My Favorite Easter Menu

Breakfast - Cheese Danish

Brunch/Lunch - Quiche Lorraine

Dinner - Ham, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, "Special" Green Beans, rolls
To see recieps, click "read more"

Cheese Danish

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

2 sheets (1 box) frozen puff pastry, defrosted

1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and cream them together on low speed until smooth. With the mixer still on low, add the egg, vanilla, salt, and lemon zest and mix until just combined. Don't whip!

Unfold 1 sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured board and roll it slightly with a floured rolling pin until it's a 10 by 10-inch square. Cut the sheet into quarters with a sharp knife. Place a heaping tablespoon of cheese filling into the middle of each of the 4 squares. Brush the border of each pastry with egg wash and fold 2 opposite corners to the center, brushing and overlapping the corners of each pastry so they firmly stick together. Brush the top of the pastries with egg wash. Place the pastries on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry and refrigerate the filled Danish for 15 minutes.

Bake the pastries for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan once during baking, until puffed and brown. Serve warm

Quiche Lorraine

4 eggs

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup cream or whole milk

1 cup cooked chopped bacon

1 cup shredded cheese

1 tsp salt

1 pie crust

In a mixer, mix cream cheese until soft. Mix in the eggs, add 1 egg at a time until combined. Mix in cream and salt.

Place pie crust in a pan, and dock with fork (make little holes). Put bacon, cheese and parsley in the pie crust. Pour egg mixture over bacon mix in crust. Top with a handful of cheese and bake at 350 for 1 hour or until the top is browned and bubbly and the egg is set.

DINNER

Special green beans: cut a strip of fat and a slice off the ham. Boil or steam the green beans (fresh or frozen) with the fat and ham (cut into small pieces) until they reach desired doneness. Drain and remove fat. Toss with toasted almond slices, salt and

HAM: 1 bone in ham. to understand what kind of ham to buy go to: http://www.finecooking.com/articles/which-ham-to-buy.aspx

Cook ham according to package. My ginger maple glaze: Mix tbsp grated fresh ginger, 1/2 cup maple syrup, 1/2 cup ground up gingersnaps (or gram crackers).

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

2 1/2 lbs red potatoes, quartered and boiled, 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, 1/2 cup heavy cream plus more if needed, salt and pepper, 7 cloves of garlic pressed. Cook garlic in 1 tbsp of the butter until fragrant. Mash potatoes with the cream, butter and garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Rolls

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 warm water

1 cup warm water

2 (1/4 oz) packets of dry active yeast

2 tsp salt

1/3 cup oil

1 whole, large egg at room temperature

4 cups flour

2 tbsp butter

1 egg and 1 tbsp water for egg wash

Mix warm water, sugar, and yeast and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Mix in other ingredents - other then flour - together. Add in flour a cup at a time until a dough is formed. Form a ball and set in a large greased bowl (dough will rise 2x it's size) cover with towel or plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Knead dough 10 minutes by hand or 2 minutes in mixer on low.  Repeat. Roll out dough to 2 inch thick. Cut even squares with pizza cutter, roll into ball if desired. Place on a cookie sheet. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour ("proof"). Brush on egg wash. Bake at 425 for 20-30 minutes or until rolls are golden brown.