Can You Really Order In The Family's Traditional Easter Dinner And Still Please His Mother?

Countdown to Easter! Soon many mothers will be cooking the family's traditional Easter dinner. Already the kids are excited about the Easter candy and chocolate bunny. They're reminding you to get "the solid chocolate rabbit", - not the hollow one. They won't care about the Easter dinner. But everyone over twelve will. So what delicious Easter food will you make? Or does just thinking about cooking Easter dinner make you tired? How do you feel when you think about spending Easter day in the kitchen cooking for his extended family?
Oh good, glad to hear it. You're revved up and ready to bake six new kinds of Easter breads complete with hand-carved butter bunnies carrying flower baskets. You ROCK girl! Rachel and Martha move over!
What? This isn't you? You've already begun dropping hints to the hubby about going out to one of those fancy Easter brunches? Did he really say "okay, but mother won't like it"? No, don't tell us what you said back. Time to turn things positive.
Time to order in the family's traditional Easter dinner. With his mother in mind, you know you'd better find some highly impressive Easter meat. If a ham is what she always made, that's easy, here's an applewood-smoked ham you can get pre-cooked and spiral-sliced that will likely taste even better than hers. Now, wouldn't that be a shame, your ham showing up hers. You could instead go with the bone-in ham, but you'd have to dirty a pan. Still, this Wisconsin ham tastes good enough to spend a few minutes washing out a pan, even if you do forget the non-stick spray.
What's that? You can't go with a ham because Mother-in-law added a non-compete clause to your pre-nupt contract? Okay, not to worry, there's always the lamb. I say that so nonchalantly. A roasted leg of lamb is likely the absolutely most impressive piece of meat that you can put on an Easter dinner table. But this lamb is easy to prepare! And you won't be able to beat this lamb's delicious flavor with any supermarket lamb roast.
No of course lamb's not too showy. But if you fear "Mother" will think you're putting on airs with a lamb, then I say go for a bird. Roasted duck or pheasant are always pleasant (and rhyming). They too taste as great as they look. But if hubby and you hate carving, then try the boneless roulade. It sounds fancy, it looks fancy, and it is fancy. This rolled chicken stuffed with sage and cranberry dressing is a gourmet treat for Easter dinner. And best of all? Just heat it up and it's ready to eat!
Are you cheering up with the prospect of ordering in these easy Easter meats? But the vegetable side dishes still sting the back of your mind? No sweat. Buy some fancy flavored rice. Wisconsin, - home to wild rice fields extraordinaire, makes some fantastically-awesome rice mixes. Their flavors are so complex, no will suspect you just dumped the rice in water and boiled it. The gourmet rice mixes come in lots of flavor combos so you can choose the right mix to accompany the meat you choose.
And for something green? Ask your mother-in-law to bring her favorite (fill-in-the-blank) vegetable side-dish. She'll be happy to do so; no non-compete clause clutters her recipe box. Plus, a dish from hubby's past will add a feel of tradition to your family's Easter dinner.
But for dessert, be sure to break out of tradition and break out the good stuff! Spoil the family with a scrumptious carrot cake and hand-decorated Easter cookies. These too, like all the rest, can be delivered to your door. Easy ordering. Easy Easter. Now that makes for a happy mother!

New Year's Party Foods That Bring Good Luck As Well As Great Taste

New Year's foods that bring good luck will be in demand next week. 2009 was a rough year for so many people that folks will want to begin 2010 with as much good luck as possible. Here are some extra-lucky foods from Wisconsin.
Let's start with fish. Fish is a traditional New Year's food lucky for people, although unlucky for fish. Herring is especially lucky. Whether the herring be in cream sauce or wine sauce changes only the taste, not the fish's future prosperity benefits. Some people are squeamish about eating herring, but if they've suffered misfortune in 2009, they need those nutritious little critters now more than ever. Tell them not to worry about the flavor, one bite and they'll find out how delicious herring actually are. Herring just have a PR problem, that's all.
Another lucky food is pork or ham. European tradition has it that eating a pig on New Year's Day brings good luck because pigs are good at rooting out good things from the earth (i.e. truffles). So, perhaps the delicious smells and flavors of ham, bacon, or pork chops will bring good things to people also.
Other traditionally lucky New Year's foods are round or ring-shaped. Round foods symbolize that the seasons have come full circle. The old year is complete, - on with the new. Black-eye peas are supposedly good luck because they're round. Although people who think black-eyed peas are round have likely been sipping a little too much spiked eggnog. Last time I looked, those peas were oval. But perhaps that shape is appropriate for 2009; our troubled economy did seem to make 2009 last overly long. But better times are ahead. Everything cycles. So let's all eat well and ring in the new year with Wisconsin gourmet food!

