Many families roast a leg of lamb for Easter. But if you’re a small group and don’t want days of leftover lamb, consider an elegant rack of lamb or crown roast of lamb.
Or, check our Lamb Glossary for even more cuts of lamb—all delicious.
Lamb is the oldest meat animal raised by man. Since ancient times, it has been a religious symbol and a food for feasting and sacrifice.
Lamb is the traditional main dish at Easter dinner, commemorating the Last Supper, at which the meat served was likely lamb.
In Judaism, lamb is often served during the Passover seder to commemorate the first Passover. According to the Bible, on the eve of the exodus from Egypt, Jews marked their doorposts with the blood of a lamb so that the Angel of Death would pass over their households.
Here are some egg safety tips from the USDA, for everyone planning an Easter egg hunt or cooking eggs for the Passover seder.
Hard-cooked eggs for Easter and Passover celebrations should be prepared with care.
EASTER EGG TIPS
If you plan to eat the Easter eggs you decorate, be sure to use only food grade dye—not paint or fabric dye.
Consider making two sets of eggs: one for decorating and hiding, another for decorating and eating (see the tip in the photo caption). Or, you can use plastic eggs for hiding.
For an Easter egg hunt, throw away any cooked eggs with cracked shells. Bacteria can enter and contaminate the egg inside.
Keep hard-cooked eggs chilled in the fridge until just before the hunt.
Hide eggs in places that are protected from dirt, pets and other bacteria sources.
As pretty as they look, hard-cooked eggs can only be out of the refrigerator for two hours at a time. If you want to decorate eggs for display, use uncooked eggs. With a needle, punch a tiny hole in each end and blow out the contents before decorating. Photo courtesy McCormick.com.
The total time for hiding and hunting eggs should be no more than two hours. Then, if the eggs are not eaten, they need to go back into the fridge. Eggs found after two hours need to be thrown out.
PASSOVER EGG TIPS
A hard-cooked egg that has been at room temperature for more than two hours should not be eaten.
The hard-cooked eggs meant to be eaten should be kept in the fridge until ready to serve.
GENERAL TIPS
When eggs are hard-cooked, the protective coating on the shell is washed away, leaving open pores where harmful bacteria can enter. Be sure to refrigerate eggs within two hours of cooking and use them within a week.
Check your refrigerator temperature with an appliance thermometer and adjust the refrigerator temperature to 40°F or below.
Choccreate custom chocolate bars are such a fun choice for Easter gifts – you get your choice of dark, milk or white chocolate, toppings and an Easter bunny or two.
The toppings make all the difference in your creation of a unique—and inexpensive—Easter gift.
Start with an Easter theme: scatter your bar with candy bunnies, chicks, ducklings or lambs.
For Easter colors, add jelly beans, M&Ms or Sunbeams.
Want to add some dried fruit? There are 22 choices, from banana chips to tart cherries.
There are 30 choices of cereals, nuts and seeds, from cornflakes (which are terrific in chocolate bars) to wasabi peanuts.
Want something pretty? There are 8 dried flower petal choices, plus gold and silver flakes.
Finish your bar with spices, from chipotle and cinnamon to mixed peppercorns and Hawaiian red sea salt.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to design chocolate bars, send an e-gift certificate and let the recipients have the fun.
Release your inner chocolatier. We combined sugar bunnies, eggs and carrots with Jelly Beans and Sunbeams. Photo by River Soma | THE NIBBLE.
The base price of the 3.5-ounce chocolate bar is $3.95. Toppings start at 45¢ each, with many at 65¢ or 75¢. Each bar comes in a gift box.
If you’re still looking for Easter candy, do something different this year. Click on over to Choccreate.com and start creating!
Want something more elaborate? Here’s our favorite artisan Easter chocolate.
April 14, 2011 at 10:29 am
· Filed under Beverages
Krups, makers of some of our favorite coffee and espresso machines and other kitchen appliances, has announced the 16 winners of its Cup O’ Joe Awards.
The awards, highlighting the best coffee shops in cities nationwide, go to:
Atlanta: Dancing Goats Café
Boston: Barismo
Chicago: Metropolis Coffee Co.
Dallas: White Rock Coffee
Los Angeles: Groundwork Coffee Co.
Miami: News Café
New York City: The Bronx, Beans and Berries; Brooklyn, Gimme! Coffee; Manhattan, MUDTruck; Queens, Sweetleaf; Staten Island, Java Den
Philadelphia: Spruce Street Espresso
San Francisco: Blue Bottle Coffee Co.
Seattle: Monorail Espresso
Washington, D.C.: M.E. Swing Co.
Noteworthy National Retailer: Peet’s Coffee & Tea
Souvenir of Chicago: A bag of Metropolis Coffee’s Redline Espresso. Photo courtesy Metropolitan Coffee Co.
Now, a trip to Philadelphia means more than the Liberty Bell, a Duck Tour and a cheeesteak. First thing each morning: Spruce Street Espresso.
Take a bite: richer flavor, smaller size, fewer calories. Photo by River Soma | THE NIBBLE.
Where do skinny L.A. ladies and gents go when they need a sweet treat?
To Skinny Batches, the creation of actress Emme Tyler. Skinny Batches’ oatmeal cookies, gingerbread loaf and “Crumbies” snacks focus on low calories, high taste and zero guilt (as long as you don’t eat the whole box). Everything is 45 calories per piece.
We ordered a shipment and found the sweet treats to be a great help in portion control. Anyone who’s been to Weight Watchers knows that this is the secret to enjoying anything you want.
Emme makes sure that the portion sizes are just right. Her snacks and desserts are so flavorful that you don’t miss a larger portion.
Coffee-cake-like Crumbies are the size of petit fours. Yet the dense cake, deep flavors and vibrant seasonings provide all the satisfaction of a much larger portion. Flavors include Chocolate Banana, Coffee, Pear and White Chocolate Berry.
Satisfying oatmeal cookies are made skinny by less sugar (very welcome!) and a flatter shape (benefit: crispier!). We didn’t try the gingerbread loaf or the Salty Janets (a sugar cookie with fleur de sel), but look forward to it.
The all-natural products are available from SkinnyBatches.com. You can also vote for the next flavor of Crumbies. (We picked PB&J.)
