Easter dinner 2010

Went shopping yesterday with the intention of buying a leg of lamb but the least expensive one was $49.00 so came home with a turkey instead! My hope this year is to involve everyone in the food prep so I am "assigning" each family member a recipe. I know I will have to help them through it but it's a step and maybe will give them an understanding of the effort that goes into our big holiday meals.

The menu will be..
No special recipe for turkey, just follow the directions on the wrapper! I have some grapes to sugar to place around it for decoration along with some fresh herbs that will be left over from the other recipes. Although now that I am thinking about it, maybe I will look for the Southern Living recipe where you cook the turkey upside down and then flip it halfway through - that one did turn out very moist. Also, the picture shows stuffing but I am not stuffing. I'll probably make stuffing another night when I serve the leftovers. This is Ex-Marine's assignment.


The vegetable is gratineed baked squash. It involves fresh sage, heavy cream, and cheese and it is delicious! I'm not a huge squash fan and I ate a ton of this at Christmas. This one is just for me.




Make ahead mashed potatoes. Potatoes made the night before with a brick of cream cheese, a stick of butter, and a cup of sour cream added. Then you just heat them up the day of the meal. This is my job for Youngest. Some folks decorate the to with chives or paprika - my family likes them without the added color. They are suspicious of added color to familiar foods!


This is one of Bookworm's recipes that she can do all on her own. I'm going to have her get started as soon as she wakes up today because her brothers are already raiding the fruit I bought yesterday so there will be none left if she doesn't get cooking! The crust of this is sugar cookie dough, the glaze is white grape juice mixed with stuff (maybe corn starch to thicken it and some sugar?).



Dessert is a new recipe. I saw it on a blog about a week ago but when I tried to find it again couldn't so had to go Google it and hope I have the recipe right! (The blogger called it funeral cake - ring a bell anyone?) It's yellow cake mix with mandarin oranges added and the frosting is crushed pineapple mixed with vanilla pudding mix and folded into Cool Whip. This one is for Tween to make.

Update: Everything turned out great. Nobody liked the cake but me so after one more thick slice, I'll have to toss it so I don't eat the whole cake myself! Everyone completed their assignments except that Tween did balk at the pineapple and refused to go any further with the cake recipe from that point.



This post is linked to Weekend Cooking over at Beth Fish Reads. Click on the logo to see the other posts this week.