Happy Easter: Food, Family & Fun

Good evening, everyone -

Hope your day was lovely, however you spent it. I was very fortunate to spend yesterday outside at UMASS Lowell coaching field hockey and seeing friends there.  It was the first day most of us had spent any time outside - it's been a rough spring here.  We still have plenty of snow at home, but traveling a wee bit south was all it took.  Hubby and DD headed to CT with the high school softball team and they had a great time outside there as well.  A wonderful coaching weekend was had by all.

Now, about the Easter ideas I shared back on Monday morning... I had the chance to put some into action today.  Thrilled with all the results!

For starters, I made loaded baked potatoes - the idea came from Key Ingredients.  I made mine a bit different - due to what I had available in the frig:

• potatoes
• bacon
• cheese

In addition, they used garlic and sour cream - neither of which I had on hand.  So.... cooked the potatoes, mashed them with a bit of milk and butter then added the bacon and cheese ... omg...sooooo good!

I found a GREAT package of bacon at Trader Joe's yesterday (amongst quite a few other other items... you'll be reading about them in the future)  It was called "Bacon Ends & Pieces" - makes me think of the ends you can get at the deli?  It was $1.79 for this 1 pound package.  There were large slices, tiny bits, all sorts of pieces.  Oh, did I mention they are applewood smoked?  No...well, YUMMY!

 

Here is about 1/3 of the package, cooked up:

I cut this up and made lots of little chunks to add to the potatoes, along with about 1 cup of shredded cheese - oh yah...it was incredible!

This next bit of sweet deliciousness didn't photograph well, BUT let me just say YOU. MUST. MAKE. THIS.  I thought it sounded good - I was beyond right.  It was AMAZING!!  A huge hit with the family, which I thought it would be.  These peanut butter cheesecake cookie bars were, well, like I said, AMAZING!  They tasted like peanut butter fudge - melted in your mouth.  I didn't put the chocolate/peanut butter on top and they still were great.

I didn't end up doing the rolls - when I got to Trader Joe's they had a display of these pretty darn good looking ones right as you walked in.  For $1.99, I said, "Hmm... okay...let's do it!"  I succumbed, sorry.  We'll save the Texas Roadhouse rolls for another day.

I cooked the ham in the oven, rather than the crockpot.  If one is going to USE the crockpot, one needs to give one's self more than 3 hours to cook said ham.  I know it works - did it before - just not this Sunday.

Rather than fruit pizza, I threaded fresh strawberries and pineapple on a skewer and put them out on the table with the cookie bars.  The fruit was a nice break from the sweet, peanutty goodness above.

You all saw the wreath the other day.  That came out nice - lots of comments from folks that saw it up close and personal.

The last thing from that post I got to do for today was the cookie kits for the boys.  We had hidden eggs...twice (the beauty of younger kids...) and then brought out the kits.  DD and I made sugar cookies on Friday and bagged them with several different sweet decorating treats and a container of frosting each.  

They were a HUGE hit...might have been the gummy worms DD picked up this morning...maybe the jelly beans?  Anyway, they loved making them.  Way to go, Memere!

How was your holiday?  Hope you were able to enjoy the day and the whole weekend.  :o)

Stop by tomorrow and BE SURE to enter the drawing for fabric - it ends tomorrow (April 1) at noon!
Chat soon,
Carrie