We are hosting a large group for lunch after our Easter church service, so I know I will be accommodating a lot of food allergies and diverse food needs. This used to stress me out, but now I plan ahead to offer a variety of food options. The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, puts it this way: “Everyone does not need to eat everything.”
We host our church college students, our pastors and their family, and several other family and friends. Many of the college students sing in our church choir and attend Belhaven University. They are always very grateful and thankful for homecooking and a joy to host. Many are from out-of-state and do not have time to get home to celebrate with their families, so we have always tried to serve as a “home away from home” during this special holiday.
Inevitably with a large crowd, there are food preferences and allergies to be considered. Those in attendance are vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, lactose-free, and sugar-free, and pretty much every allergy category that could be represented. I will try to have a few menu items for everyone and be sure everyone will leave full and satisfied. Another trick I learned when dealing with allergies is to save all the packaging and labels if you are using any prepackaged foods. This allows concerned folks to read the labels. Gluten and different types of sugar are added to so many prepared items and you can never be too careful. Just set the boxes aside in case someone wants the ingredient list.
I wish you all a very happy Easter. Enjoy the day with friends and family and some delicious food but most of all I am hoping you celebrate this glorious day of our risen Lord.
1 Peter 4: 8-11 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.” I will be praying this for myself and this verse will serve as my reminder as we entertain family and friends to keep love the “main dish.”
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia and Happy Easter.
Katty’s Baked Ham
We always serve ham for Easter. One year, I will tackle a leg of lamb, but not this year. Ham is such an easy and economical choice for a large group. You can make it ahead and slice it and keep it in the refrigerator until the day that you need it.
1/2 ham, butt or shank
2-3 teaspoon tart jelly, such as plum
1 onion, quartered
1 tart apple, quartered
Black pepper
Water or 1/4 -1/2 cup white wine or sherry
Rinse ham thoroughly. Place in a roasting pan and rub with jelly. Place onion and apple around ham, add wine or sherry and add water to pan to depth of one-inch. Cover tightly and cook 20 minutes per pound in a 325° preheated oven. This may take longer depending on water content of ham. Check after two hours. Ham is done when skin is loose and fork pierces meat easily. Remove ham and cut into “nice slices” and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Lemon Barbecue Chicken
This recipe came from Robert Harrelson Selby, my mother-in-law‘s first cousin. It was given to me by family when I married my husband. It is easy and delicious.
One whole chicken or a variety of chicken pieces (We will use several dozen chicken legs, as they were easier for the kids to eat.)
For the lemon barbecue sauce:
1-2 cloves, garlic, smashed
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons grated onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
a pinch of celery seed
1 teaspoon parsley
To make lemon barbecue sauce: stir all ingredients together and store in the refrigerator overnight for better flavor.
We are ready to cook. Rinse chicken and pat dry. Season with a little salt and pepper and brown chicken pieces in a little oil in a heavy skillet. Put all chicken pieces in a large casserole dish and cover with the lemon barbecue sauce. Bake at 350° for about 45 minutes to an hour until chicken is tender
Strib’s Hash Brown Potato Casserole
This is such a delicious, but incredibly rich dish, that I try to serve it only for special occasions. I wanted an alternative to regular macaroni and cheese, and I thought this would be a great addition. I love every version of this recipe, but this tends to be the one that I use the most.
If you have any leftovers, store them in your refrigerator and the next day, scoop out about 1 cup of mixture and patty out. Dust with flour or cracker/bread crumbs and fry in a little bit of oil for a delicious hash brown cake the next day.
1 large package frozen hash brown potatoes
2 cups cheddar cheese
2 cups sour cream
1/2 bag frozen chopped onions, or one onion, chopped
1 stick butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
Spray a 9x12 casserole with nonstick cooking spray. Melt the butter and mix with remaining ingredients. Spoon into the casserole dish. Top with cornflakes, if desired, and bake for about one to one and half hours at 350°.
This casserole is best if mixed the day before and baked when ready to serve.
Monroe Pizzas Appetizer
This is an old recipe from Southern Sideboards and has always been a favorite. In high school, a close friend’s mother would make dozens of these, stack them up, and keep them in the freezer. When we would get home for a slumber party, these were always waiting for us. They are easy to make and taste great. Aesthetically, probably not the most beautiful thing to serve, but I promise your crowd will love them.
1 pound ground beef
1 pound hot bulk sausage
1 pound Velveeta cheese
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon oregano
2 loaves party rye bread with seeds
Sliced or whole green/black olives, optional
Cook beef and sausage in a skillet until well done and drain off fat. Add cheese, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, salt, and oregano. Stir over low heat until cheese has completely melted.
Spread about one to two tablespoons of the sausage mixture on party rye slices and garnish with a green olive or a ripe olive, if using.
