What I'm Making for Easter Dinner | 075

Published Mar 21, 2024, 7:00 AM

We’ve got family coming for both Easter and Spring Break so the next 10 days are going to be FULL. I’ve been thinking about my Easter plan for a few weeks now and I’m excited to break it all down for you in this episode.

Looking for more recipes? Check out Recipe Club!

Follow Kelsey on Instagram (@KelseyNixon) for more great content!

 

Hi everybody. I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription, the podcast you listen to and you don't know what to make for dinner. Today's episode seventy five. What I'm making for Easter. I can't remember the last time Easter landed in March. I actually look this up. It usually happens twice a decade, but it's thrown me for a loop. We've got family coming into town for both Easter and Spring Break, and it's my husband, Robbie's birthday this weekend, so the next ten days are going to be very full as a result. And I kind of knew this was coming. I've been thinking about my Easter plan for a few weeks now, and I'm excited to break it all down for you. In addition to sharing the menu I plan to make, I'm also going to cover a few hosting tips if you happen to be hosting this year.

So that's what we're.

Going to dig in today. But first, as always, let's discuss a few recipes you can throw on your meal plan for the week, because despite the holidays and visitors, we.

Still have to eat dinner every day.

Remember these are all five ingredient recipes this month to help you really simplify as we head into a busier spring season. So the first recipe, I don't know about you guys, but we're still flirting with some colder, cooler days and.

The occasional seventy five degree day.

So this We've got a couple cooler days coming this week, and so I want to make this chickpea and potato curry. Five ingredients so great. I use my favorite jarred yellow curry sauce. I use chickpeas, which are a great source of protein, and serve it over rice with non It's just really cozy. It's kind of like a stew almost like it's really it's thick.

It's delicious.

It makes excellent leftovers. So I will definitely make that for dinner and then have it for lunch the next day. The next recipe we're doing is this is cleaning out the freezer because I like to kind of always do that before we have a lot of visitors, and I am making orange chicken in broccoli now in recipe Club, I have two different types of recipes for this. So one that you make completely from scratch, the chicken you dredge, the chicken, you sauce, eate all all of that good stuff, and then I have another The five ingredient recipe utilizes Trader Jo's most popular ingredient they sell in the store, which is their frozen orange chicken. So when I use that, like so many other people do for extra busy nights, I like to add a couple of fresh ingredients to it to really kind of brighten it up. So I add some fresh broccoli, I add a red bell pepper, I add a splash of rice vinegar.

I serve it over rice.

And so that's the version I'm making this week because I've got two bags of orange chicken that I need to use up for my freezer. But if you were wanting to take more of a from scratch orange chicken in broccoli, I've also got that for you in recipe Club. Then the third recipe is sheet pan Italian sausage with Brussels sprouts. This uses one of my favorite staple ingredients, which is the cooked chicken sausage, which that I like to keep. On the hand, it's an Italian chicken sausage and it's already cooked, but it's like, I don't even want to compare it to a hot dog, like forgive me, but it's kind of like a grown up hot dog in that there's way more flavor, there's more protein, it's more delicious in my opinion. It's just more more complex of a flavor. And you can slice them up and they're great in sheet pan dinners because they get nice and crispy on the outside, where they're great in skillet meals as well, and they kind of last a long time on your fridge, so it's a good thing to have on hand when you need a last minute protein. All right, there are your recipes for the week. You can find and print them all in Recipe Club individually, or in our weekly meal plan with an easy to follow shopping lists broken down by recipe. These three recipes are recipes that I make often enough that they also have a permanent spot in my recipe binder during the season. I love being able to kind of cook from a printed copy and bypass the distraction that inevitably comes when I look for something on my phone, whether that's a photo and I can't remember what album I put it in, or I'm on Pinterest or Instagram. I just kind of like having home base in my kitchen, my kitchen Bible where I keep all of the recipes that I make most often. So if you are also wanting a system to get your printed recipes organized, give yourself the gift of ordering a recipe binder. You will love it, and you can get that at Kelsey Nixon dot com. All right, let's jump into the back half of the podcast and discuss what I'm making for Easter dinner. When it comes to food holidays, I wouldn't say that Easter comes out on top. Now, don't get me wrong. I love a good Easter dinner. I'm just saying that other holidays tend to get a bit.

More food love.

But as a result, you may be asking yourself what am I supposed to make for Easter dinner? So we're going to get into that along with a couple of just general tips about hosting or guesting. Let's start there. So before you even think about the menu, I'd suggest asking yourself a few questions to.

