For the third time in her life, Mrs. Play Gourmet celebrates her birthday on Easter. It will happen again in another eleven years, but she will need to live to be 106 years old to see it happen again after that. And our Little Play Gourmet would be 75 years old!

We got a chance to check out the Longhorns scrimmage this weekend. Which may not sound like a great birthday activity for most birthday girls, but this one has a strange affection for Texas Football, I think it is because the Texas fight song is the tune of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”. Also the fact they haven’t played Miami since 1990 probably helps.

On to the Easter festivities. We spent our morning and early afternoon hunting treasures that the Easter Bunny left behind.

And we spent the remaining part of the day, cooking and eating. Historically, the traditional meal for Easter is lamb. This is derived from Judaism, where during the first Passover Seder, the sacrificial lamb was roasted and eaten. This was naturally carried over as Hebrews converted to Christianity. That and because it was delicious, and why mess with a good thing.

However, in the US, we messed with it. Ham became the traditional Easter meal. I hear this dates back to pre-refrigeration, when temperatures started to warm up after the fall slaughter, the uneaten pork would get cured. Easter is around the time that the first hams were ready for consumption lending themselves to the occasion, but who knows.

So this year, we went with it, and had a traditional US Easter.

Let’s get the veggies and potatoes out of the way. We roasted everything, in advance of the main event.

The main event being our ham. To glaze the ham, we dissolve some brown sugar into some yellow mustard. I would say we use quite a bit more sugar than mustard, but really, I just add each ingredient until I reach the desired viscosity.

After applying the glaze, we add pineapples and cherries. I don’t know if this is a Hawaiian thing or just an obvious thing, but the pineapple helps keep the ham from drying, plus offers some sweetness. Not to mention the cooked pineapple and cherries are delish.

When it comes out, I remove all the pineapple and cherries to be served as side dish, and carve up our pig.

The finished product. This ought to hold us until our second dinner.

And being that it is Easter, a birthday, and we are excellent at selecting guests, we had a homemade cake brought over to fill in all the cracks left behind from our Easter feast. It was a delicious carrot cake, the Easter Bunny would approve.

Next year, maybe we will give the sacrificial lamb a try.