Cooking a fabulous Easter dinner at home may seem like a giant un-doable feat! I am here to tell you that if you put your mind to it and set aside some time, it can most certainly be done. Below are some recipes and guidelines to get you going and ready to impress any guest welcomed to your home on April 16^th.

First is the ham. When picking out your ham, you want to make sure it’s cooked. You also want to make sure you have enough for your guests. The proper method is ¾ of a pound per person for bone-in ham, and ½ of a pound per person for boneless.

For this recipe you’ll need a Reynolds Oven Bag. This helps contain the juices from the ham while it’s cooking. You will need all the juices in the next recipe.

Easter Ham

Ingredients:

1 tbsp flour

Bone – in ham

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Shake flour in large sized oven bag, place in a roasting pan at least 2 inches deep. Trim skin and fat from ham, leaving a thin layer of fat.
3. Place ham and fat trimmings in oven bag
4. Close bag with nylon tie. Cut six ½ inch slits in top.
5. Bake for 13 minutes/pound or until meat thermometer reads 140 degrees. Let stand in bag for 15 minutes.

This ham should be delicious!

 

The next recipe is one for a delicious treat that is enjoyed down south. Like I said before you’ll be using all the juice from the ham that you gathered with the oven bag.

Greasy Rice

Ingredients:

Rice – extra long grain, white

Baked ham juice

Maybe some chicken broth

With this recipe, you need to use your math skills. We all know that the formula to cooking plain white rice is 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice. Well, in this recipe, you will be using the ham juice instead of water. So, for every 2 cups of ham juice, you need 1 cup of rice. If you start running out of juice and need just a little more to make a cup, use chicken broth. Like, if you have 3 ¾ cups of ham juice, but need 4 cups to make 2 cups of rice, just add ¼ cup of chicken broth. That should be just fine.

Directions:

1. Measure out the ham juice from the oven bag.
2. Use formula from above to determine how much rice you will need.
3. Bring ham juice to a boil in a large pot.
4. Add rice.
5. Cover the pot and turn down heat to Low – or 2 – for 15 minutes. Serve.

 

Collard greens are a big hit down south. They are packed with vitamis and add a pretty green color to your arrangement of foods.

Collard Greens

Ingredients:

2 bags of fresh, chopped collard greens

1 can chicken broth

1 can beef broth

1 ham hock (can be found at Walmart)

1 ½ tbsp sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

Vinegar is optional

Directions:

1. Wash the collards by pouring them into a clean kitchen sink filled with cold water. Stir them around with your hands in order to get any dirt off of them. Let them sit while you get the broth ready.
2. In a large pot, add chicken broth, beef broth, ham hock, and sugar. Bring to a boil.
3. Transfer collards from sink to pot
4. Turn down heat to low-medium, or 3-4
5. Cook for 2 hours until the collards are tender and darker in color.

 

This next recipe is a common fave. It’s sure to make everyone happy campers!

Deviled Eggs

Ingredients:

6 large eggs

2 tbsp mayo

1 ½ tbsp sweet pickle relish

1 tsp yellow mustard

1/8 tsp of salt

Dash of pepper

Directions:

1. Place eggs in a pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil. Cover. Remove from heat, let stand for 15 minutes.
2. Drain immediately and fill saucepan with cold water and ice. Tap eggs firmly on counter until cracks form all over the shell. Peel under cold water.
3. Slice eggs in half lengthwise and carefully remove yolks. Mash yolks with mayo. Add relish, mustard, salt and pepper; stir well. Spoon yolk mixture into egg whites.

 

Omg I am in love with this next recipe. Pineapple upside down cake has been around in my family for longer than I can remember!

Pineapple Upside down Cake

Ingredients:

1 box of Classic Butter golden cake mix and all the ingredients needed to make it (eggs, butter…etc)

1 can of pineapple tidbits

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

Directions:

1. Make the cake batter just like it says on the box but instead of using water, use the pineapple juice from the can of pineapple tidbits.
2. After you have drained and used the pineapple juice from the canned pineapple, dump the pineapple into a medium sized bowl and add the brown sugar. Mix together.
3. Spread the pineapple/brown sugar mixture onto the bottom of a cake pan and then add cake mixture on top.
4. Bake it like it says on the box.

 

Enjoy!

 

These recipes will give you a great start on your journey to preparing an Easter dinner all by yourself. I hope you find them easy enough to pull off and yummy enough to make again.

Happy Easter and God bless!