Easter Feaster

In preparation for our 3rd annual Easter Pot Luck Brunch, Jenny came over on Saturday to help me fill easter baskets and set the tables.

We decided it would also be best if we made Jenny's pot luck contribution, a carrot cake, at my house so we could frost it and then she wouldn't have to worry about bringing it with her the next day.  

Little did Jenny know, it was going to turn into another epic "crafternoon"  ( I just made that up - catchy, don't you think?)  While going through my magazines on Friday, I found instructions in Martha Stewart Living on making marzipan carrots to top your Easter carrot cake, and being the crafty lady that I am, I had some marzipan on hand, so we set to work making them.  

I put a little too much red dye in the mix, but once we put the little nicks in them, they looked pretty realistic, I think.  After taking the cake layers out of the oven, we realized that not all of the layers were 100% flat.  But instead of cutting off the rounded/slanted tops, we just filled it in with frosting.  Nothing wrong with that!  

Bright and not-so-early, at 11:30 on Sunday, our Easter guests started arriving.  We had a large group this year -17!- but we still managed to have a place and Easter basket for everyone.  Anna made her usual sausage, egg and cheese casserole and as usual, I ate as much as I could.  Dan makes mini turkey club sandwiches on little toasted rye bread slices and Pete makes his family's traditional pineapple souffle.  A new addition this year was Katie M's green bean "casserole" which involved bacon, butter and brown sugar (the 3 B's!)  We also enjoyed blueberry muffins, citrus salad, scalloped potatoes, a green salad with pears and candied pecans, and scotch eggs, which are terrible for you, but oh, so good.  Oh and I made a honey ham.  For dessert, we feasted on Jenny's carrot cake, german chocolate cupcakes, and a cheesecake with homemade strawberry jam.