’ choices. But they did run around outside all day in them!

I’m titling this post with the name of one my favorite bluegrass banjo songs by Bill Monroe. I reckon it could serve as a mighty good soundtrack for this here post.

Maybe it’s the fact that I’m in the midst of re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird, or because I just always miss my family, but I decided to give Easter supper a southern flare. We had “hammus Alabamus,” as my Grandaddy would say, cucumber salad, potato salad, homemade bread with butter, pickles, and ambrosia. Basically, I ripped off my aunt’s traditional Easter supper, minus the bunny cake she always makes, which involves lots of coconut and is rightly gilded with plenty of jelly beans. Instead of bunny cake, I swapped in our tradition of hot cross buns (n.b.: cute video of Charlie in that link), except this time I made Jacques Pepin’s brioche and used Thomas Keller’s idea for how to put them in a pan instead of a brioche mold. Hot cross buns are supposed to be made on Good Friday, but I couldn’t get my act together by then.

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The ham was so easy. I got a pre-cooked and spiral-sliced ham from Trader Joe’s that came with a packet of glaze mix. Ambrosia is easy too; I leave out the nuts and marshmallows and just keep it at pineapple, mandarin oranges, cherries, and coconut, tossed together with a little sour cream.image
For an appetizer, we took half the Easter eggs (that hadn’t gone into potato salad) and made deviled eggs with them. Mine include salt, lemon juice, mustard, mayo, and dried dill or dill relish, with the obligatory sprinkle of paprika on top.image
What did you do for the holiday? Hope it was tasty!
xoxo
~J