Help inform what you plan to make.

First and foremost, who is coming? Are you hosting? Are you going somewhere else? Have you been meaning to invite friends or family but just haven't done it yet. Get your plans set and in place. Now is the time to do that if you haven't already. And even with that, my plans just shifted literally yesterday, in the past day or so. But get your ducks in a row when it comes to the group, because you don't want to map out a menu until you really know who is coming and where the actual event will be hosted.

That's when you'll.

Map out your menu and you will delegate. No one expects one person to make and plan the whole meal. In fact, I that feels like less communal to that. I just don't think that's the way we operate anymore, maybe in the past. So whether you find yourself as the host or a guest, lean into delegation. Before you delegate, though, we're gonna actually talk about what you're gonna cook. So hopefully by this point you know how many people are coming and where you're gonna have in dinner, so you should have an idea of how much food you need to have. This is somewhat obvious, but for the sake of providing a formula, I want to just break down the different types of things at the meal. So you'll want a protein, you want a bread, a potato, a few veggie based sides, and maybe a dessert or two in a drink. An appetizers also nice. I'd say you'd want an appetizer. So here's what my menu is looking like this year, in case you need some ideas. So I have not been shy about sharing that I grew up with a mother who was a fantastic cook. She's still a fantastic cook. But every Easter she let honey baked haam do the work, and she never really would make a protein. She would just get a honey baked tam and it was delicious. And no Easter is complete for me without that honey baked tam.

In fact, I.

Really only eat it once, maybe twice a year. Sometimes we will do it on Christmas as well, but always Easter is the honey baked tam. Because you guys, I can cook a mean family meal, but cooking a ham, I can't do it better than honey baked tam.

I just can't. They're so good.

They got that brown sugar crust on them.

They are delicious.

So if you want to take the day off from making a big protein and you like him, and if you don't like him, you should try honey baked tam because I don't like most ham, but I like their ham and order it. But you're gonna want to place your order in advance. You can pick it up three or four days in advance. It just stays in your fridge. You typically bring it to room temperature to serve it. You can also serve it cold. But it is such an easy hack for your big primary protein.

It's pre sliced. It's great. It's great.

I might do a little like sauce to go with honey baked tam because it's so sweet on the outside. I was thinking of doing like a honey mustard mayo based situation. Anyways, we'll see if I end up doing that, But as far as the primary protein, I have delegated that to my local.

Honey baked tam.

All right, let's talk about an appetizer. Now. This is one of those recipes. I typically only make this once or twice a year, but I have a devilled egg recipe with candied bacon. It's from my first cookbook called Kitchen Confidence, and it is next level delish. It is so good, you guys. Deviled eggs, just in general, they're not necessarily difficult, but they do take some time to make. It's not like you're gonna bust those out in twenty minutes. So deviled eggs so good. I think it's worth the effort for Easter, but you're going to want to make sure you plan those in advance. You could totally make those the day before and stick them in the fridge. The other thing we're having for our bread is Betsy's famous dinner Roles. So Betsy of Betsy's Best Bets is my sister in law, and she is famous for this dinner role recipe. They've got potato flakes in them. They are so good. They're in Recipe Club and we are definitely making those. Also gonna make scullop potatoes a groton In the past, i've done mashed potatoes or even in my family, they're called the funeral potatoes. It's like a delicious potato castle with cornflakes on top. But we're gonna do scaloped potatoes this year. They're nice and cheesy and get golden brown on top and are just so good. We're also gonna do honey glazed carrots with pistachios, and I like, you could do this with any carrots, but Trader Joe's this time of years sells mini heirloom baby carrots and they are beautiful, like so so pretty. You will go there. You can't miss them, and I like to use those for this particular recipe. The pistaschios are great on top because the beautiful bright green color kind of contrasts the different colors of those heirloom carrots, but it also provides a nice little crunch. And then I also put goat cheese on top, just sprinkle it on top, and it is like I cannot wait. I'm just like salivating thinking about those. Then for another veg, I'm on the fence between doing pickled asparagus, which is where you take like a pencil thin asparagus and you make a really strong vineigrette with either sherry vinegar or white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar. It's got shallots in it and some mustard, and you basically take that really thin asparagus and you coat it in this vinegrette and you let it sit overnight in the fridge. You could even heat the vinegrette up a little bit if you wanted, and it just seasons that asparagus throughout and it is so good, so I might do that, or I might do I have a recipe for hair covert almondine, which is basically a fancy way of saying French green beans.

