An Easter Feaster

Well somehow I managed to survive 40 days and 40 nights of being a vegan. Well, actually it was more than 40 days and 40 nights. For some reason during Lent you don’t count the Sundays between Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday. But that’s getting too technical.

Being a vegan really wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I had one cheat day (I had to go to a huge food and beverage trade show during my second week of a new job. I couldn’t not sample the wares… but I didn’t have any meat, only dairy). The whole vegan thing was actually pretty fun, it was like a mini competition. This experience also opened my eyes to how easy it is to prepare vegan meals at home. The emphasis being on “at home”. I barely went out to eat during the time because restaurants are so tricky, it’s hard to know what has animal products. I went to buy a burrito one day and asked if the rice or tortillas had any butter, lard etc in them. The girl behind the counter went from saying that she wasn’t sure to she didn’t think so until she finally asked someone else. I feel for people with food allergies.

While the vegan thing was all fine and dandy I was pretty much counting down to easter and my ham. Growing up I always wanted an Easter ham but my mom would never buy one since I’m the only pork eater in the household. Last year when I was living by myself I gave myself the gift of an Easter ham (8lbs worth) and somehow managed to find creative ways to use my ham up (quiche, souffles, pea soup etc). Last year was such a success that bought myself an Easter ham this year.

I found this great recipe on Epicurious for Balsamic and Dijon Glazed Ham with Roasted Onions. It was kind of amazing. It was the perfect balance between savoury and sweet. This balance is key especially if you plan on using the leftover ham for other things such as split pea soup. You definitely don’t want a ham with a glaze that is too sweet. While the ham was great the roasted onions were to die for! I’ve never really made oven roasted onions but these may be a new side dish for me. The recipe calls for pearl onions but I had a hard time finding them so I used regular onions and cut them so that they’d remain intact. The onions are roasted in the same glaze as the ham and are cooked until they are soft and the glaze gets syrupy. So good. And the extra glaze makes a nice sauce to dip your ham in if you’re into sauces.

For my main side dish I made Caramelized Vidalia Onion and Potato Gratin with Fresh Sage courtesy of Bobby Flay via the Food Network.  It was delicious but didn’t look so great.  I think it had something to do with my oven being too full and having the temperature a bit off.  It didn’t batter though, I ate it up!

I also made a dessert… but that recipe is to come.

Oh, and for the record NO I did not feel sick after eating my Easter feast.  I was prepared to have a stomach ache or something since my body would need to readjust to eating meat and dairy, but nothing like that at all.