Place on cookie sheets and heat in a 350° oven until hot.
These may be frozen on cookie sheets until firm and stored in an air-tight container or Ziplock bag.
Texas Torte
This is another great old time pick-up appetizer from Southern Sideboards.
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons flour (I will sub the flour for cornstarch to make them gluten free)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 - 4 ounce can chopped green chilies
1 pound Colby Jack cheese, grated
Add flour (or cornstarch) to the eggs. Mix in salt and milk and blend well. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into a flat, well-greased 8 x 12” Pyrex baking dish and bake at 350° for about 35 minutes.
Cut into tiny squares and serve warm.
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
This is a simple, gluten-free, and vegetarian option for your menu. The potatoes can be roasted the day before, peeled and sliced, and placed in a casserole dish. Simply heat up and serve with various toppings. This allows the guests to top the potatoes with whatever they would like.
4-5 large sweet potatoes, well-scrubbed
Topping suggestions:
Butter, toasted pecans, brown sugar, mini-marshmallows, chipotle-sour cream*
Pierce sweet potatoes a few times with a fork to allow steam to escape. Place potatoes on a cookie sheet lined with foil and bake in a 375-degree oven for about 45 minutes to an hour until potatoes are tender. Remove and allow to cool slightly.
Peel potatoes and slice into 1-inch rounds. Layer in well-greased casserole and keep warm. If using later, cover casserole dish and store in the refrigerator. When ready to eat, heat potatoes in a 350° oven for about 25 minutes until warm. Serve with variety of toppings.
*To make chipotle-sour cream: combine one cup sour cream with one finely chopped canned chipotle chili in adobo sauce, and half teaspoon of salt.
Marinated Vegetables
1 bunch broccoli
1 head cauliflower
2 to 3 carrots
1 green bell pepper
2 small zucchinis
1 English cucumber
1 - 8 ounce, can black olives, drained
1- 8 ounce container of fresh mushrooms, or 1 - 4 ounce can of mushrooms, drained
2 - 16 ounce cans, French style green beans, drained
2 - 17 ounce cans, early green peas, drained
1 - 14 ounce, canned artichoke hearts, drained and diced
1 medium onion, diced, I used red onion
For the marinade:
1 cup regular or red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon dill seed
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
Prepare all the vegetables (feel free to omit any that you do not want): cut broccoli into small bite-size pieces or break into large chunks. Separate cauliflower into small florets and slice, if needed. Peel and slice carrots. Core and seed, green bell pepper and cut into strips. Slice zucchini, and cucumber. Drain olives, and cut mushrooms into bite-size pieces. Drain all canned vegetables and layer with other vegetable in a glass bowl for best presentation.
Mix all marinade ingredients and pour over the vegetables tossing to make sure everything is covered.
Marinate at least 24 hours in the refrigerator. Drain vegetables, and serve cold.
Cheese Tortellini Salad with Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette
I have become the lucky repository of many of my neighbors and friend’s old cookbooks. I love to flip through them and discover a new recipe or two. Recently, my neighbor Ann Young dropped off a book about salads and I found this delightful dressing recipe.
I love a good summer tomato, and by March I am already craving one. Unfortunately, mother nature would have me wait for several more months until the “good ones” are ready. This recipe is perfect because it uses readily available roma or plum tomatoes and then slow roasts them to bring out their sweetness.
The dressing is delicious, but I must admit that they are still not as good as a perfectly ripe warm tomato picked straight off the vine in the summer.
To make the Roasted Tomato Dressing:
8 Roma or plum tomatoes, washed
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme, 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 clove, garlic
To make the roasted tomatoes:
Preheat oven to 225°. Cut each tomato and half lengthwise, then cut each half into two or three sections lengthwise. Place the tomato sections, skin, side down and evenly spaced, on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Season with salt and pepper and bake in the preheated oven for about three hours, until the tomatoes are “jammy.” Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature.
To make vinaigrette:
Put the tomatoes in the bowl of a food processor or chop thoroughly.
Add red wine, vinegar, garlic and thyme to the bowl and pulse until chopped and combined.
Slowly drizzle in olive oil to make a thick or emulsified dressing.
Season to taste with additional salt and pepper, if necessary.
To assemble the salad, toss:
I pound dried or refrigerated cheese-filler tortellini, cooked, and cooled according to package directions
1 jar or 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 container baby arugula or baby spinach
Toss with dressing and serve immediately for another good vegetarian option.
Bunny Rolls
Many times, I am not big on presentation when it comes to serving my meal. I love to cook but will be just as likely to serve it on a paper place without any garnish.
However, I saw a story on these adorable, bunny rolls and I could not resist trying them for our party. We have a lot of children that come for lunch and I thought they would get a kick out of them.
