Easter Dinner Menu Ideas - Recipes to Spice Up Your Meal

Are you planning your Easter dinner menu and need some ideas for the food and recipes to prepare?

When you're making an Easter dinner, the possibilities are endless. Whether you've been making Easter dinner for years or this is your first time, you could use some tips and ideas to help make this a memorable and enjoyable meal for you and your guests and family members.

As you plan your Easter food, do bear in mind that the very best Easter dinner menus start with the meat you use. Traditional Easter meats include ham or lamb, and whichever you choose, you need to know that you're preparing a feast for your friends and family. Here are a couple of Easter dinner menu recipes for you to try:

Glazed ham - adding apricot-mustard sauce

For this Easter dinner menu recipe, you will need:

• Half of a bone in smoked, cured ham. It should be about seven pounds or so, and try to choose the butt end.
• Aluminum foil
• Butter
• A quarter cup of mustard powder
• Two cups of apricot jam

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees, and move the rack to the lowest position in the oven.
2. Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil and place a roasting rack in the pan.
3. Trim the fat on the ham, but leave about one quarter of an inch on. Score the remaining fat in a diamond pattern but do not cut into the meat.
4. Roast the ham with the fat side up for about an hour
5. In a sauce pan, mix the apricot jam and the mustard powder. Once the ingredients are mixed well, put about a half cup into a bowl and set aside to glaze the ham with.
6. After roasting the pan for an hour, begin glazing and repeat about every 15 minutes, or until the ham turns shiny and brown. Place a meat thermometer into the ham - avoid the bone - to see if it is 130°. This process will take about an hour. You may need to tent some aluminum foil over the ham if the glaze begins to burn.
7. Once the ham is done, remove it from the oven and cover it with aluminum foil that has been buttered.
8. Reheat the glaze in the sauce pan and serve sliced ham with the sauce.

If you're more of a lamb fan, then you might want to consider this recipe for your Easter dinner menu:

Roast lamb - mint and bourbon combination

For this Easter dinner menu recipe, you will need:

• Depending on the amount of people you're feeding, a small leg of lamb that is about seven pounds.
• One half cup of fresh chopped mint (one quarter cup of dried mint will work as well)
• One half cup of your favorite bourbon
• Whole black pepper from a pepper mill and salt
• Gravy (use the recipe for Madeira pan gravy)

Directions for this Easter dinner menu recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 500° and position the rack at the center of the oven.
2. Trim the extra fat from the leg of lamb, but leave about an eighth of an inch on. Wipe the lamb dry and rub liberally with salt and a generous amount of freshly ground pepper. Next, pat the mint onto the whole surface of the lamb.
3. Place the lamb with the fat side up in a buttered roasting pan.
4. The lamb should be roasted for 20 minutes in the middle of the oven. It should be browned and seared.
5. Take it out and pour the bourbon over the lamb. Reduce the heat to 375° and return the lamb to the oven for about 15 minutes per pound to have done to medium rare, or about 25 minutes per pound to have done to medium well. Baste occasionally with the juices from the pan.
6. Remove from the oven and let it rest for 20 minutes before you carve it. Serve sliced and top with Madeira gravy (recipe below)

Madeira gravy

• Two cups of lamb or beef broth
• One half cup Madeira
• Two tablespoons of cut up butter
• Pan juices that are degreased from the roasting lamb

Use the roasting pan from the lamb and put it over medium high heat. Add the Madeira and allow it to boil, while stirring and scraping the pan. Next, add the broth and pan juices and allow it to boil vigorously for about three to five minutes. Remove from heat and add the butter with a whisk. Season to taste.

These two popular recipes should add some spice to your Easter dinner menu. Bon appetite.

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