Happy Easter!

This Easter we celebrated at our own home with some family. My dad came along with his cousin Eldene and her husband Rudy. They don't have any children and not much family around so we invited them for Easter brunch. It is always fun to see them. 

They brought Easter baskets for us, gifts for Athen and a lovely hostess gift for me - some lemon verbena soaps that smell delcious. 

I decided to do an Easter brunch rather than a traditional ham and potato meal. I did french toast, an egg and hashbrown dish and a spinach and chicken ring, fruit salad and then of course some snacks - peach mango salasa and chips, swiss and rosemary olive oil triskets, honey mustard pretzels, jelly beans, and some homemade chocolate macaroons. 

I must say my french toast is delicious. I use thick text toast bread and the egg mixture has heavy cream, Madagascar bourbon vanilla, and lots of warm spices - cinnamon, cloves, fresh ground nutmeg, mace and all spice. Then I made (actually Rick made it for me) a homemade orange zest syrup with butter, sugar, fresh squeezed juice from an orange and orange rind. I boil it down until it is thick and syrupy. I then top the french toast off with a little powdered sugar, berries, and toasted coconut. It is pretty good. 

For my eggs and hashbrown dish I put a layer of hashbrowns an egg and salt and pepper down in a baking dish and baked it for about 10 minutes. I then added a layer of runny scrambled eggs, red peppers, green onions, mushrooms, ham, cheddar and swiss cheese and then baked it again for another 10 minutes. It was bright colored and tasty. This picture is before it went in the oven to bake.

For my spinach ring I used a pampered chef recipe that has spinach, chicken, red peppers, and cheddar cheese. You place in between some cresent rolls and make a pretty ring then bake. 

For dessert we had the chocolate macaroons with a marzipan cake that Eldene brought. It was all delicious. I also got to use my new placemats and napkins.