A table set for a delicious Easter brunch

Here comes Peter Cottontail…

I love Spring! It is a time of renewal. Everything is blooming or beginning to…the temperatures are beginning to warm up ( or in Kentucky it is 80 degrees one day and snow flurries the next) … and it is daylight a little longer each day. These are all good things. I love the colors of spring—all the pretty pastels. And I love decorating in Spring. It is time to bring out fresh linens, bring out the fresh floral arrangements, and do not forget the Easter baskets.

Easter is the first Spring holiday and, as usual, I go all out. I love setting an Easter table. I use all of my favorite colors and freshen up my look. I break out (not literally) my antique Blue Willow dishes which pair perfectly with my cabbage plates that double as a twist on a charger. I toss in (again, not literally) a few decorated Easter eggs, a bunny or two, accent with some tulips, peonies and Easter lilies, and my table is all ready for our Easter feast.

This year I am planning an Easter brunch, rather than a traditional lunch, to accommodate our busy schedules. I am also going to put my curious spin on a few Easter classics. Of course I will have ham but we love Kentucky Country Ham Spread, Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits, and I am adding a new—and soon to be favorite—Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs. Easter also wouldn’t be Easter without a piece of my grandmother’s delicious Southern Pecan Carmel Cake.

This time of year also conjures up all sorts of wonderful family memories from Easter. I do not remember much about the food, although when I was really little I remember we had a fancy lunch dressed in our fancy clothes at the Country Club. I also remember Mom making a wonderful Easter lunch—never a dinner—always a lunch. But for me, it was all about that Easter Basket and the C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E. There was nothing better at the time than that giant, solid chocolate bunny nestled in my Easter Basket. I could not wait to take a bite out of it. My biggest worry was biting the tail or the ears? Which do you eat first? Of course, I liked most of the other candy, too. The Robin’s Eggs were my next favorite—you know, the ones made of malted milk chocolate in a crunch candy coating. And there were always Jelly Beans. I did not care about the rest of the candy and I usually ended up trading it out with my brothers and sister.

The week leading up to Easter was always big fun, too. I have such vivid memories of us kids boiling and dyeing those eggs. The smell of the vinegar, the fizz of those tiny little colored tablets that turned water into the most beautiful shades of pink, orange, blue, yellow,green and red, the little wire egg holder to dip, and the little cardboard “rack” to let them dry. With four children and the inevitable mess we would make, my Mom always covered the table in layers of plastic and newspapers to protect from potential stains. It never occurred to me that we boiled the eggs more than a week out and they were so yucky. To me, they were so beautiful and I loved finding them hidden all through the yard.

I kept the tradition going for my girls. We did the same thing—and I even think the Easter Egg dye was the same brand. Some things never change! My girls also loved waking up and finding their Easter Baskets—although neither are big chocolate fans (GASP!) and one added a new twist to the morning. Lily, the baby of our family, was terrified…I mean terrified…of the Easter Bunny. We have an adorable (to us) photo of her and her first visit to the Easter Bunny. She was not a happy girl. She was so scared of the whole idea of the Easter Bunny that she absolutely insisted that the “vicious” creature was kept out of the house. To accommodate, we left our carrots for the bunny out on the front porch and the baskets were also left outside. No bunny inside. She wasn’t a big fan of Santa, either, but luckily for us, our presents were allowed inside the house!

What are your favorite Easter memories? Did your family have similar traditions? Did your family serve a special meal? I have enjoyed hearing about the different menus—pineapple casserole may be the most interesting. Maybe next year.

Cheers!

MK

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