Easy Easter Dinner

Keep it easy, peeps. Easter is here, and before it arrives I have my son’s birthday to celebrate and my kids home from school on Good Friday. Which is why I shopped for Easter dinner yesterday, and also why I did not complain when my son requested pizza and cookie cake for his birthday (the key here being he doesn’t want my pizza, he wants Pallazzos delivered). Check that off my list!

We aren’t traveling for Easter this year, and while we’ll miss being with grandparents and playing with cousins, it’s nice to have a quiet Easter dinner at home. We will head to church in the morning and come home for swimming and a late lunch. Since our lunch will roll right into an early dinner, I’m not planning to make these lamb meatballs this year, but I highly recommend you think about it if you’re having early Easter brunch. I may have my kiddos help make gluten-free almond cake Saturday, so we can snack on it before heading to church Easter morning — it’s also a perfect bundt cake to keep on your kitchen counter to satiate houseguests. Here’s the low down on what will be on our plates:

The Ham

Easy spiral ham glazed with jezebel sauce. I’m following the technique from How to Celebrate Everything by Jenny Rosenstrach. I bought a boneless glazed ham from Whole Foods, it’s wood smoked, antibiotic free and pre-cooked. I just need to heat it up (on a rack in a roasting pan, with about a 1/2 inch of water in the bottom of the pan, but not touching the rack. Follow the cooking directions on the packaging). That’s about as easy as it gets! It will take about 8 minutes per pound, and I’m only serving my immediate family of five, so I bought a 4 pound ham. Thirty minutes and Easter dinner is served! We’ll still have some leftovers for split pea soup, fried rice or sandwiches.

The Sauce

I’ll make Saveur‘s recipe for jezebel sauce to glaze the ham before it goes in the oven (the pork tenderloin recipe in the Saveur article sounds delicious, flag that for another day!). I’m substituting apricot preserves for the pineapple, just because that sounds better to me (and I happen to already have apricot preserves in my pantry).

The Snacks

Make a double recipe of the jezebel sauce — you can use it to pour over cream cheese as an appetizer; serve with your favorite crackers or rounds of baguette. You could also make a batch of deviled green eggs with leeks and peas. Yes please! Or make this easy chèvre with herb and garlic oil, using thyme or rosemary or both. And just sayin’, this wouldn’t be a bad opportunity to put together a cheese board. But when is there?

The Sides

A frittata full of sautéed leeks, chard and asparagus makes a perfect side dish. But if you’re not a big meat eater, make a frittata for your main dish. This frittata recipe from Williams-Sonoma looks simple, quick and easy. I’ll throw in some asparagus cut into 1/2-inch slices. If you do the same, don’t use the woody stems of the asparagus.

A big vinegary green salad would pair nicely, and taste delicious with creamy bites of egg. We’ve harvested a glut of red sail and butter crunch from our garden, and I’ll toss it with my go-to super simple salad dressing. Garnish your salad with herbs (chives, mint, dill or chervil) to give it a fresh flavor. To add a pop of beautiful color, I’ll also set out a big bowl of fresh berries on the table.

The Drink

We’ll make our kiddos sparkling strawberry lemonades, which is also a refreshing mocktail if you throw in some muddled mint. I’m excited to share the perfect wine to pair with Easter ham, but you’ll have to wait for Friday to read about it. I would also recommend having this rosé on hand as an aperitif, which will be delicious with those deviled green eggs.

Happy Easter!