Elegant Easter Dinner

It's time for colored eggs, pink and yellow baskets and spring chicks. Easter is just around the corner and with it comes your opportunity to host the first spring dinner party, with an elegant Easter dinner.  Put on your Sunday best, let the spring sunshine in, and host Easter dinner for friends and family.

The Easter Dinner Table

Think spring, pastels, bunnies, chicks and flowers. With Easter dinner, you’re cutting the ribbon on spring entertaining. Put away the fall and winter colors and lighten up your home with pastel dishes and linens. For an added Easter touch, sprinkle jellybeans over the table and make a bird’s nest centerpiece.

HGTV has instructions for making Easter napkin rings and other table decorations for the holiday.


An Easter Dinner Menu

Ham is a traditional Easter dinner entrée. Serve it with an herbed citrus sauce, along with an easy make-ahead mashed potato recipe and light, lemony asparagus. Ribbon Jell-O and lemon coconut cake satisfy the sweet tooth for the perfect Easter dinner.

Herbed Ham

• 1 ham, scored in a checkerboard pattern
• 10 small garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• Pepper
• Fresh chives, thyme and parsley sprigs
• 2 navel oranges
• 2 cups dry white wine

Insert garlic slices into score marks on the ham. Sprinkle with pepper. Place sprigs of chives, thyme and parsley on bottom of a roasting pan. Slice oranges and place on top of herbs. Place ham on top. Pour 2 cups of dry white wine around meat. Cover roasting pan with foil. Bake at 325 degrees for 5 hours or until done. To serve, remove ham from pan and slice. Strain juices and serve with ham.


Mashed Potatoes With Chives

• 5 pounds potatoes
• 8 ounces whipped cream cheese with chives
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 5 tablespoons butter
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 1½ cups milk
• paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste

Peel and dice potatoes and boil in water for 20 minutes.  Drain. In a large bowl, combine potatoes, cream cheese, garlic powder, pepper, 4 tablespoons butter and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix with electric mixer. Gradually add heavy cream and milk. Grease baking dish and spoon in potatoes. Dot with remaining butter and sprinkle with paprika.  Bake in a 375-degree oven for 45 minutes.


Lemon Asparagus

• 2 bunches of asparagus
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons butter

Wash asparagus gently. Trim off tough ends by holding each stalk by the ends, bending downward until the asparagus snaps. (The asparagus will automatically break off at the tough end.) In a non-stick skillet, melt butter. Add asparagus and stir gently. Sprinkle with lemon juice, add salt and pepper to taste, and cook until crisp- tender.


Ribbon Jell-O Salad

This is time consuming but well worth the effort. It’s an impressive, colorful Jell-O salad that’s perfect for spring. Start it a day in advance.

• 1 3-ounce package each of lime, orange, lemon and cherry Jell-O
• 1½ cups water for each package of Jell-O
• 2 cups milk
• 2 envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin
• ½ cup cold water
• 1 pint sour cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Soften unflavored gelatin in 1/2 cup cold water. Bring milk to boil. Add sugar and dissolve.  Add softened unflavored gelatin to milk mixture and allow to cool slightly. Add sour cream and vanilla and beat with hand mixer on low speed. Set aside to cool, but keep at room temperature so it doesn’t gel.

In four separate bowls, dissolve each package of Jell-O in 1 cup hot water. Add ½ cup cold water to each bowl. Oil a 9x13-inch baking dish. Pour in lime Jell-O. Refrigerate until firm.  Add 1/3 of the cream mixture (about 1½ cups).  Refrigerate until firm.  Continue alternating Jell-O and cream mixture, refrigerating after each addition, ending with cherry Jell-O on top. Refrigerate 4-5 hours before serving.


Lemon Coconut Cake

• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 package lemon gelatin (3 ounces)
• 3⁄4 cup milk
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1⁄4 cup sugar

Glaze:

• 1 pound confectioner’s sugar
• 3⁄4 cup lemon juice

Frosting:

• 1⁄2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1⁄2 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 pound confectioner’s sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 cups finely chopped nuts
• 1 1⁄2 cup flaked coconut

Grease and flour a bundt pan. In large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder and gelatin. Beat in milk, oil and lemon extract. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time. In a small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Beat in 1⁄4 cup sugar with whites. Gently fold in egg white mixture into batter. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until cake springs back lightly to the touch. Turn out onto wire rack. Cool only slightly, while preparing glaze.

To prepare glaze, combine confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice in saucepan and heat until it begins to bubble. Carefully spoon warm glaze over warm cake until all glaze is absorbed by cake. Let cool one hour.

To prepare frosting, cream butter and shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add confectioner's sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Add milk and beat until light and fluffy.

Frost cooled cake with icing. Press nuts around sides of cake and sprinkle top with coconut.


More Easter Ideas

Easter is Sunday; What Do I Cook?
That question answered on GourmetSleuth.com to the tune of appetizers, desserts and a to-die-for pineapple side dish.

Beyond Easter Dinner
Make Easter fun for the kids, too, by hosting an Easter egg hunt.

Go Veg
The Mommy Mall has a menu for a meatless Easter dinner.

A Romantic Easter
Still riding high from the romance of Valentine’s Day? LovingYou.com offers some ideas for putting together romantic Easter baskets.

More Easter Ideas
DGreetings.com has more than Easter cards and greetings. You’ll find links to Easter recipes, gift ideas and more.