I have eaten so many, many, many jellybeans and egg shaped chocolate malt balls and marshmallow peeps that I am nearly ready to wait for another year to do it again. It’s just that in some places in the world, Italy for example, today is “little Easter” and it is only better for Ferdinand in the end because the more chocolate I eat, the less he eats, and I feel it is my resbonsibility, if not an obligation to save his pearly whites.
My mother made a ham with a brown sugar, mustard and vinegar glaze that she poured over the cloved and cross hatched fat every fifteen minutes until it was crisped and the ham was warmed through and succulent from so much attention. She made hot buttered sweet potatoes and coleslaw and I made collards with well cooked onion and garlic and just a little red hot pepper and corn bread from stone ground white corn put in a hot skillet to go in the oven and rubbed with butter as soon as it came out. I made a warm black eyed pea salad with little tiny bits of roasted red pepper and a pinch of sugar and fresh lemon juice and an even tinier pinch of toasted cumin seed and then my sister made two divine desserts of New York cheesecake (from my grandma Evelyn’s recipe) and a frozen lime pie. It was all delicious.
My mother’s friend Jennifer made the appetizers (a pesto dip made with pimentos and the basil from her garden) and a fresh raspberry sauce for dessert, and arrived only twenty minutes after the 2 o’clock bell for lunch which was impressive because my mother had only remembered to call her back to say of course she should come over for Easter dinner, not long before on that same afternoon.