Low Key Easter

I’m already ready to go back to Asheville. We had so much fun and enjoyed so many great eats! You can check out my Asheville posts by clicking here to go to the first one. Then, look for the “Next” link at the bottom of the post, after the comments, and click on that link to view the next post, etc. Or, click here to go to my last post, and check out the list of links to the others.

Now, onto the rest of my vacay week…

We headed to my family’s house after leaving Asheville. It’s about one hour away, so it seemed to make sense to stay in the area and spend Easter with them. I’m still in seek-relaxation mode, so all I really wanted to do was spend some QT with the fam, rest, and enjoy tasty eats. That was easy enough…

Dad made his famous breakfast potatoes the first morning while mom was at work.

My mom actually ended up working two 12-hour shifts while we were there, so we decided to keep things extra low-key for Easter dinner. We had plans to cook a big turkey, but my parents forgot to take it out early enough to let it defrost. It ended up working out okay, because I think everyone was pretty tired for various reasons. Hubby and my dad ended up purchasing two already-cooked rotisserie chickens from the grocery store.

While they were out shopping, mom and I harvested almost all the leaves of this swiss chard plant from their garden.

We had a big bowl full, but I knew they’d shrink down.

I sauteed them with olive oil, garlic, chicken broth, salt, and pepper.

The Easter spread – rotisserie chicken, saffron rice, steamed green beans, sauteed swiss chard, and cranberry sauce.

The next morning, I woke up to a treat. Sis was baking. Not only was she baking (trust me, anything she makes is delish), but she was baking something extra-cool (to me, at least). She recently told me she’d adapted my Green Monster Muffin recipe to something new – Acorn Squash Muffins. These were exactly what was going in the oven as I walked downstairs to pour my morning cuppa joe.

I wish we had a way to share smells through computers, because these smelled wonderful. Fresh-baked muffins are a frequent occurrence at my parents’ house and really smell like home to me.

{The breakfast spread}

Sis wrote down her adapted recipe for me, so I’ll share it on the blog sometime if you’re interested.

And our last meal of the trip – teriyaki shrimp, zucchini with onions, steamed rice with a drizzle of soy sauce, and my sis’ famous miso soup. I really wish I had this for lunch again today!

As you can see, the food of the long weekend was stellar. As for relaxation, hubby and I watched the whole first season of Game of Thrones, plus we got to see the first episode of the new season. Sometimes there’s just nothing like totally vegging out in front of the TV. We also managed to eat BBQ at my favorite joint in town, play disc golf, sleep in, and visit my favorite G-Vegas coffee shop.

Reader question: How was your weekend? Did you celebrate Easter? Did you do anything special?