Friday, April 9, 2010

A Little Something for the Easter Archives...


So it's a bit late (okay--alot late!) for this year, but I was given the yummiest Easter recipe the day before Easter, and it was so delightful, I just had to share it, along with another of my favorites for you to keep in your archives for next year.

The first recipe is for Easter Morning Rolls (don't they look delicious in that photo? My own photos didn't do the recipe justice). What is so fun about them is that after baking, you open them up and they are hollow and empty---just like the tomb was empty after Christ's resurrection. What a great object lesson for the kiddos. It's a wonderfully delicious recipe that you can put together the night before, then pop into the oven on Easter Morning. Ya gotta love those!

The recipe was given to me by my friend Sandee which she found at The Sisters' Cafe: a blog of five sisters that share their wealth of delicious-looking recipes! I can't wait to try more. Needless to say, these Easter Rolls were a hit at our house, and will be a new Easter tradition for our family. Click here to see the recipe and their yummy food photos!

The second recipe is one that my friend Lara gave me years ago called the Ultimate Conference Casserole. It's another make-the-night-before recipe that I love, (and sorry that I don't have a good photo to show you how enticing it is). Combined with the Easter Morning Rolls, our breakfast was simple and stress-free, yet so delicious and enjoyable for everyone. I hope you give them a try!

Ultimate Conference Casserole

16 oz. frozen shredded hash browns
1 c. grated cheddar cheese
12 eggs
1 c. milk
1/2 lb. bacon
1/2 lb. ground sausage
1/4 c. green onion
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
Substitutions: mushrooms, ham, chives, peppers, etc.

1. Brown sausage and cook bacon. Save drippings and sauté onions.
2. In a bowl, beat eggs and milk together.
3. Add potatoes, cheese, sausage, bacon, and onions
4. Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 pan.
5. Refrigerate for the next morning's breakfast, or go straight to the oven.
6. Cook at 350 for 1 hour. Serve with ketchup or salsa if desired.

On a final Easter note, our family has a fun tradition that I remember enjoying as a child. Rather than festive Easter Egg Hunts out in the yard or mountains of candy mysteriously delivered by the Easter Bunny, I grew up with jelly bean hunts inside the house. I don't know why my mother began this tradition, but this is what I knew and loved. When she was still alive, she would always hide jelly beans in her house for my kids, which created a tradition that they looked forward to each Easter. So now, they ask every year when we are going to have the jelly bean hunt. I've expanded it to include peanut M & M's, Robin Eggs, and a myriad of additional Easter candy, but we never go a year without it. I think I'd have a mutiny on my hands if I did!


I simply hide the goodies in the nooks and crannies of our kitchen, living, and family rooms. The rules are that anything above your waist is fair game, except for the littlest people--they get to put anything in their baskets they can get their hands on! After a while, all candy is free game for everyone. Yes, my pillows and cushions get knocked off the couches, and picture frames and books get nudged out of place during the frenzy, but it's all pretty innocuous and delightfully fun.


And inevitably at some point in the year when someone does some REALLY good dusting, or pulls a book off of a shelf, or searches through the piano bench for a particular book, they are rewarded with a treat or two that was overlooked at Easter {eew}.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter with your families! What Easter traditions did you enjoy?

8 comments:

  1. Shelli~ I'm so happy that you enjoyed the Easter rolls! We also like to call them Resurrection Rolls - I should add that to my post. :) It looks like you had a fun Easter. I also love to grow easter grass using wheat berries. It's fun to put our colored hardboiled eggs in the grass after we color them for some pictures. :)
    I'll have to try your casserole - it looks delish.
    It was fun to hear from you at The Sisters Cafe!

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  2. What a cool idea for the jelly bean hunt! We hide the plastic eggs outside for the grandkids, but this would be a cute tradition if it was a rainy Easter (or snowy here in Ohio).

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  3. Yes, it was always jelly bean hunt for all my kids growing up too. This was the first year we didn't do it, since it was just STeve and I only. I saw on Shalene's blog though, that she had the jelly bean hunt for Jim and Max, well, Max pretended. Guess what I always have at Easter. Jelly beans mixed with salted peanuts. Now who does that remind you of?

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  4. We love the Jelly Bean Hunt. It's a favorite at our house as well. It's fun because we now get two hunts if we are lucky. We have the one at our house and then if we go earlier enough to my mom and dad's - the kids get one there as well. It's a great tradition and will be carried on for years to come.

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  5. Apparently we missed the Jelly Bean Hunt tradition. (I'm going to have to ask my Mom about that one) But I love it and think it would be a great idea for us next year! Fun!!

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  6. Those rolls look yummy! Can you make me some gluten free ones?!

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  7. the jelly bean hunt is a traditional must! the kids go crazy & oh how we LUV it! always luv checking in on you!!! *cami

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  8. Hey Shelli! Sorry I haven't been around much recently...but tonight I'm relaxing and catching up on my favorite blogs! I LOVE this tradition your mother had started about the jelly bean hunts! I am going to have to remember that for next year because I think my kids would get a total kick out of that! And thank you for that recipe. It looks VERY yummy!

    One more thing...I don't know when you changed the look of your blog, but I TOTALLY LOVE IT!!!!! You are doing so many wonderful things!

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