Happy Easter!!!

It's Easter and that means I have an excellent excuse to spend a whole day in the kitchen.

Today's menu:

4 Berry Pie -- homemade, I can't disclose my secrets... pie is my backup career (seriously)

Roast loin of pork crusted in salt, pepper, garlic and rosemary ala Tedward

Gravy from the pork's onion bed

Garlic mashed potatoes courtesy of Zeny and Co

Salad courtesy of Zeny and Co

Homemade Lemonade from French Food at Home--Cooking Channel

AND these tasty lil apps: Dijon Prosciutto Asparagus Wraps (needs a shorter name!)

Here's how to make them:

Ingredients:

1. Dijon mustard
2. Pillsbury Crescent "Big and Flaky" Rolls
3. Prosciutto (10 slices)
4. Asparagus (20 pieces)

How to make pieces of heaven:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree.
2. Roll out crescent shapes one at a time.
3. Spread a thin to medium layer of dijon mustard on the crescent.

4. Now apply a piece of prosciutto (rip the meat so that it doesn't go "outside the lines" of the piece of dough.

5. Cut two asparagus in half and add to the thicker end of the crescent + prosciutto piece. Roll from the thinker end to the skinny end . Wrap extra dough around where necessary. (Some meat and asparagus will be visible.)

6. Assemble and line up on baking sheet. Cook at the temperature the crescent roll package suggests. (Mine cooked in 12 minutes at 350 degrees).

Take them out of the oven and enjoy!

And after much anticipation, the pie was a success too!

40 Days of No Cookies, Pies, Candy and More

Today was a very meaningful day for many.  The day after everyone gets ridiculous and does insane things for beads, they wake up and realize that going to church with a hangover is no fun.  Somehow a day where holy people used to use up the foods they abstain from during Lent turned into Fat Tuesday, meaning ‘Get-drunk-and-eat-cookies-day.’  (I may have added the cookie part for myself.)  Regardless of how everyone spent his or her Tuesday, today began the 40-day period of Lent. 

The holiday means something different to everyone.  But the was it goes is that most go to mass, get ashes and give something up. To me, getting ashes on Wednesday morning reminds me of the things that are important to me.  It’s a public mark that I believe in something bigger, that I believe in love, that I believe in miracles.  The 40 days are a time of reflection if you look at it right. 

This year I gave up dessert. I’ve graduated from only giving up chocolate.  That normally just led me to find a million varieties of sour candy to compensate and then me pigging out on Easter with more M&Ms than believable.  So, NO, it’s not a DIET.  Dessert is something I LOVE.  It is something that is a daily occurrence for me.  I’m semi-famous for my claim that ‘chocolate tastes better in the morning!’  (IT DOES; TRY IT.)  So, here’s the deal: I can’t cheat and discover an alternative because I gave up the category.  I’m learning the meaning of a sacrifice.  Also, every time I crave something or real for something delicious, I’ll remember that I can’t and then remember why. And walla! Reflection time.

Lots of people don’t follow through.  But, I encourage you to try; you’ll be proud of yourself and then your Easter will taste sooo good!  (Well, if you give up something edible.)  Give up what’s hard to give up.  (The priest warned not to give up coffee though for the sake of your household.)  It might be adding salt, watching too much TV, video games, texting, reading junk mail at work, buying coffee everyday or something else! 

If you’re not a part of the Lent crowd, give something up as an exercise for yourself.  Every time you reach for it, reflect on your life instead.  Realize if that ‘thing’ is something you NEED or can do without.  Then, after 40 days, reward yourself and be proud that you know you know how to accomplish any goal you set.