Gettin' In The Mood For Holiday Food - Taste-Testing The Gifts

Fall is a great time to eat. Healthy but bitter, green vegetables faded with summer's heat. Scrumptious, whole-grain breads, pumpkins, apples, cranberries, and cheese replace them on the table. These hearty foods, cooked into soups, stews, casseroles, and pastries, warm us against autumn's chill. Swimsuit season is 9 months away. No worries now. Time to celebrate the return of carbohydrates! Let's party.
Of course, autumn is also the start of the gift-giving season. We're full circle back to last year's holiday question of what gifts to give relatives, co-workers, and special friends. And here is where gourmet food can help. It's not okay to repeat last year's gift, unless that gift was excellent food. In fact, if the person you care about liked the cake, or cheese, or breakfast basket you sent last year, good chance s/he'll like it again. Maybe that friend is even hoping you will re-send it. Or maybe not.
Now that you think about it, perhaps you should try that gift you sent. Is it really as good as you thought? Your friends raved about it last year, but were they sincere? Hmmm... maybe you should taste it yourself. How were those pumpkin truffles? And those hand-decorated sugar cookies? That pecan kringle? What about that Fall Harvest Bakery Basket? True those muffins look delicious, but hmm.... maybe you should taste them. You wonder.
Yes, perhaps you need to be the judge of those world championship cheeses. It would be a mistake to send Aunt Pickles something she won't like. You'll hear about 'til next fall. Sigh, yes, better be safe than sorry. There's still time to taste the gifts before you send them. Oh, but you won't be able to eat a whole Smoked Meat Delights Sampler Gift Box yourself. And this is exactly the reason why fall is party time. What a delicious season as we get in the mood for holiday gourmet food!

Easter Foods and Gifts- Decorate The Holiday Table With Symbols Of New Life

Easter's coming, and you're hosting Easter dinner. It will be a multi-generational celebration with very different meanings for the oldest and youngest generations. The holiday's religious solemnity will be prominent in the minds of the mature guests. Meanwhile, your younger guests will be bouncing-off-the-wall-crazy anticipating a stealth bunny hiding candy. Two moods, one meal, - your challenge: Serve holiday foods that speak to all. Here are some fun foods that decorate an Easter table with symbols of new life.

For the centerpiece, an edible basket of colorfully-decorated, chocolate bouncing bunnies makes a table decidedly adorable, especially if a chocolate peanut butter bunny sits at the head of each place setting.

Too frivolous, you wonder? Will your grandmother frown? Maybe you should go with the respectfully-tasteful milk chocolate crosses. Of course, you could always mix and match the party favors: kids get bunnies; adults get crosses. But maybe you figure that the kids will get enough chocolate in their Easter baskets.

What are your other options for decorative Easter foods? Something a little different is an Easter-decorated caramel apple. Not just a fall treat - caramel apples can be colorful and fun anytime of year. Go with elegant white chocolate for the adults and multi-colored sprinkled apples for the kids.

And don't forget the tried-and-true, never-fail, holiday standby: cookies. Colorful Easter cookies always make a table festive. Plus, cookies can come in all different shapes and styles. Children have great fun nibbling frosted sugar cookies shaped like baby animals and Easter eggs. Offered on a plate beside them can be attractive, sugar-cookie crosses and flowers. If you're really looking to please Grandma, I recommend the hand-decorated springerle cookies elegantly embossed with Christian images. People admire these hand-crafted cookies so much that instead of eating them they take them home, air dry them, and bring them back to decorate the table next year. Yes, these embossed springerle cookies can easily become holiday ornaments to pass down from one generation to the next.

And that's part of the joy of holidays, - creating and passing on family traditions. So make the Easter dinner easy, -order in a gourmet bone-in ham with specialty mustards, serve some colorful side-dishes, relax and enjoy. Happy Easter.