Happy Easter! I love to serve appetizers and mimosas for Easter brunch so that my guests can relax and graze at their leisure.
Bacon Balsamic Deviled Eggs
Ingredients
- 12 hard cooked eggs
- 10 slices precooked bacon, crisped and crumbled
- 2/3 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup very finely chopped shallots
- 2 TB Dijon mustard
- 1 TB sweet pickle cubes
- 2 tsp white balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
- Cornichons or sweet midget pickles thinly sliced for garnish
- Spanish paprika for garnish
Instructions
- To cook the perfect hard-cooked egg: Fill large pot with water (enough to cover the eggs you are going to cook). Add a little salt. Bring water to a rolling boil. Place eggs in boiling water and cover pot. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered for 12 minutes. Remove from heat and drain water out of pot. Add ice to eggs to immediately stop cooking and allow to cool quickly for peeling.
- Peel eggs and rinse well to remove any bits of shell. Cut eggs in half lengthwise and scoop out the yolks.Put yolks in separate bowl and mash. Add bacon, mayonnaise, shallot,mustard, sweet pickle cubes, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Stir until well combined. Spoon the mixture in the egg halves evenly. Garnish each egg half with a slice of cornichon and sprinkle with paprika.
Enjoy my recipe for my favorite chicken salad…perfect addition to Easter Brunch!
Spring Tarragon Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1.40 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 TB olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 2 stalks celery, chopped fine
- 1/4 cup whipping cream, whipped
- 1/3 cup sweet salad pickle cubes
- 2 TB fresh tarragon, chopped fine
- 1/2 cup Duke's mayonnaise
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 TB lemon juice
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
Instructions
- Preheat oven o 350°F. Place olive oil in a baking pan. Place chicken breasts in baking pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake chicken for 1 hour or until chicken is thoroughly baked. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- Chop chickenand place in a mixing bowl. Add celery, whipping cream, sweet salad cubes, tarragon, mayonnaise,salt, pepper, lemon juice and almonds. Stir to combine all ingredients with chicken. Cover and chill in the refrigerator.
Baked Prosciutto Biscuits
Country ham is a favorite to make southern ham biscuits. Baked prosciutto is equally delicious on biscuits.
I enjoy making biscuits from scratch, but I recently found a biscuit mix that is equally as good as my homemade biscuits: Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits buttermilk biscuit mix. One of the secrets to these flaky biscuits is that you add butter, cream cheese and buttermilk to the mix. Trust me, you are going to love them!
To make baked prosciutto, use a baking sheet with a wire rack. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lay the slices of prosciutto on the wire rack. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes or until the prosciutto is crispy. (Watch carefully so the prosciutto doesn’t start smoking or burn. Use prepackaged prosciutto because the prosciutto freshly sliced in the deli sometimes does not bake well.) Remove from oven and allow to cool. Cut prosciutto into biscuit size pieces with kitchen scissors.
Split biscuits in half and spread one half of biscuit with Pommery Maeux Mustard (available locally at Fresh Market or on-line) and the other half with Duke’s mayonnaise. Fill biscuits with prosciutto pieces. Another option is to spread Boar’s Head Pepperhouse Gourmaise on one side of biscuit instead of mustard and mayonnaise.
Bunny Mimosas
Cotton candy gives my Easter mimosas “cotton bunny tails”!
Bunny Mimosas
Ingredients
- 4 ounces champagne or prosecco, chilled
- 1 1/2 ounce pomegranate juice, chilled
- splash grenadine
- pomegranate seeds
- garnish: cotton candy, green carrot tops or pink mini peeps
Instructions
- Place a few pomegranate seeds in champagne flute.
- Fill champagne flute 3/4 with champagne or proscecco. Top with pomegranate juice and a splash of grenadine. Give mimosa a light stir with long handled spoon.
- Garnish with cotton candy "bunny tail", small sprig of green carrot top or pink mini peep on a cocktail stick.
Cheers! Becky
