Happy Easter!

Thursday - prequel - Christ is arrested. Throughout the night is passed around to be judged and beaten.
Friday - Day 1 - He is sentenced to death, beaten some more, carried His cross. Is hung from it and died in the most heinous fashion. He dies - He descends into hell - which in true definition is a place without God. "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"
Saturday - Day 2 - Is the Sabbath Day. All is silent.
Sunday - Day 3 - Christ is RISEN! Our salvation has been obtained through the fulfillment of scripture.

Easter is celebrated around the world. Some places it is done openly with great gatherings and to do. In other places, it is done secretly at great personal risk. Somewhere along the line at least in the U.S., it has become a traditional meal with ham. I don't know why. If you have the answer, please feel free to share. I have made many hams over the years, looked at many recipes. My mom was a guilty as I am with my children and we weren't in the kitchen when she cooked it. All I knew was pineapple and brown sugar. Not very imaginative and it was always a crapshoot. There have been good hams, some okay hams, and where did I go wrong hams. So, in honor of this blog project I went to search out a better way. I checked all of my usual recipe haunts, thought maybe I have enough info to fudge my own together, but then I came across this one recipe and then I knew. I must say, it was the BEST ham I have ever made! So, thank you Samantha at Five Heart Home. It really was quite simple, I only made half a ham, 'cause really... there was just the four of us. There are several types of ham out there. Who knew? Keep this in mind when searching for your perfect recipe. The size and the type will make a difference in your cooking method. We always end up with the precooked picnic ham. So, here is the recipe (halved from the original):

Ingredients

• Half of fully cooked ham, approximately 3.5 to 4 pounds 
• 1 cup pineapple juice (I just drained the juice from a can of pineapples - it was just shy.)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (I used Spicy Brown mustard)
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 can sliced pineapple (not part of the original recipe, but my husband loves his candied pineapple)

So, here's what you do. Pour the pineapple juice in the bottom of your slow cooker. Mix your brown sugar, mustard, balsamic vinegar, and honey into a paste. Rub the paste on the outside of the ham. Use toothpicks to place the pineapple slices to the ham. Place into the slow cooker on low for three to four hours. The internal temperature needs to be at 140 degrees. Contrary to my early years of cooking ideas, you can burn things in your slow cooker. Once it is complete, pour the juices into a small sauce pan and add your cornstarch, mixed with water. Using a whisk, cook down to a glaze. This can be used as a dipping sauce or poured onto the ham directly. Next time, I will get it together sooner so I can do the tip of placing it under the broiler for about five minutes to crystalize the sugars. The ham itself was juicy and tender. I don't think I'll ever put in the oven again. 

My side dishes for my dinner included the mashed potatoes that I made last week. I have signed off on the canned parmesan, I have decide to shred my own after seeing a report on additives added to your canned parmesan. I also made sweet potatoes, carrot souffle, and dinner rolls. 

My sweet potatoes, I started from scratch pealing my potatoes about three large ones and boiling just as I would my regular russets. Boil them until they are about al-dente. Otherwise known as not soft, but not so hard that you can't bite into it. Place your sweet potatoes into two to three quart casserole, add about a 1/4 cup butter cut into small pieces, a quarter cup brown sugar and then cover with marshmallows. I personally do not believe you need that many, but my husband insists that if he can see the potatoes under the marshmallows there is not enough. Place them in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. By this time the sweet potatoes should be soft and marshmallows golden brown. 

My carrot souffle, I found the recipe a couple of years ago for another holiday. 

Ingredients

• 2 lbs carrots - chop, cook, and mash (make sure you have a lot of time - it seems to take forever. My sister-in-law says a teaspoon of baking soda in the water will do the trick, but I haven't tried it)
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 T flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 3 eggs beaten

Mix mashed carrots with rest of the ingredients and place in a 2 quart casserole dish. Bake for 40 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven.

I added dinner rolls, using my usual recipe from Better Homes and Gardens. The recipe is the same in each edition that I own. 

Ingredients

• 4 1/2-5 cups flour
• 1 pkg dry yeast (2 3/4 tsp)
• 1 cup warm milk
• 1/3 sugar
• 1/3 softened butter
• 1 t salt (I skip this making all true cooks and chefs cringe)
• 2 eggs

I placed all of the ingredients into my bread maker on the dough setting. As much as I try, I can't seem to get consistency right, I always end up on the heavy side. This time in the bread maker it was perfect. After it completed its cycle, I rolled them into rosettes and let them rise for another 30 minutes until doubled. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes until golden. Since the recipe calls for 1/3 cup butter, I took the remainder of the stick (2 1/3 T) melted it added a half teaspoon of garlic powder and shredded about an ounce of parmesan cheese to it and brushed it on to the warm buns. I must say, (forgive me mother) they were better than my moms. The topping made all of the difference.

Then there was dessert. Yeah, it was a busy day and I got tired. So, I had my daughter make something. I did a lot of searching, trying to find a new recipe. Supposedly, coconut cake has become a standard for Easter. At risk of offending all of you that love coconut, why ruin something good by adding coconut. 

Sam made blondes with pastel colored m&ms. I made sundaes by adding vanilla ice cream and caramel topping. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups M&M candies

Blend the butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla until creamy. Add flour, baking powder, and flour beating in until smooth. Mix in m&m's. Bake in a greased 9"x13" pan for 23-25 minutes at 350 degrees. If I had read the directions myself, I would have realized that it supposed to look a little doughy when you pull it out. Needless to say, mine was over cooked and quite hard once it cooled. 

For movies to watch for your family theme, we watched The Passion of the Christ. A little heavy and not really for all audiences. More family friendly chooses would be Narnia and Hop.