Easter brings memories of family dinners, sweets

Spring is finally here and Easter is this Sunday. Everyone, children and adults alike, enjoys receiving an Easter basket filled with goodies such as chocolate bunnies, jellybeans, marshmallow Peeps, dyed Easter eggs and plastic eggs filled with candy or other treasures. Easter is also a special time for family and friends to gather, share a meal and celebrate this meaningful holiday.

I think there are a few kid-favorite candies that are a must for any Easter basket — a chocolate Easter Bunny, jellybeans and marshmallow Peeps. These three Easter sweets have been around for as long as I can remember. Another yummy basket addition and requested favorite at my house is the Cadbury chocolate egg.

When I was growing up, the whole family spent every Easter weekend together at my gramma’s lake house. It was always a big family gathering with lots of food and fun. Our Easter morning started about 5 a.m. when we kids were roused out of our beds to attend Easter sunrise service.

We dressed in our Easter outfits, which for the girls included bonnets, white gloves and frilly dresses. The boys normally wore dress shirts with a bow tie and pants held up by suspenders. Waking up and getting dressed was not the hard part of the morning. What was difficult was leaving behind the filled Easter baskets left by the Easter Bunny. The rule was: No baskets before church.

Year after year, the church service was on the same grassy knoll overlooking the lake. As we sat on the uncomfortable wooden folding chairs listening to the sermon and watching the beautiful sunrise appear over the lake, the thought of chocolate bunnies and candy danced in our heads.

After church, dinner preparation started in the kitchen while we kids hunted for Easter eggs, ate our chocolate and candy and played in the lake. By the time dinner was served, we were full and had stomach aches from all the sweets and hard-boiled eggs we had eaten. To this day, the fond memories of those Easter sunrise services and family gatherings hold a very special place in my heart.

Main event

A delicious baked ham is usually the centerpiece of our Easter dinner. I think ham goes with springtime and Easter in the same way that turkey goes with Thanksgiving. The only thing I like better than a baked ham dinner is leftover ham tucked between two slices of mustard-slathered fresh bread.

Ham is versatile and easy to prepare. Almost all packaged hams are either partially cooked or fully cooked; the exception is a fresh ham. A partially cooked ham needs to cook an additional amount of time before eating. A fully cooked ham can be eaten cold just as it comes from the package (I still like to reheat mine as I think it enhances the flavor, loosens up the juices and I like to add a glaze to the exterior). Canned hams are also fully cooked and ready to eat.

The most traditional way to prepare a ham is to bake it. To heat it all the way through, allow about 20 minutes per pound for a partially cooked ham and about 10 minutes per pound for a fully cooked ham.