Easter Dinner

My regular followers know that I usually post my holiday dinner menu.  This year is no different. 

Last year I was so sick of winter that I bought a very girlie yellow purse - so NOT my style.  This year I am making a Southern style dinner, even grilling my chicken outside.  Warm weather can't get here soon enough!

My grandson is only one week old and has already experienced all four seasons over the course of his first four days.  The Sunday he was born it reached 76 degrees F, officially, with a hot humid day.  On Monday the temps started to fall and the wind picked up.  It dropped to 32 degrees and we got 3 inches of snow overnight.  Tuesday we were back to winter - it never got above freezing.  Spring tried to make a comeback on Wednesday with a high of 41 degrees and sunshine.  They always say if you don't like the weather in Michigan, just wait awhile.  I agree with one man who said that Mother Nature should put her snow where the sun don't shine.  Wait - that's here!!!

Here is the menu.  I wish you could all be here for dinner.

Ham and Gruyere in Puff Pastry
Oven-Roasted Asparagus

Pear and Bleu-Cheese Salad

Lexington-Style Grilled Chicken

Southern Mac and Cheese
Sweet Potato Fries

Brussels Sprouts with Caramelized Shallots

Buttermilk Biscuits w orange butter

Chocolate Chiffon Cake w Lemon Mascarpone
Coconut Macaroons

Iced Tea and Lemonade

Going Loco for 'Coco'nuts

If you are a regular reader, you know that I always plan my holiday meals well in advance.  Having broken away from the 'same old-same old' foods of my childhood, i.e. no tropical fruit salad for Easter, I try to be new and exciting.

Unfortunately, that did not work so well for Christmas when my sons all picked the same foods we had the year before.  This holiday, I did not ask for input.

I had it in my head that I wanted to make lamb shanks, so I just had to build my menu around them.  So, braised lamb shanks with creamy polenta will be the centerpiece.  Trying to be healthy?, we will have hummus and pita toasts and red pepper strips with tzatziki sauce instead of the oft requested baked brie. 

The appetizer will be broiled shrimp with champagne butter sauce.  Our vegetable with be roasted asparagus salad with pancetta.

And then there is dessert.  I decided I wanted to make a simple coconut cake.  Turns out it is not so simple, but then I already knew that.

Two years ago my son called and wanted to know where he could buy a coconut cake for his fiancee's birthday.  I called around and no one made them.  So, I decided to make one instead.  I used a recipe by Emeril Lagasse, which was basically a chiffon cake with coconut in the batter.  Not having tasted the finished product I take their word for it when they say it was good.

But I was still looking for a recipe with real strong coconut flavored cake, not just coconut in it or on the frosting.  How hard could that be?  Plenty.

I have read recipe after recipe.  One that I found online talked of an eight layer cake, but the photo only had four layers.  Searching some more I found that the same photo was used for another entirely different recipe.  I guess you cannot believe everything you read or see on the Internet.  And then I found the recipe that really goes with the photo at the Food Network.

On Friday I picked up the latest mag from America's Test Kitchen of their all-time favorite recipes with a coconut cake on the cover.  I also had some coconut oil I wanted to use in place of some butter, but I was not to enthused about a recipe I found using the oil.  And I wanted to avoid using a cream cheese frosting.

 But now I am set.  I have now come up with a recipe that combines America's Test Kitchen with Bobby Flay and coconut oil.  I know that Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, says never to try something new on your guests.  Well, this is family.  And my fall-back can be some rice pudding if it fails.

Hopefully I will end up with a coconut flavored cake, four layers filled with coconut cream and covered with a wonderful fluffy frosting and fresh coconut.  If it all turns out, I promise to share.