Real Meal

Its a rite of passage that when a woman gets married, she gets to cook big, fancy meals for her family around holidays. Or at least I think it is. Times they are a changin'.   :)

But the best part about our holidays is that we usually spend them with our extended families, meaning my mom or my mother-in-law are the cooks in the kitchen and we get to happily eat the meals that they lovingly create.  After helping in the kitchen of course.

I knew that this time would come, that someday we wouldn't be able to attend a family gathering on a holiday or be able to make the celebration. But thankfully it took almost 4 years to happen :) In the almost 4 years that Ryan and I have been married (and probably longer since we've started dating), I haven't made a real full holiday meal. Sure, we make steaks and seafood for celebratory evenings, but I haven't had to truly go through the steps of planning and timing a holiday meal.

From the vegetable to the meat, the fruit and side dish. And let me tell you...its a lot of work. Thankfully it was just Easter...I can't imagine the day I'll make my first Thanksgiving dinner!!

Well, we were waiting for our adorable niece Adele to be born and weren't sure that we wanted to make back-to-back 7 hour trips in the span of 2 weeks. (not to mention pay for the gas that comes along with that). So we decided to celebrate Easter at home and hold off until Miss Adele was born to visit Nebraska.

So, I came up with this...

 

The menu included brown sugar glazed ham, buttery garlic asparagus, and homemade 2way potatoes (russet and yams), and some yummy strawberries and grapes.

 

 

And it all was delicious! I'm pretty sure we ate ham for a week! And after we ate, we all felt like this...

 

 

STUFFED! All that eating is a lot of work!  So we headed out to the deck to veg and rest :) It was a great Easter weekend!