Easter Entertaining Guide

Special Edition

easter brunch

Cocktail

We love a mimosa bar. Arrange with two (or more) of our Hourglass Pitchers and fill with any kind of juices (we love orange, mango, and cranberry). Pop some champagne and chill in our Starry Night Ice Bucket. The colors will look gorgeous in our clear glasses and a self-serve bar is always an efficient trick when hosting. Serve in our Starry Night Champagne Glasses. We’d also have beer and white wine available as well.

Outfit

The perfect (early Spring) Easter dress or this one if you’re in warmer climates.

Menu

We love hosting a big crew on Easter, so we’re planning our food to feed the masses. A kid- and adult-friendly option is a bagel board. Load it up with a variety of bagels and toppings (cream cheese, lox, onions, capers, cucumbers, bacon, and more) and everyone will be happy (don’t forget your gluten-free friends!). Pinterest has tons of inspiration if you need some ideas.

Knowing that this is a multi-generational event, we’ll also prepare a fruit salad This one is a little more dressed up with an orange-mint dressing Being from the South, Margaret will definitely serve grits (but an elevated version with this souffle recipe). To end the meal, we’re enlisting our children to make Rice Krispie “nests” with a little chocolate egg in tow.

Seasonal Flowers

Our boys are still young enough that they love to dye Easter eggs. So we’re savoring this childhood classic as long as we can. We’ll pile the eggs into a bowl and use that as either a low centerpiece (perfect for a smaller table) or on the buffet. While this is an early Easter, we’re still planning to find as many daffodils and hyacinth. If we get our act together, we’ll plant these ahead of time in small terra cotta pots and place these down the table (interspersing our hurricanes and votives). If we’re running short on time, we’ll grab cut spring flowers and put in bud vases.

min out checklist 30

Pour your juices in the pitchers and refrigerate

Pull out glasses and cocktail napkins and ice bucket

Pull out serving pieces, plates, silverware, and napkins

Finish prepping your bagel board and have anything that needs to be refrigerated, sitting in the fridge in its serving piece

Make sure your grits are warming in the oven

Put your fruit salad in it’s bowl (we love our new Starry Night bowls)

Turn on your tunes

Open your front door

Pour yourself a mimosa!

easter brunch recipes

Fruit Salad

Ingredients

Salad

Cantaloupe

Pineapple

Strawberries

Blueberries

Kiwis

Brown sugar

Mint

Orange

Dressing

Orange zest

Orange juice

Vanilla

A little brown sugar

Fresh mint

Instructions

Hull the strawberries, and as you do, toss them into a colander

1 Dump the blueberries in there, too, and give everything a good rinse

2. Attack that cantaloupe and pineapple next Cut the cantaloupe in half, scoop out the goop and carefully remove the peel Cut it into bitesized pieces Ditto for the pineapple! If the core is super tough, cut it out.

3 Kiwis last, because they’re easiest. Peel (we usually just remove the peel with a knife) and slice

5.

4. Everything into a big beautiful bowl. Top with the fruit salad dressing and a little mint Mix gently and serve

Rice Krispie Nests

Ingredients

10 oz bag miniature marshmallows

3 tablespoons butter

6 cups Kellogg’s Rice Krispies cereal (or any crispy rice cereal)

1 tub vanilla frosting

1 large bag M&M’s Easter peanut chocolate candy

1 package green edible Easter grass (green apple)

Instructions

Grease a large muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray

1. Empty your bag of marshmallows and butter into a large microwave-safe bowl. Heat them in the microwave for 2 minutes or until your mini marshmallows get puffy and your butter is slightly melted Remove the bowl and stir in 30second intervals during the 2 minutes.

2 Remove your bowl from the microwave and mix your cereal into your melted marshmallow Stir until the cereal is evenly coated. It will be sticky, but it should be!

3 With a spoon, scoop your coated Rice Krispies marshmallow mixture into your greased muffin cups, pressing the center down to make a nestlike shape

4 Freeze your pan for 15 minutes to help the marshmallow and Rice Krispies harden and retain their nest shape

5. After 15 minutes, fill each nest with a small amount of frosting. I used a piping bag, but you can use a spoon if that’s easier

6. Break apart your edible grass and stick it onto the frosting.

7 Add three peanut M&M’s to each nest and serve!

8

easter brunch recipes

Herb Cheese & Grits Souffle

Ingredients

1 c grits, locally milled milk, according to package directions

1/2 c butter, cut into chunks

5 8 oz container of boursin cheese (garlic & fine herb)

1 t salt

1/2 c milk

1 T finely chopped basil or parsley

Instructions

1

Cook grits in milk according to package, remove from heat

Stir in butter, boursin cheese, salt and cayenne into grits

2. In a separate bowl, vigorously beat eggs, egg whites; then stir in 1/2 c milk

3 Add milk and egg mixture into grits, blend

4 Pour into greased souffle dish or baking dish

5 Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes until just set

6. Garnish with chopped fresh herbs

7.