Easter FUNday!

Today's culinary adventure began with Jen making some hot cross buns. The only yeast she could find was in the bottom of a drawer in the kitchen and may very well have moved into this apartment at the same time we did. Despite the nature of the holiday the dough did not rise.



After a little culinary trickery Jen was able to coax the dough into a delightful version of hot cross buns.

After I escaped the clutches of New Jersey I returned home to get started on Easter dinner. Traditionally my family has had Easter dinner around 1:00 in the afternoon but with work interfering these past few years it has been more regularly enjoyed in the later hours.



My intention was to get started on laundry before dinner but, as per usual, our washing machines were not working. Normally there is not explanation for such outages but today our super adorned them with one of his trademark crudely written notes. Super indeed.



To get started Jen cut up some avocado with some Snøfrisk and some slices of rosemary sourdough bread.



Jen happily got to use her wine decanter which, as most things that make Jen happy, means an extra dish to wash. So that was nice.



For a salad I used some Jerusalem Artichokes and some more tasty grape tomatoes from Connecticut (a state which up until recently I had written off as good for nothing -- now it's good for one thing). Along with some almonds, lemon, and olive oil it made a lovely spring salad that even the taint of Connecticut could not ruin.



For the main course I roasted a small piece of lamb leg with (predictably) rosemary and garlic. I also roasted some spring onions and red potatoes alongside the lamb. I made some nice spring asparagus and fiddlehead ferns. Fiddlehead ferns are something that I feel an obligation to cook since they're only in seasons for a few weeks each year. They're nowhere near as good as everyone makes them out to be but every year I make them because I think I may regret passing up the opportunity at some point in mid October. After I have my last underwhelming mouthful I promptly forget completely about them until the following year.



Today marked a red letter day in Jen's knee recovery in that she was able to sit in her regular spot at the table and achieve a 60 degree knee bend. Unprecedented.



I was half-tempted to get some mint jelly to accompany the lamb even though it's totally cliche and I don't like mint. After a little soul searching (and an inability to find mint jelly at the supermarket) I decided to break into the Quetsches that we got in France.



Jen trekked out earlier in search of Cadbury Eggs. For the first time in both of our lifetimes we had none on Easter Sunday and it seemed sad that we would go through the whole holiday without partaking in the classic Easter confection. I brought home some jelly beans but sadly Jen's trip was not successful and the horrible Rite Aid by us only had Russell Stover Coconut Creme Eggs. The spelling of the word (cream vs. creme) is like a barometer on the quality of candy. The fewer A's in the spelling of the word, the lower quality the candy is going to be.

Russell Stover is synonymous with "quality chocolate." That's why sometimes, at the Ritz-Carlton, when you order white glove service for your tiered dessert presentation they describe it in the menu as: "A fanciful presentation of delightful confections, house made gateaux, and Russell Stovers."

After dessert we settled in with an appropriate viewing of Jesus Christ Superstar. We actually meant to watch this on Passover but we didn't get around to it. I guess it worked out more appropriately that we watched it tonight, even though it's not quite as amusing.