And the thing that makes these.

So great is they come together in a skillet and I like topping them with really finely chopped almonds, like so thin they're almost a powder, and then a little bit of lemon juice and lemon zest. They're just really bright and green and beautiful and a really nice crisp addition to some of the heartier stuff like the potatoes and the ham. For dessert, we're going to do sheep pancarrot cake. And then there are these lemon ricotta cookies. I'm obsessed with that. They're a Recipee Club. They are from my friend Carnie Wilson of Wilson Phillips. These are one of her most famous cookie recipes that she shared with Recipe Club. And they are so good, you guys, so good. And then we'll do some sort of drink. In my family, we have this silly family tradition of doing a drink called slush.

But I haven't thought how nice.

Would it be to do like fresh lemonade, and Nora has been asking me over and over to make lemonade. I think she wants to do a lemonade stand, which is so cute but really a lot of work for the parents.

So that's why we haven't done it yet.

But maybe we'll make lemonade. I am going to finalize this menu, put all of these recipes in the Beautiful Recipe Club recipe template and send that out with our newsletter Give Me Five newsletter that goes out this week. So if you are interested in getting access to that Easter menu, make sure you're signed up at Kelseynexon dot com. If you're hosting, my best suggestion is to make all of the things that are most challenging to travel with or keep warm. So that often includes the primary protein. So for Easter, it might be the ham, or maybe you're gonna make prime rib or lamb or something like that, and then, like I said, anything that needs to be served warm. Now you're probably thinking that, like the main dish is pretty obvious, but let's dig into this whole warm dish thing just a little bit. If you have ever hosted a party or a holiday and had someone show up and say, hey, can I use the oven to heat this up, or can I heat this up on the stove and you're not expecting it, it can kind of throw you for a loop, especially if you're trying to welcome all your guests and you're trying to finish the dishes you are making, and you already have something in the oven, and now you're worried because their thing needs to be at three twenty five and your ovens at four hundred. It can be a little overwhelming. So I suggest that you plan an advance to kind of avoid this scenario. So if there are certain things that need to be served warm for the meal, like I'm looking at my menu, like the dinner rolls, the scalloped potatoes, the honey glazed carrots, those might be the things that I'm gonna say I'll do those. And then as the delegation happens, or as guests say what can I bring, I will you know, say, oh, why don't you bring some devil eggs or why don't you bring a dessert because I don't need to worry about having any way to heat that thing when it arrives. So salads, sides, appetizers, dessert strings, those are all types of things that I think are best to ask guests to bring, and remember.

Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to ask.

Now that's the hosting side of things. On the guesting side of things, my best advice is, if you are a guest at someone's holiday meal, if there is some recipe that you grew up with that is really nostalgic to you, that you just love that, like no Easter is complete without those devils with candy bacon, then you take on that recipe. It's so nice to have people show up with a recipe that they really love, and even better if it's got a little bit of a backstory. This is my grandma's dot dot dot or my mom used to always make this. I think people really love that. So when someone says or when you get invited and you say, hey, what can I bring? Sometimes deciding's the worst part. So being proactive and saying, hey, that's so nice of you for having us, Thank you so much. Would it be okay if I brought dot dot dot. I think that's a really nice way to approach it. Other note, and this is a good reminder to myself too, because sometimes I get distracted because I still have kids who are somewhat young and usually run around causing a ruckus. But if you're a guest and someone has put this meal together, really make an effort to step in and help with dishes when it's all done. Even if they say, oh no, no, you go sit down, you go sit down, just do it. Because I've been the host right where I'm like, no, no, let's enjoy each other. Don't worry about the dishes. I'll take care of them. But when people leave your house and your kitchens put.

Back together, that's a gift.

That's a really nice thing to do. So if you're guesting at Easter this year, just make an effort to just do a little something. Take the garbage out, wash the dishes, get load the dishwasher, clean up the drink state, you know, whatever you can do. I think it's a really nice thing to think about, and it's a good reminder for us all. The other thing I want to suggest if you're hosting is to think about having some sort of boxes or bags to send leftovers home in. I really like having these brown takeout boxes. You can just get them on Amazon or ziploc bags. But what's great about the little brown boxes is they can go straight in the microwave, so if you're reheating leftovers, it's really convenient for that. And speaking of leftovers, I can't record an episode about Easter and not one of my favorite leftover recipes of all time, or my honey baked ham and Swiss sliders. So when you're doing your shopping, grab a package of Hawaiian rolls to make those sliders.

