Easter Dinner

Alright!  here goes.

For easter dinner I made,
Roasted meatless chick'n with herbs
Strawberry spinach salad
Garlic rosemary dinner rolls
Roasted asparagus with lemon
Scalloped potato's


I will start with the scalloped potato's . This was my first time making them and first time in years eating them so I wasnt 100% sure of what I was doing, but luckily they turned out wonderfully :)

Serves 6 or 7

• 4 tablespoons butter, or less
• 5 whole Yukon potatoes,
• 1 cup 18% cream 
• 3-4 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon peppercorns, freshly ground
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1 1/4 cup shredded gruyère
• 1 1/4 cup shredded smoked gouda
• 1 tablespoon curly parsley, finely chopped (which i bought and completely forgot to garnish with)

Preheat oven at 375°F.
I used a big 9x13 dish

First grease the inside of the dish then poor just enough cream to barely cover the base of the dish.
Take your washed potato's (I like to leave the skin on) and using a mandolin slice then into very thin pieces

After you slice the potato's up place a single layer in the dish over the cream.

In a bowl, mix the cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

In a small pan, melt 2-3 tablespoons of butter and saute the garlic until light golden. Sprinkle over the first layer of potatoes. Sprinkle a thin layer of cheese. Coat the layered potatoes with the cream mixture using a tablespoon. Continue this sequence untill you have used all of the potato's. Pour the rest of the cream over the potato's. Finish with the rest of the cheese. Top with bits of butter.

bake for 1hour 15min or until you can easily insert a knife into the potato's
sprinkle fresh parsley to garnish and enjoy .
VOILA!!

Next lets do the Meatless Chick'n

 serves 2 (the vegetarians at the table had this while everyone else had cornish hens)

•  2 meatless chick'n breasts (I used the presidents choice brand)
• 1 tbs olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2-3 fresh sage leaves torn up
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary 
• 2 sprigs or oregano
• 4 leaves of fresh thyme

Preheat the over to 375
This one is very simple. I threw the chick'n in a baking dish, drizzled with olive oil, tore up all the herbs sprinkled them on and put a bit of salt and pepper.
bake for 20-25 min

Roast Asparagus with Lemon

another simple one.

 

• 1 bunch of asparagus
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 tsp of lemon juice

Preheat to 350
Toss all of the ingredients together, and bake for 30 min (depending on the size of your asparagus)

Strawberry goat cheese and spinach salad with strawberry balsamic

• spinach
• mixed greens
• chevre (goat cheese)
• strawberries
• strawberry balsamic vinaigrette (recipe follows)
• toasted almonds
• Arrange the desired amounts of each ingredient on separate plates, or toss in a large bowl.

Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette

• 5 large strawberries, cut in pieces
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup or honey
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

I used my immersion blender and it worked perfectly to blend the dressing and mash the strawberry's, if you don't have one then a food processor will work too.

 

Last but not least! The rolls 

Here is the link for the site I got the recipe from

these rolls were absolutely fantastic. Best rolls I have ever made.

Rosemary Garlic dinner rolls

makes 9 large rolls

• 2 tsp instant yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast)
• 1 stick butter (soft)
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbsp sugar 
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups flour
• 1 rosemary sprig
• 2 garlic cloves
• coarse sea salt 

Preheat the over to 350

I used instant yeast so technically I didnt have to do two rises of the dough, but if you are using active dry yeast make sure you do both.

First, mix 2/3 stick of butter with 1 cup of milk.

Lightly beat a large room-temperature egg.

Dump 2 tsp instant yeast (or 2 + 1/4 tsp active dry yeast) in a bowl and add 1/4 cup of warm water. Not hot, just warm. Stir and let the yeast sit there for 5 minutes.

Pop the milk & butter mix in the microwave for a minute at full power. It doesn’t have to be hot, just luke-warm. Transfer the yeast water to your mixer bowl. Add 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, pour in the egg and add 1 cup of flour.

Now pour in the milk with butter. The butter will have melted a bit.

Mix until the flour is incorporated before adding another cup of flour. Repeat this process until all the flour is incorporated. 

As soon as the wet and dry ingredients are combined, if you’re doing this by hand, then you start kneading straight away and only use extra flour if the dough starts sticking to your hands. If you are using a mixer turn off the mixer and let the dough rest for 5 minutes before starting the kneading process.  The dough will look really sticky at first, but that will resolve itself during kneading as the gluten are developed.

knead the dough for a good 10 minutes or about 6-7 if your using a machine, by the end of which the dough will have formed into a ball. If your dough looks impossibly sticky in the final few minutes, add a tbsp flour at a time. But remember, it should still be sticky to the touch! 

If you used instant yeast the dough doesnt have to rise for quite as long, though I still let it rise for about a half hour. If you are using active dry yeast give it at least an hour. Dont forget to cover it with a towel

Lightly butter a baking tray.

 After the dough has roughly doubled in size, transfer it to a flowered surface. The dough will be soft and sticky. Flatten it slightly and cut into 9 pieces, fold the edges underneath to form a smooth ball of dough.

Place the rolls in a baking tray giving them plenty of room to rise. Cover with a towel and let rise for a good hour.

 

While the dough is rising, start to make your butter. 

This is where the butter, rosemary, and garlic comes in.

I used my handy little garlic crusher for both the rosemary and garlic to really help bring out the flavor of the rosemary.

if you don't have one of these little garlic crushers I highly recommend them. Such a handy kitchen gadget

 mix the  rosemary garlic blend with the butter and pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds or until it melted.
When the dough has finished rising brush the rolls with the rosemary garlic butter, then sprinkle with salt
Pop them in the over for 20 min.
These rolls are so light and fluffy. All the credit here goes to the kayotickitchen

And there you have it!
That was Easter Dinner at my place!

I can't wait to hear any questions or comments