Easter 2023

Ever since Ann's father passed away in 2016, we really haven't celebrated Easter all that much. With no family to cook for, it has seemed kind of pointless. This year, Rob and Dyce invited us over for Easter ham dinner which was much appreciated. It is very hard to find anyone who is willing to cook for me. People are intimidated by feeding a chef, but paradoxically, as a bunch we are just pretty happy to have anyone cook anything for us at any time.

Easter Sunday late afternoon we drove across the river to Rob and Dyce's house on a beautifully sunny day. We were greeted with delicious cocktails whose name I can no longer remember, if ever I knew. As I recall, they consisted of St. Germain, lime, mint, and sparkling wine. They were refreshingly delicious and worked well with Dyce's deviled eggs made with pickled jalapeños.

Deviled Eggs with Jalapeño

Going over to their house is always a treat for us in that we are guaranteed to get our dog fix in visiting with Lola and Reilly. We really miss our dogs and these two help with that. Lola's a crazy bundle of non-stop energy, while the smaller Reilly is much more sedate, but rules the roost.

Busted!

Reilly is Never Far From Rob

Rob smoked a Kurobuta (Berkshire) ham from Snake River Farms, a regional (next door in Idaho) purveyor of fine beef and pork. You'll see a lot of their products in high-end restaurants in this area.

Rob's Ham Fresh from the Smoker

Dyce made a salad to accompany the ham that was equally tasty and unusual. Don't quote me on this as I was too busy eating to dissect it, but I believe the salad was primarily shaved raw brussels sprouts, roasted artichoke hearts, cannellini, Italian parsley, and grated cheese (pecorino or Parmigiano) in a shallot vinaigrette.

Dyce's Salad of Brussels Sprouts, Cannellini, and Artichoke Hearts

Rob had asked me some weeks ago to make pommes Anna to accompany the ham. When he asked, neither he nor I knew that the vast majority of times that I have made pommes Anna at home, it has been for an Easter celebration. I determined this by looking at all the pommes Anna posts I have made over the years. Some coincidence!

I tried something new for this pommes Anna that I cannot recommend. Because we were having the potato dish at Rob and Dyce's house, I wanted to do the majority of cooking at our house and then finish it at theirs so that it would be hot for dinner. Pommes Anna cooks in two steps: first, covered to essentially steam the potatoes done and then uncovered, to dry them out a bit and finish the dish.

I decided to do the covered cooking at home and transport the potatoes to their house still covered and finish the uncovered cooking part in their oven. While in theory this was a good idea, in reality, during transport, the potatoes glued themselves to the bottom of my cast iron pan and would not release. I put the finished cake back together as well as I could, but it was a disappointing outcome. Now I know.

Pommes Anna with Yellow Potatoes

With the ham and potatoes, Rob opened a stunning dry Riesling from the Nahe, the 2020 Schäfer-Fröhlich Bockenauer Felseneck Riesling Grosses Gewächs. This was a first-class wine and a natural pairing with ham. Ham is a tricky dish to pair with wine because it is often very salty, smoky, or sweet, or really any combination of those three.

While Riesling is a great choice, we don't have any in the cooler from last summer, so what to bring? My pairing rule of thumb has always been, when in doubt: Pinot Noir. Because of the inherent sweetness of ham, I prefer a younger wine that still has a lot of its fruit, so I opted to bring a 2021 Patty Green Pinot Noir Estate Old Vine Ribbon Ridge, which is one of the best of the splendid 2021 Willamette Valley wines that we have tasted.

And finally, a few more photos.

As always, Ann and I so enjoyed our time with Dyce, Rob, and the girls. If we do it again, I won't be splitting the cooking of the pommes Anna between houses!