Feel free to make homemade bread dough, but I found it is just as easy to make them with refrigerator biscuits or bread dough.
Please refer to the picture in case my instructions do not make sense.
To make biscuit, bunny rolls, divide a can of refrigerator biscuit dough into eight pieces and pat into squares. Pinch off a tiny piece of each square and make a quarter inch ball to be later used as a nose.
Shape pieces of dough into ovals about 3 inches long and 2 1/4 inches wide. Using kitchen shears or a knife, make a 2-inch cut length wise down the center of the oval. This will make the bunnies ears.
Pinch the dough together a little about where the cut stops to define the head and separate the ears. This will form what appears to be a bunny face.
Make a small indention in the center of the head and add the nose. Brush entire surface with an egg water mixture and bake in a preheated 375° oven for about 10 minutes or until bunnies are lightly browned.
Sour Cream Biscuits
I made these muffins last year for our Easter lunch and they were a big hit. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the amount of butter and accidentally doubled the butter for this recipe. Yikes! They are already a very buttery biscuit but you can hardly imagine how much butter was dripping out of each. This year, I plan to pay closer attention to my recipe.
2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup butter (2 sticks), melted
1 cup sour cream
Mix flour and butter together and then slowly stir in sour cream. Do not overmix. Spoon into well- greased mini muffin tins and bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 400° or until golden.
Allow to cool and remove to completely cool on wire racks. These to be made ahead and reheated on a cookie sheet.
Yogurt and Granola Parfait
These are excellent to serve for large crowd, and while you can easily make homemade granola, feel free to use any store-bought variety. You can buy granola without nuts for anyone with nut allergies.
Serve with a variety of toppings. We serve with honey, fresh chopped fruit, chocolate chips, and a variety of granola toppings.
1 large container plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
1 container of high-quality purchased granola or homemade from recipe below Mixed seasonal fruits and berries
Honey, chocolate chips or other toppings
In small punch cups, layer yogurt, granola, and berries. Allow everyone to make their own and include only things they would like.
If using plain yogurt, honey is a great additional topping option.
Missy’s Granola
Missy Barnett shared this delicious granola recipe with me years ago. It is perfect baked as listed but feel free to add or omit any ingredients to your taste. One of my favorite additions is shelled pumpkin seeds or pepitas.
Dry ingredients:
6 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup coconut, shredded
1 cup natural wheat germ
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup any other nuts that you would like
Wet ingredients:
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup to 1 cup honey
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Mix all wet ingredients together in a small sauce pan and heat over low temperature for about five minutes.
Mix all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Carefully pour over the wet mixture and mix thoroughly.
Spread granola on well-greased baking sheet and bake 45 to 60 minutes at about 350 stirring every 15 minutes.
Feel free to add 1 cup of raisins or any other dried fruit after granola has cooled.
Store in an airtight container.
Lemon Raspberry Cake with Lemon Buttercream
This delicious cake with creamy lemon icing and raspberry jelly, is a fresh and delicious combination that seems like an excellent choice to serve with Easter lunch.
The first time I made this cake, it ended in disaster when I turned a corner too fast causing the cake, along with my favorite glass cake stand, fall off the front seat of my car. The cake ended up a big broken mess with shards of glass and icing everywhere. I had to make it again just to get over the accident. It takes a bit of effort, but is worth it.
For the cake:
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups sifted cake flour (2 1/2 cups regular flour sifted with 1/2 cup cornstarch)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 10-ounce jar seedless raspberry jam (I could not find seedless so I simply heated 2 regular jars and poured the mixture through my sieve to remove all the seeds. Feel free to use any type of jelly. Strawberry would be delicious, too)
For the lemon buttercream:
1 ¼ cups unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons lemon zest
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
Preheat oven to 375°. Grease 3, 9-inch round cake pans and line with parchment paper. Spray the pan again nonstick spray such as Baker’s Joy. Set aside.
To prepare the cake: mix shortening in an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time mixing well after each addition.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt and add to the shortening mixture, alternating with the milk, and beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix well after each addition. Stir in vanilla extract. Pour equal amounts of batter into the three prepared pans. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow cakes to cool in pans for about five minutes and then remove cakes from pans and allow to cool completely on wire racks. Once cakes have cooled, carefully slice each cake in half horizontally to make a total of six thin layers. A long bread knife run around the edge of the cake will work well.
Place one layer of the cake, cut set up on a cake plate. Spread with 2 1/2 tablespoons of the raspberry jam. Repeat with remaining five layers of cake and jam, omitting the jam on the top of the last layer.
To prepare the lemon buttercream, beat the butter, lemon zest, and lemon juice at medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar mixing until mixture is fluffy.
Ice the cake and store in refrigerator until ready to serve.
