2010 April 04

If ever there was a perfect day to celebrate Easter Sunday I think this would be it.

I’m sure the pups would agree. They were in outdoor heaven all day.

This afternoon’s Easter celebration was a big success! There was great food, great drinks, and of course great friends and family to celebrate the holiday with.

My family is anything, but formal when it comes to celebrating holidays. Everyone is encouraged to bring a dish to share and everything is first come, first served. Basically. you snooze you lose. : -P

Determined not to be one to miss out on any of the yummy appetizers, I made a small plate of goodies right before people started arriving. I was hungry and knew I couldn’t last another couple of hours until the main meal.

The chips, cheese, cauliflower, and carrots all made great dippers for the black bean dip I had made earlier. For something I created on a whim, the dip was pretty kick ass if I do say so myself.

Today’s weather was much too pretty to stay inside for any extended period of time. Everyone was encouraged to stay outiside adn enjoy the sunshine while watching the pig roast.

Look who else was soaking up the sunshine!

I invited Katy and Lucas to our easter pig roast last week. I believe the phrase ‘pig roast’ really peaked their interests and they were curious to see what the whole ordeal was about.

They came bearing homemade brews and I couldn’t wait to sample one of Lucas’ Cherry Wheat brews.

It was a great, refreshing brew that was perfect for sipping in the beautiful spring sunshine.

*Warning* *Warning* *Warning*

Vegetarians and Vegans please continue reading at your own risk!

You know what’s coming next…

Time to carve the pig!

The pig roasted for 8 hours on the homemade rotisserie my Dad and uncles had built for the occasion.

The night before my Dad had marinated the pig with a secret blend of spices and sour orange juice by injecting the marinade directly into the pig. Throughout the 8 hour cooking time my Dad and brothers continuously basted the pig with the homemade sauce and monitored the heat closely. The results were nothing short of amazing.

I’m pretty sure all the dogs were in pig scrap heaven.

Unfortunately big family equate to long lines for food. Sadness… at least I knew it would be worth the wait.

Yep, totally worth it.

Good thing I ran that 50k yesterday.

I loaded my plate up with a little bit of everything and demolished it all.

If I had to pick a favorite it probably would be the cheesy rice casserole or the roasted carrots.

Have you ever seen anything as beautiful as this dessert table?!?!

The star of the table was my Grandma’s Red Velvet Cake. I’ve tried to replicate her recipe in the past and haven’t even come close to producing the same delicious cake. She only makes it every once in a blue moon, so when you see it on a dessert table you grab a slice and you grab it quick. Once it was cut into I doubt the cake lasted longer than 10 minutes before it was gone!

Luckily I was able to snag a thin piece, as well as a cupcake, angel food cake, and a piece of a chocolate haystack.

I also went back for a couple of bites of items that weren’t there my first time through. I am a sucker for good dessert, especially homemade dessert I only get on special occasions.

It wouldn’t be Easter without an Easter egg hunt!

Just ask these kids.

Ready. Set. Go!!

While the kids were finding the eggs in the front, my Dad was hiding the eggs for the adult easter hunt in the back. Instead of chocolates and change, my Dad filled the eggs with mini bottles of liquor.

There’s something about hunting for mini bottles of booze that brings out the kids in all of us.

What a perfect Easter Sunday.

I got to eat great food, I was able to catch up with friends and family, and I was reminded how truly blessed I am to lead the life I do. The perfect end to the perfect weekend. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Now it’s time to put on my sweats, chill in front of the TV, and mentally prepare for another work week.

Good night!

{ 56 comments }

Happy Easter Everyone!!

The Easter Bunny was extra good to me this year.

Yes, I’m 25 and my parents give me an Easter basket. And I love them that much more for it!

This year I was spoiled with a dark chocolate Dove bunny

Pumpkin Nut Bread from my favorite local bakery.

And SCONES (!!)

I was happy the Easter Bunny got my hints for that one. I’ve had more than my fair share of scones in my day and none of them compare to the scones from Sunrise Bakery in my parent’s hometown. I promise to cherish and savor these over the next week.

This was the first lazy morning I’ve had in ages. I didn’t even sleep with my phone last night and was determined to sleep in as late as possible. Apparently ‘ late as possible’ is only 7:30. Oh well, that’s still sleeping in compared to the 5:30am my alarm is regularly set to.

My Dad was happy to have a house full of family this morning to cook an extra large breakfast for. All of my siblings are home, plus significant others. He told me it has been far too long to have a large group to cook for and he wanted to pull out all the stops.

For him this meant his famous biscuits and gravy

Eggs

Even Waffles!

I rounded everything out with a fresh fruit salad I cut up myself this morning.

Pineapple, Strawberries, Blackberries, and Oranges! This fruit salad was so refreshing.

I filled my plate with a little bit of everything.

1/2 a waffle with a generous portion of fruit salad and sugar free syrup. ( I know sugar free syrup is bad, but the real stuff is just not tasty)

1/2 a biscuit with gravy

and one scrambled egg.

After breakfast we got to work on prepping the house for Easter.

My parents are hosting Easter ‘linner’ this year, which means 50 people will be invading our house at 2:30 this afternoon.

The girls got to work in the kitchen prepping appetizers for our guest.

My Mom had originally planned on just having ranch as a dip for the veggies, but when I found some canned beans in the cabinet I thought we could do one step better than that.

I cleaned the two cans of beans and dumped them into the food processor.

I also added a sweet pepper, 3 cloves of grated garlic, cumin, oregano, salt pepper, EVOO, and then I let it go.

Yummy bean dip in minutes!

We also made some funfetti cookies.

They looked way too good not to sample one.

While the girls worked in the kitchen, the boys were working on the main course outside.

Yep, that’s a whole pig. My apologies to any vegan or vegetarians reading this blog, but the pig was just too cool not to post.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, then you may recall the great pig roast of Christmas 2008 I had blogged about. My Dad and uncles had so much fun roasting that pig, they couldn’t wait to roast another. Sometimes you just got to go with the flow.

Post Ultra-Marathon

As I finished the ultra-marathon yesterday I was in pure agony. My legs were hurting, my back was hurting, and the walk to my car and drive home was pure torture.

Well, twenty-four hours later and I am happy to say my legs feel great! My calves are a teeny bit sore, but that’s it. I was even surprised when I woke up this morning and could run down the stairs with no problems at all. I had even forgotten my legs were suppose to be sore until my family started asking me how they felt.

I don’t know what the secret is to avoiding post-marathon soreness, but if I did know I promise I would share. I stretched yesterday before I got in the car, but that was it. I have also been trying to keep my legs moving as much as possible to prevent my muscles from cramping. Maybe that’s the key? Not sitting still when at all possible? hmmm… your guess is as good as mine!

{ 50 comments }