Early Easter Linner

I know I still need to write about our fabulous trip to Las Vegas... and I will, but I think that will take longer so I'm gonna post about today first instead.

This morning Jeff got up at 6:30 so that he could get the car looked at... apparently it needed a brake flush or something. I got up at 7 to work on a paper (which though I've made some headway, is still not finished- this semester is killing me). I worked on the paper for a couple of hours and then it was time to get cooking. We were hosting an Easter lunch/dinner at our house. See, Easter is the first holiday that Jeff and I celebrated together as a married couple- it was the day after we got married. And we go to our families' homes for all of the other major holidays, so I thought it would be great if Easter could be our holiday. We decided to celebrate today and to do an early celebration due to a wedding reception we attended this evening (the same friends that we celebrated with in Las Vegas).

I prepared a ham. The ham was supposed to cook for two hours- instead it took about 4 hours. I also prepared some yummy, and I mean, yummy oven roasted red potatoes. I found a recipe online that looked really tasty and easy and decided to go for it. I then prepared fresh asparagus- baked with garlic, olive oil and spring onions. They were also delicious. Finally, I made a beautiful and colorful fruit salad (with the help of Jeff's mom- she helped me cut up some fruit- especially after I cut up my finger).

The meal was fabulous!! Everyone seemed to really enjoy everything that I made and I enjoyed it myself- usually I am pretty critical of my own cooking- I do love to cook though, and bake- I just don't have time to do it very much. Hopefully, one day, I'll have more time. Jeff's parents brought crescent rolls and cheesecake, my grandparents brought dinner rolls and eggs (their own eggs- not for dinner but for our refrigerator) and my mom brought pineapple upside down cake and green bean casserole. Unfortunately, not all of my siblings were able to come because they were either not feeling great, had to work or had other things going on... so Sarah was the only sibling there. Though I wished the others were able to come, it was still an enjoyable time with excellent food and wonderful company. I love, love, love being around my family.

Now on to make your mouth water:

The ham was cooked to perfection.

These are the yummy potatoes. They really were very good. They are roasted with butter, lemon juice, salt, fresh minced garlic and shredded parmesan cheese.

Asparagus- I knew nothing about how to make asparagus. In fact, I never really enjoyed it before. But, I found a recipe for it that sounded good and I thought I'd try it out. I think it turned out nicely. I enjoyed it.

Delicious fruit salad. I love how pretty it looks with all of the different colors.

Here's the spread on the table together... most of it anyway.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate Easter by going to church and then enjoying lunch/dinner with more family and friends. I am looking forward to it. Happy Easter!

P.S. It's a tradition to listen/read/watch this talk every year on Easter. If you have time, it is definitely worth it. Enjoy! (Click the above link "this talk"... just in case)