The day after. I think that's it you guys.

I hope you have a lovely Easter dinner, and I hope you're looking forward to spending it with family or friends and welcoming Spring. But let's finish this episode with the weekly Gimme five. These are five things that made my life easier or more enjoyable this week. So first, mini bamboo tongs. So if you remember last week, I told you about how I was helping with this big women's community event where we did all of these snack boards and it was so great. It was so much work, but so great. We did a big dessert table and a big kind of charcooterie table, and I at the last minute ordered a set of twelve mini bamboo tonks and it was so good. To have a bunch of little whether you were picking up a dessert to put on your plate, or some vegi with a doll up of dip or some you know, cured meats or whatever. Those are so great as we head into kind of hosting with Easter, tongs are just.

Big.

Small tongs are such a great serving utensil. So these I think they cost like five seven bucks on Amazon, but they were so great and put them on a veggie platter. You can put them on an appetizer tray, the dessert table, but I'm definitely going to use them for Easter as well. Just a good thing. And then because of their shape, you can store them really efficiently as well. So mini bamboo tongs, those really saved me this week. Those same leftovers containers I was just talking about that's number two on the list because at our women's event, we had so many leftovers and it made me wish that we had thought about containers to send all of the leftovers home in with people. So I immediately went a home and I ordered these ones that I like so much because I wanted to be prepared for Easter leftovers. So think about those leftovers containers that I wish I would have had. Let's go a little bit more into Easter. Make sure, okay, if you are dying Easter eggs or decorating Easter eggs, let's say decorating Easter eggs. Dying eggs can be really fun, but it can be really messy. And so if you are anti dying Easter eggs but you still want to have an egg moment, there is a product called the egg Mazing. You've probably seen it, maybe you haven't, but it's the easiest way to decorate Easter eggs without the.

Mess and it's so it's just so fun.

And if you want this to offer as an alternative to dying eggs, or maybe you want to do both, you got to order it now because I think it was two years ago when I kept meaning to get one, and then I got too close to Easter and I couldn't get one in time. So they're like twenty bucks. And what you do is you put your little East egg in the center and it spins, and you take markers and you can create these really beautiful designs. So the egg Maazing check out also Easter Bunny decort. My girls were so excited. They just love holidays right now, and they were so disappointed when we pulled out all of our Easter decorations and they are all sorts of eggs and like carrots, but there were no bunnies. Is that? Where are bunnies? So I ordered this cute set on Amazon. There's like the gold bunnies. It was fifteen dollars, but they're the perfect size to put on our Easter table. Finally, an Easter Sunday dress. So growing up, I remember always getting any Easter dress. I definitely ordered some dresses for my girls, and I was gonna order something for myself. But I ended up wearing this dress to a work conference this week and I loved it. It's one of those dresses I don't wear very often. It's very florally, it's kind of bright, and as I was wearing it yesterday, I think, you know what, I don't need anything new. I love this. This is the perfect Easter dress. I'm going to totally wear this. And it's on sale, you guys. So that's another thing. It made my life a little easier to think I don't need to get something new.

I've got this.

It's perfect and it looks great. The brand is roller Rabbit, and all of these links will be in my Gimme five newsletter that goes out on Fridays. Like I said, jump on that list at Kelseynixon dot com. And that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. Make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. This podcast is always meant to be a quick, twenty to thirty minute listen while you map out your own meals for the week. I have just found that to be so critical to the success of building a habit around meal planning is attaching it to something that I enjoy, like listening to a podcast, So hopefully this podcast can be that for you. Next week, we'll be having kitchen office hours, also known as just Answering your Questions, so I will plan to answer your questions from Instagram or my newsletter. If you've got a question that you'd like me to answer, send me a DM and maybe I'll answer it on the podcast. I also always like to do a weekend Q and A where I answer questions about cooking and all things I have to do with the kitchen, so if I don't get it answered on the podcast, we'll definitely get it answered in that weekend. Q and A. Remember to subscribe so that the podcast episode automatically pops up for you next week and you don't have to go look looking for it. Thanks again for listening today. I'm so glad you're here. Until next time, happy cooking. I'm Kelsey and I look forward to chatting with you next week

Kitchen Prescription with Kelsey Nixon

In this cooking meets kitchen organization podcast Kelsey Nixon will help you get dinner on the tabl 
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