Easter Food or Activities or Whines

Parent Cafe
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LOL. Always room for some “whining” along with :wine_glass: if that’s your thing on a holiday!

We host Easter for about 12. My extended family always brings food (thank you!) but also ALWAYS bring the same thing for the holiday at hand. Which is fine. My immediate family just likes to change things up.

SIL always brings sausage and kraut. Maybe deviled eggs (yum).

Niece always brings homemade hot cross buns.

Other niece always brings something….different. Sometimes depending on what food she is eating or not eating. Again, appreciate . This year she is bringing chicken noodle soup. :thinking:

Currently on my/my kids menu of contributions:
2 spatchcocked chickens. One will be a chili lime NYT recipe, one more traditional roasted chicken. Over a bed of carrots and sweet potatoes I’ll cook with them.

Mashed potatoes - a must have

Sautéed asparagus

Corn swim biscuits

Edamame feta/dill salad

For dessert, carrot cake bars and Cadbury egg brownies. Ice cream.

We will make a platter with some veggies munchies and a dip for pre-munching.

If you’re cooking or hosting or bringing a dish, what are your plans?? Or whines. :wink:

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We always grill a couple of lamb racks with roasted redskins tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and red onion served with creamed spinach and a nice Cabernet. We always invite my mother and tell her to bring a dessert if she wants it (we don’t eat it). Very simple. DS/DIL will exchange pics with us of their meal which is sure to be something impressive.

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I talked with my mom on Sunday and I am bringing appetizers. D2 and I decided to bring sausage rolls, baked brie and buffalo chicken dip. I will also bring a salad we love with butter lettuce, fennel, cucumber, crumbled blue cheese, grapefruit and pine nuts with a homemade dressing. We will also bring a couple of bottles of French rose since it will be 86 degrees at my mom’s on Easter.

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Without my boys home, we don’t need as much food. It’s my mom, my spouse and I, my sister and her family. A total of 7 (eight if my husband’s sister joins us). My boys ate a LOT (as 19 and 22 year old young men do). My sister’s daughters, 11 and 14, pick at their food and eat almost nothing (both in terms of variety and quantity). We basically plan for mac and cheese for the girls, as they eat nothing else, and then a dinner for the rest of us.

My mom is making ham. She makes a ham every year. This year she made a ham for Christmas too. I’m not complaining, because she’s doing the work. But friends, I hate ham. I just don’t like it. I’d rather eat ANY other protein.

And then, when dinner’s over and there’s a ton of leftovers, she sends them all home with me. Why? Because my sister and her husband don’t eat leftovers. Of any kind. they just don’t do leftovers. We have always done leftovers, but I do not want a week of ham, which is what will happen.

First World Problems, I know. And I won’t complain (outside of this venue). But I just finished off the ham and bean soup that I made and froze to deal with the leftovers from the Christmas ham. And that was after a few days of sandwiches and ham dinners. I was too well trained to not waste food to be able to throw the ham out, but this time I’m going to try to be strong and just toss it. I do not want the damn ham.

Add to that, for our vegetable we’re having canned green beans. Because that’s the only vegetable my sister’s husband will eat. My nieces won’t eat vegetables, and neither does my husband. So it’s either just me, my mom, and my sister or we get one more taker with my BIL. When my boys were home they’d eat anything - so we’d have the canned green beans for BIL (he won’t eat fresh, only canned) and anyone else who wanted some, plus asparagus or broccoli. So I could avoid the green beans, which i prefer to do, as I don’t LIKE canned green beans. But with only four potential veggie eaters, we don’t need two veg dishes, so mom is just having the canned green beans as more than that would be a waste.

So we’ll have some appetizers, ham, mac n cheese, canned green beans, mashed potatoes, caesar salad, maybe sweet potatoes too. Then my sister and I have both been tasked with bringing a dessert. There are no more than 8 of us, we don’t need multiple desserts. Mom wants me to make a strawberry shortcake, which I will, but I’ll also end up taking at least half of it home and I’m trying really hard to lose weight. I don’t want half a cake at my house. Bah.

It doesn’t help that Easter this year happens to also be my older son’s birthday and I miss him.

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My mom is getting a honey baked ham because she likes ham. We will have 17 for Easter and not everyone likes ham. My brother is going to grill some chicken for those that don’t care for the ham.

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We just have our niece with us this year for brunch. The menu will be gluten free French toast casserole, baked eggs with goat cheese and asparagus, bacon, and fruit salad. And mimosas ; )

H and I will be alone for dinner and will do lamb for our protein and a nice bottle of Brunello. Not sure what I’m doing yet for the sides.

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It was easier pre-COVID when we used to get together with my aunts and uncles and cousins. I mean, yes, there were a ton of us (25ish any year) but because there were so many of us, there was always a variety of mains and sides and no one thought anything of it if you had the beef instead of the pork (or whatever). We had to stop when the cousins kept getting married and having kids - if we did that group now it would be 37 (35, since my two can’t get home) and it just got TOO big. Now that it’s just my mom and her progeny, we can do just one main item and he is so obviously hurt if you say you don’t like it. I’ve been hinting for years about the ham - one of my kids absolutely hates ham. He only eats it at her house because he doesn’t want to be rude. And I’ve told her this in other contexts, but it hasn’t sunk in. We eat ham for Easter because we’ve always had ham for Easter.

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Next week ask us to provide you with ham recipes!

Also my husbands family did ham for most every holiday. I get that’s easy(ier) but….

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You all just reminded me that I need to ask D what to bring (she is hosting).

It’s a small group - D, SIL, the 2 grands, me and a friend who lives here. Another friend is supposedly flying in from NYC but as of Saturday had not made plans! We love him, but that’s how he rolls.

