Easter Recipes

To help with your Easter celebration, Creator of Putting on the Ritts catering, Susan Ritts, shares some recipes for the day.

 

Truffle Deviled Eggs

12 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
1/2 to 3/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons spicy mustard
2 tablespoons white truffle oil
Truffle salt
6 green onions, chopped

Cut all eggs in half lengthwise and scoop out yolks and put in a bowl. Set whites aside. Using a fork, mash all yolks until smooth. Add mayonnaise and mustard. Mix until all ingredients are completely incorporated. Add truffle oil and 1 teaspoon of truffle salt. Mix thoroughly. If you have piping instruments, use these to pipe yolk mixture onto egg whites. If you don’t have a “piper,” you can take a plastic Ziploc bag, spoon yolk mixture into the bag and cut one of the corners of the bag. Be sure to cut just a small portion of the bag. Squeeze from the top of the bag and the yolk mixture will “pipe” onto the egg whites. Lightly sprinkle eggs with additional truffle salt and chopped green onion and serve! If not serving within an hour, refrigerate until ready to serve.

 

Mom’s Ham Strata

10 eggs
2-1/2 cups skim milk
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 pound ham, thinly sliced
1 loaf white bread, preferably unsliced from your favorite bakery
10 ounces Sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
5 chopped green onions (optional)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Butter to grease casserole dish

Butter a 9×12 inch casserole dish. In a large bowl, beat eggs and add milk, salt, pepper and mustard. Mix well. Add onions if using. Set aside. Cut or rip bread into 1 inch pieces. Put half of bread into the casserole dish. Top with half of the ham and half of the cheese. Layer remaining bread and repeat toppings. Pour egg mixture on top of bread/ cheese. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. About half an hour before cooking, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove strata from the refrigerator and allow to sit for 30 minutes. Cook the strata for about an hour and 15 minutes. Check it after 1 hour. It should be puffy and light brown. Strata shouldn’t be “jiggly” in the center, so cook a bit longer if needed. Cool slightly and serve. I like to serve this with fruit salad and mimosa’s. I’m getting hungry…and thirsty just thinking about this!

 

Cheesecake

1 package Lorna Dorne shortbread cookies, crushed (or any other shortbread cookies)
7 tablespoons butter, melted
5 packages cream cheese, room temperature (8 ounce packages)
2 cups granulated or bakers sugar (finely ground)
5 eggs 3 cups berries, if using

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use an 8 inch springform pan and lightly butter. Crush cookies with the tines of a fork until crumbled. Press inside the pan. Pour melted butter over the crushed cookies and mix to incorporate. Press down with a spoon. Refrigerate until ready to use. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth and creamy with a beater or an electric mixer. Reduce speed and add sugar. Beat 2-3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time and beat ‘til smooth and creamy. Pour filling into cookie pan. NOTE: You may end up with a little too much filling. Just fill to slightly below the rim. If extra, save and make a mini cheesecake! If using blueberries, scatter 1 cup of berries on top. Bake on center rack until filling is set – about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Check regularly. It could take longer depending on your oven. It should look split and somewhat brown on top. A knife inserted into the center of the cheesecake should come out clean or fairly clean. Center should not jiggle. Once done, cool for an hour or two. When serving, detach from springform pan and – if using, spread remaining berries on top and around platter. Lightly push them into the top of the cake.

Not-So-Classic Mimosa

The mimosa is definitely an Easter drink. I love mimosa’s because they are so easy and you can add whatever type of juice you love. Here I use fresh red grapefruit juice.

1 bottle Prosecco
2 red grapefruit

Fill each champagne glass 3/4 full with Prosecco of choice. Squeeze fresh grapefruit juice into each glass to fill and enjoy!!!