Easter Dinner

I am a traditionalist when it comes to holiday dinners. I grew up knowing exactly what would grace the dinner table on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Thanksgiving and Christmas meant turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, a relish tray of different kinds of pickled things, green onions in a washed out jelly jar and every kind of pie imaginable. Easter always meant baked ham, baked beans, either potato salad or a green salad of some kind, deviled eggs and some sort of coconut cake or pie, sometimes both if you were real lucky!

You will find at our house now very little has changed. When my husband and I married over twenty years ago, we melded together both of our families traditions and now I have sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving, ham on Christmas, I've added a cherry sauce to die for, and thank heavens Easter for both sides of the family included deviled eggs! My kids believe that only nana and nanny can make deviled eggs just right! Mine are ok but if a grandmother makes them, then they are perfect. When my son was about three, he decided that he didn't like deviled eggs. That Easter, we went to my side of the family for Sunday lunch. As usual, my mom had made a tray full of deviled eggs because all three of us kids love them. My brother was chowing down and noticed that my son didn't have any. That simply would not do! He gave him an egg and my son proudly, anything Uncle Jon did was perfect, put it all in mouth at once and loudly exclaimed, "I now love debiled eggs!" He hasn't changed his mind in the eleven years since.

This years Easter dinner will be at my house with my in-laws this year. It will include a spiral sliced ham with a glaze, baked beans, a strawberry spinach salad, nanny's deviled eggs and of course, a coconut cake! Supper will be leftover ham on the leftover rolls and whatever else happens to be leftovered! Mama only cooks once this day!

Here's my recipe for poppyseed dressing. I always get asked when I take this to potluck. It's super easy and extremely healthy because it has flaxseed oil in it. You'll need to get this at a health food store if your regular grocery doesn't carry it. It will be in the refridgerated section.

Poppyseed dressing
1 Cup flaxseed oil
1/2 cup sugar or splenda
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon poppy seeds
1 tablespoon grated onion (I crush dried onion flakes)
1 teaspoon salt ( I usually omit, who needs it?)
1 teaspoon dry mustard

Mix all together and store in the refridgerator. It will keep for several weeks, if it stays around that long!