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We usually get together with my parents, my brother and SIL and whatever kids are in town. Last year my parents were away and none of our kids home so dh and I went down to the beach for the weekend and went out for brunch.

This year I was going to be alone - dh will be out in San Diego petsitting for our oldest. Two of our kids will be in Italy and our younger son recently moved down to live in our family beach house which is about 30 mins from his new job.

Since S23 was going to be alone for Easter, I told him I would go down there for a couple of days and we’d have brunch at the same place dh and I went to last year. I found out last night he wants to come home for the weekend b/c he needs a haircut :winking_face_with_tongue:. It’s too late to get a reservation here (I live in a tourist town) so I guess I will just get some brunchy foods to make for us. I’d suggest going to my parents’ house but they are eating later and S23 needs to head back before that.

Now I need to figure out what he and I will have as today is my only day to shop!

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My mother is like that about her pork loin which I don’t care for. I just bring another main that I do like. She also likes us to take home leftovers, particularly desserts which DH and I won’t eat. I politely pack up the stuff and drop it in her garbage bin on the side of her house on the way out.

No one can make you eat what you don’t want to eat, although I do agree it seems a waste.

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S will be out of town this weekend, celebrating his birthday with friends. We’ll have dinner in the late afternoon/early evening Sunday to accommodate him. It’ll be S, D, SIL, GD and H/me. We’ll have an Easter egg hunt for GD in the yard. Dinner will be simple - Honey Baked turkey breast, homemade rolls, green beans, Asian salad. We’ll have a DQ ice cream cake to celebrate S’s birthday (it’s his favorite).

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Oh how I envy all of you who’ll have your kids join you for dinner. Such a simple thing but so wonderful and satifsying.

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I put my foot down this year and I’m not hosting because I have been hosting EVERY event for the whole family for two years (after our remodel). I’ve also hosted every other event for about 10 years prior to that. I’m just tired of being abused. It costs a lot of money to provide ALL of the main dishes for a large group of people.

It was always about 25 of us. Now it’s 20 and any extra visitors they bring.

My family used to be really good about bringing main and side dishes. With the most recent events, I’ve had to supplement everyone because they “didn’t have time” or “it didn’t turn out”. So I end up with a bunch of sodas and a bunch of rolls and water bottles.

They “compliment” me saying “but nobody can bake a ham like you can”. Please! We have the same recipe passed down from our Texan grandmother. There is no reason why they can’t make a brown sugar ham or bring something else!

I make the mac & cheese recipe that I found several years ago on YouTube and my kids can make it with their eyes closed.

Making a salad is the easiest thing to do; you just have to buy a bunch of bagged lettuce! They insist that I make a great salad because it’s fresh.

So to summarize I told them that I wasn’t doing Easter brunch. Of course they’re upset. Where are they going to go now? I offered going out to a restaurant and no one “can afford it”. They offered to bring takeout, but that just means that they assume that we’ll pay for it. “No” means no.

There is a beach brunch that I haven’t checked out but I keep getting the hotel’s emails. They’re probably booked but if not we stay home and play games.

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I can relate to a lot of this. Very frustrating. I would love an invite to one of the relative’s homes for a holiday but they never seem to happen. I’ve switched Easter to just our family so our kids, Dils will be here for filets, roasted potatoes and vegetables. Carrot cake for dessert and a couple apps beforehand. No littles so no egg hunt -looking forward to doing that one day.

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It always boggles my mind that anyone thinks that anyone wants to host every single get together. Like, how do people NOT think that maybe they should take a turn.

You’re right. Even if others bring dishes, it is an added expense to host. Having more drinks on hand, hot or cold. Paper products. Plastic cups for people to have a million glasses of liquid. Extra bags of ice. The ice cream cause anyone traveling unless very close is not bringing ice cream. The condiments for dishes. Some decor- flowers or candy in a dish or holiday napkins!

It’s a lot to provide and a lot to think of!

I do it not because I love it but because I do love everyone getting together and keeping tradition. And truthfully, I know that my mom KNEW I would be the one to step up to the plate. I do it for her as well. :heart:

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I know right now that it may seem like it’s just hosting, but you’re right, all the incidentals add up.

I’m one of seven children who “evolved” out of the barrio. My brother and I were the only ones that completed our college education. (I, however am the only one who actually used my degree.)
I realize that I am fortunate that my husband still works, and makes a good salary. I am grateful that every one of our three children graduated from college and is employed. I have been truly blessed.

I am more than willing to contribute more than our share towards my family, but it’s not so much about the expense. It’s the time involved and the care that goes into preparing for a meal.

It’s interesting how fast people can clear out when you need help cleaning.

Leftovers? Not at my house. The food is already packaged with their own Ziploc containers! If they can afford lots of eating out and trips here and there, they can afford to contribute something.

I have great kids. They’re very good about cleaning up and helping to make side dishes. I just don’t want to set an example for them that we have to do everything.

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Excited to have the kids and our grandson over on Sunday to celebrate the spring holdays. I traditionally make matzoh ball soup and lasagna – one course for each holiday! Will try to dye Easter eggs with my 18 month old grandson but I know that may be a bit ambitious.

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I bought a rotating egg decorator at Aldi last year. I haven’t seen them this year, but found a similar one on Amazon, Eggmazing Egg Decorator Kit. D loves it - we use it all the time. It’s for 3+, but if a child can hold onto a marker, they should be able to decorate using this. It makes cool looking eggs without the mess of dyes.

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I found this method using Cool Whip and food coloring in muffin tins so we shall see!! At least I don’t have to worry if he eats anything!

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