Bunnies and chicks and lambs - oh my!

Here are some ideas to make your Easter celebration more festive. If you don't celebrate Easter these are still some fun ideas for a spring celebration as well as some plain old good food to serve anytime!

The ham/pork industry must have a very powerful lobby or at least an awesome marketing arm here in the U.S., because we somehow went from Christmas Goose and Easter Lamb to ham for both.  When my parents hosted the family Easter dinner my dad grilled a leg of lamb. As my son would say - soooooooo good!

For most of us, Easter is about the sweets! Besides the chocolate eggs, jelly beans and marshmallow bunnies in the baskets some fun treats to try:

• bunny cake using two 8" or 9" round cakes - if I didn't have a bunny shaped cake pan this is how I would do it. I have also used a thoroughly cleaned out (washed and sanitized in the dishwasher) can from a canned ham to make a giant egg cake. Put it on a cookie sheet to make it easier to get in and out of the oven.
• Bundt cake basket - never thought of doing it upside down, or is it right side up?
• a cupcake cross cake - make cupcakes and arrange them on a platter in the shape of a cross, frost and decorate as you would a cake (also works well for baptisms, communions, confirmations, etc.)
• Rice Krispies Treats eggs- what could be easier than Rice Krispies Treats? I'll be making mine without the M&Ms inside this year to make them even simpler.
• Chocolate Bunny Bread- This is a great treat for those craving chocolate but trying to  forego the fat and sugar that usually go along with Easter chocolates. Most of the times I have made this, I double the chips and add them to the entire mix instead of just in the body, or skipped the chips entirely.
• Gelatin Eggs or Ribbon Finger Jewels- before Kraft came up with this mold my oh-so-creative mother used to make them by filling blown out egg shells. I will update this with a photo if I can find one in the old family albums - they were so cute! Or you can make the Ribbon Finger Jewels with spring colors (lemon, orange, strawberry).

The one dilemma most hosts have with holiday celebrations is what to do with all of those leftovers, especially the boiled eggs. One can only eat so many deviled eggs or egg salad sandwiches, right? Instead, try some Coconut Curried Eggs or Chopped Chicken Livers and eggs or Shrimp and Egg Spread.

You can hide some of the candy and use them later in Ma'am's Bread Pudding. Or try The Pastry Chef's Gooey Baby Ruth Brownies  or Snickery Hidden Treasure Cookies. M&M's or Reese's Pieces can be substituted for chocolate chips in just about any recipe. I haven't found a recipe I love for using up jelly beans - please let me know if you have a favorite.

Until next time, happy eating!

~Audrey