It’s Easter Monday—or Dyngus Day, for all you Poles out there—a time to reflect on the fact that you ate WAY too much the past few days.  Ahh, the holidays!  If your family is like mine, any holiday is the greatest excuse to eat as much as possible in the shortest amount of time.  Well, Easter is no exception.  Here’s how I spent my Easter Sunday with the family…

I started the day, while everyone else was still fast asleep, by making Zucchini and Cranberry Muffins, a selection from my baking Bible, Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook.  These not-too-sweet muffins are super easy to make (which is helpful when you have a full day of holiday cooking ahead of you) and yield 10 muffins, which was the perfect amount for my small-sized fam.  The consensus: the recipe is a keeper…although it was hard finding fresh or frozen cranberries, so I had to use dried cranberries, which I soaked overnight to plump up a bit.  I feel like they might have lost their flavor slightly from the soaking, but the muffins still got a thumbs-up from everyone.  Thus, I can only imagine that if I were to make them again when cranberries are in season, they’d blow everyone away.

Find the full recipe here from The Food Librarian.

Next, I was put in charge of making breadstuffs for our Easter dinner, so since I had Martha’s cookbook with me, I decided to make her Buttermilk Biscuits.  To kick it up a notch, I added 8 oz. of cheddar cheese, which everyone hoped would make the biscuits taste like those of Red Lobster fame.  Although less seasoned than Cheddar Bay Biscuits, Martha’s creation went over really well with everyone.  The recipe yielded over two dozen biscuits for me; I didn’t bake the whole batch, but froze the raw dough so that everyone got to take some home with them.  Nothing like fresh-baked taste later in the week, when no one feels like cooking after this weekend’s marathon foodfest.

Find Martha’s recipe here on her website.

Finally, there was dessert.  I can’t take credit for these creations—they’re the work of my mom—but they include both a Shwed family Easter tradition and a new recipe that was decadently wonderful.

First, there is lamb cake.  This cute little guy has been showing up at Easter dinner for as long as I can remember.  Although the cake mold my mom uses is straight from the 1970s, companies like Nordicware still produce them.  We traditionally use a pound cake batter for the filling, then frost with a white frosting and cover with coconut, for that curly, woolly look.  Add some jelly bean eyes and a mouth, and you’ve got yourself a sugar-based pet. 

It always makes me a bit sad to cut into our Easter lamb, but it is always so worth it, because it is always so delicious.  And we always start with the butt; mmmm, lamb butt.

Then, to try something new this year, my mom made a Vanilla Mousse Cheesecake.  Sweet, creamy, and perfect with a side of fresh raspberries, this dessert was a lovely way to end our weekend of eating.  Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:
40 vanilla wafers, crushed
3 tbsp. melted butter
2 lbs. (4 8-oz. pkgs.) cream cheese
1 c. sugar, divided
1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. vanilla, divided
3 eggs
1 8 oz. tub of Cool Whip, thawed

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Combine vanilla wafers and melted butter; press onto the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.  Set aside.

Beat 3 pkgs. of cream cheese, 3/4 c. sugar, and 1 tbsp. vanilla.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined.  Pour over crust.  Bake 50-55 minutes, or until center is almost set.  Run a knife around the rim of the pan to loosen cake.  Cool completely in pan.

Beat remaining package of cream cheese, remaining 1/4 c. sugar, and remaining 1 tsp. vanilla until well blended.  Whisk in Cool Whip.  Spread over cooled cheesecake.  Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Pass out from food coma.  Happy Easter!