I *love * the idea of eating chocolate bunnies from tomorrow morning onwards Chocolate from Good Friday right on through Easter Monday sounds about right.
I don't have anything special planned, but I suppose I could go and buy a nice spiral-sliced ham. I don't think this is likely to happen, since I'm kind of particular about avoiding processed meats, but I *might* see if I can find a turkey breast roast or something along those lines. I have a nice recipe for 'dijon chicken' that I think might work well with turkey breast and/or turkey tenders. Basically, you melt some organic, unsalted butter in a giant frying pan, and brown the chicken or turkey on both sides. In the meantime, you mix up 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce, and 1/4 cup of dijon mustard. Once the chicken or turkey is browned, you pour the sauce over top and just let it simmer for awhile (about 20 more minutes beyond the browning up process). Serve with chopped fresh chives or chopped fresh green onion ends. It's quite good. Better than it sounds, and so easy to make!
Meanwhile, I did buy beautiful pink and ivory roses for the dining room table, and there are lots of Easter-ish type things ...fresh spring green asparagus, wild Alaska salmon, fresh berries and so on.
I am trying hard not to think of things like Cadbury Creme Eggs and the like. I'll eat some berries, some roasted asparagus spears and I might have some nice lemon & fresh dill baked salmon filets over the weekend, but that's it.
Your salad sounds fabulous (yum!). I'm sure you've seen these, but if you haven't already done your shopping, you might want to investigate "living greens" butter lettuce. Basically, it's lettuce still growing. Comes in a container like this:
http://www.livegourmet.com/butter.html
In terms of almonds, you can buy some sliced almonds with the skins on and 'toast' them yourself by pouring some fresh sliced almonds into a dry non-stick frying pan, on medium-to-relatively high heat. These will brown up quite quickly, so you want to be there for this process, swishing around the sliced almonds in the pan like crazy so they don't burn. The entire pan-roasted/toasted sliced almond process is no more than one minute on slightly high-ish heat in a pan on the stove. It's just a minute of your time, after buying sliced almonds with the skins on. Thing is? Toasted almond slices are *to die for* - whether you use them in a salad, as a garnish for roasted veggies, as a snack or as part of a gussied-up homemade cereal - it doesn't matter. Toasted almonds are amazingly good! Buy some plain, sliced, skin-on almonds and try it yourself. Just pour some into a dry, non-stick pan on slightly high-ish heat and swish them around like crazy as they brown, and you'll be in awe of how great they taste all toasted like this. I promise that these will turn even the most ordinary salad into something truly special.
Hope you have a lovely Easter weekend.
