Well, the Easter Bunny Has Come and Gone

leaving behind a trail of jelly beans and flip-flops and toothbrushes in his wake. He knows us well. CollegeGrrrrl was able to come home and the grrrls here spent two days doing not much of anything except yakkadoodeling. We did watch The Good Shepherd, an older movie out on DVD now--Matt Damon, Robert DeNiro, Angelina Jolie. Made us think twice about our burning desires to be CIA agents/spies. Didn't look fabulously fun. Could be a thinly veiled ploy of misinformation to encourage us not to be spies however. You just never damn know in the spy biz.

We had Easter lunch with The Grandmas coordinated with the same effort and logistics of a G20 summit. All was well, no demonstrations or protest signs. At least not public demonstrations. I don't know why at the age of 83 my mother feels the need to compete and feel superior by making the rest of us inferior, but there it is. We simply acknowledge our deficits early in the meal and move on. Yes, Mother, we are truly that shallow and simple-minded.

Easter dinner was an idea borrowed from A Knitting Nurse--Baked Virginia Ham with Mango Chutney. Great idea, thanks Rudee, and easy to make. Recipe's here for any other unenergetic cooks. The Barefoot Contessa's original recipe called for a 14-16 pound ham to feed 35 or 50 for cocktails. We had 5 for dinner and the smallest cut I could find was a 6 pounder so I was not exact with the ingredients for the chutney glaze, but it's fairly forgiving.

ham--4-6# spiral cut smoked ham

3 cloves garlic
4-5oz mango chutney
1/4cup Dijon mustard
1/2cup light brown sugar, packed
zest of one orange
1/8cup freshly squeezed OJ

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Place the ham in a heavy roasting pan.

Mince the garlic. Add the chutney, mustard, brown sugar, orange zest, and OJ--process until smooth(in food processor--I stirred vigorously cause our food processor is hidden on the top of the refridgerator).

Pour the glaze over the ham and cook for 35-45 minutes.

Today's a day off except for a mandatory inservice at work. An hour's worth of pay though before I pick up HoneyHaired from school. Works for me. And I'm trying to get motivated to pack up another couple of bags of clutter to reallocate to St. Vincent de Paul's. The dog needs to be walked, I hear the cherry pie out in the kitchen calling my name and the bunny left me a copy of A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, so with any luck I can put off cleaning a bit longer.