Easter Dinner

We had a lovely if quiet Easter Sunday. My dad and Lynn joined us, but Les had to work, so I kept our meal simple. Until a few years ago, I always ordered spiral sliced hams for Easter and usually Christmas too. It was easy for holiday meals, and with two small kids, I always looked for easy. Then one Easter, I forgot to order the ham, so I picked up one from the grocery store. I thought I had grabbed a spiral ham, but when I opened it on Easter, I realized it was an unsliced ham—a ham I needed to cook for a couple of hours, and a ham that didn’t come with glaze. I had to improvise. I didn’t want to go to the store on Easter, so I had use what I had on hand. I found a glaze recipe that called for brown sugar, mustard, cider vinegar and whole cloves. I had everything except the whole cloves, but I did have ground cloves. I mixed the ingredients and baked the ham, and I never bought a spiral sliced ham again. The ham was moist, juicy and more flavorful than any spiral sliced ham I have ever had (and it cost less too).

Mustard Glazed Bone-In Ham
1 bone-in ham
1 cup of brown sugar
¼ cup prepared mustard
2 Tablespoons of cider vinegar
Whole cloves

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Score the ham in a diagonal pattern, and place the cloves in the center of the diamonds. Place the ham in a roasting pattern and into the oven. Bake the ham for 10-15 minutes per pound. Take the ham out of the oven 30 minutes before it has finished roasting, and spoon the glaze over it. Place the oven back into the oven until it has finished.

I served the ham with potato casserole and roasted asparagus. The meal was so simple, I didn’t even get a picture. I did get pictures of our appetizer and dessert. For the appetizer, I made Smitten Kitchen’s artichoke-olive crostini. My son liked the crostini because he could taste the olives (he loves olives), and my daughter liked the mixture of flavors. I enjoyed the tangy flavors of the olives and capers.

Lynn was going to pick up something for dessert, but my daughter decided she wanted to make something instead. She adapted the Fresh Raspberry Cream Cakes from the Cupcake Doctor Cookbook. My daughter found a winner recipe with these cream cakes. She used strawberries instead of raspberries since we had plenty of strawberries. The cakes are smooth and creamy with a tart sauce and a delicious graham cracker crust. This dessert tastes like spring.

Fresh Strawberry Cream Cakes
Adapted from Cupcake Doctor Cookbook by Anne Byrn
12 foil liners for cupcake pans
¾ cup graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup finely chopped pecans
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups fresh strawberries washed and drained
8 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese at room temperature
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 container (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed

Line 12 cupcake cups with the foil liners and set aside. Put the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and chopped pecans in a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the graham cracker crumbs into each foil liner pressing down with your fingers to create a crust.

Reserve 12 strawberries for garnish, and place the remaining strawberries in a food processor and pulse until pureed about 10 seconds. Measure out ½ cup of the puree for the filling and set aside. Place the remaining puree in a fine mesh sieve over a small glass bowl to catch the juices. Press the puree gently to extract as much juice as possible. Cover the juice and refrigerate until needed.

Put the cream cheese in a large mixing bowl, and beat with an electric mixer until creamy about 30 seconds. Add the sweetened condensed milk and reserved ½ cup of pureed strawberries. Blend just until combined about 20 to 30 seconds. Add 1 cup of the whipped topping and blend on low speed to combine about 15 seconds.

Top the crusts with the strawberry mixture, dividing it evenly. The liners will be very full but not overflowing. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 3 hours.

Remove the pan from the freezer 15 minutes before you serve them. To serve them peel away the foil liners from the cakes and place the cakes on a serving plates. Top with whipped topping, drizzle with the reserved juice and garnish with a reserved strawberry. My daughter used Cool Whip, but you could use fresh whipped cream instead.