Easter Sunday

I had a truly lovely Easter Sunday!  I hope you did too.

After a very special Church service, I was invited to a neighbor's home for Easter dinner.  When I arrived, I was surprised and delighted by how beautiful everything was.  My neighbor had really gone out of his way to decorate and make the dinner special.

The table was set with spring themed dishes and matching napkins.  Those are orchids lying on the table. There are lots of orchids around here, so they aren't considered all that exotic.  Still, the effect was just wonderful!

There were colorful Gerber Daisies and other flowers in vases throughout the living room.

Appetizers were deviled eggs with shrimp and carrots with a dill sauce for dipping.  The deviled eggs were really yummy with the shrimp in them!

My neighbor knows I don't drink alcoholic beverages, so he had bought some sparkling pear juice (imported from Sweden!) just for me.  It was really good, and reminded me a bit of special dinners at my brother's house.

The salads had all sorts of greens, fennel, craisins, and Gorgonzola cheese tossed with a light vinaigrette.  It even had (edible) Nasturtium flowers in it.  I like the peppery flavor of the Nasturtiums.

Dinner was ham, scalloped potatoes, veggies and big crusty rolls.  The potatoes had Gruyere cheese and heavy cream in them.  They were to die for!

And my neighbor had thoughtfully removed all the calories before we came.  Yup.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I should have gotten a pictures of the dessert as well.  We had blackberry cheesecake cream parfaits in long stemmed parfait glasses.  The blackberries were in layers with the cheesecake cream and shortbread crumbs.  The shortcake, blackberries in syrup and cheesecake cream were all homemade and delicious!

In fact, I could go for some right now!  Wonder if there was any left?

Then, as if the thoughtfully prepared, delicious meal was not enough... there were Easter baskets for each of us!

Wow.  It blew me away.  I really wasn't expecting anything like that. It made me feel like a kid.

And yes.  Those ARE huge See's chocolate Easter Bunnies you see.  Oh yummy yum yum.

Was I a lucky kid, or what?

How fun it is to get together and celebrate a holiday with friends.  

Of course, I've been eating myself into a chocolate coma ever since... but it's just once a year, right?  I mean, if you don't count Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine's Day...  and let's not right now.

Okay?

Pass the Peeps, please!