Easter Dinner

Today I used my two best go-to books to prepare a traditional Walker family Easter dinner, which is remarkably like the family dinner of my own childhood, only without the scallop potatoes from the box. My scalloped potatoes came from Julia Childs' Julia's Kitchen Wisdom, and they were the most successful scalloped potatoes I have ever made. It shocked the heck out of me since all that's in them is 1 percent milk, salt, pepper, butter, a bit of thyme, a bit of smeared garlic clove and some potatoes (I think it's key to use "boiling" potatoes). So easy, crisp on top and creamy underneath. Good flavor, too.

I smashed the garlic clove and then rubbed the bottom and sides of my casserole dish with it. Julia calls for peeled potatoes sliced 1/4 inch thick, but I was having a hard time peeling them because they had pretty thin skins, so I skipped the peeling part. I made two layers of overlapping slices in the dish, then sprinkled fresh thyme leaves on top (my own touch). Heated a cup of milk, then stirred in a lot of salt and pepper (maybe a couple teaspoons of salt and one of pepper?). Poured that over the potatoes, then put the casserole over a high flame on my stovetop and brought the milk to a boil. Dotted the top with cut-up butter, then baked it for 25 minutes in a 425 degree oven, until the potatoes were pretty tender and the top was brown and bubbly.

We also had ham; my other go-to cookbook is Bittman's How to Cook Everything and he recommends a glaze of heated apricot jam and mustard and a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes per pound of ham. (Since my potatoes baked at 425, that's the temp at which I finished up my ham, to fine results.) I also steamed asparagus in the microwave, and discovered through Bittman the revelation of peeling thick stalks before cooking. These were wonderfully sweet and tender, and I'll never eat thick, bitter, tough asparagus skins again (the thin ones, however, can keep their skins).