While my friends were visiting from Japan, I wanted to give them some cultural experiences so I decided to celebrate the secular side of Easter with them. The 7 year old Anna helped set the table.  In the photos, you can see her unusual but fun flatware placement. She also helped me shape the bunny rolls (she did a better job than I did!), thought of the tomato plating idea for the salads and helped serve the meal. I wish that I could cook with her more often!

Table setting

Since I currently like the look of place mats with a tablecloth, I ordered these colorful place mats from Kohls online. I borrowed my Mom’s Easter plates that I purchased for her from Wegmans many years ago. I mostly followed these directions to make the paper Bunny place cards. I ordered the honeycomb balls from Amazon and now have extras for other projects. The centerpiece is a large glass jar with white chocolate bunny, paper Easter grass and green jelly beans. The whole table setting was a huge hit! The kids Grandma even said that she felt like she was in a fairy-tale. That comment gave me a huge smile. I love the idea of creating a different mood and experience with my meals. I want to create fairy-tales more often.

Menu

• Easter Basket Salads – I followed these directions to make the baskets. I made them the night before and stored in a sealed container. The handles are fragile so make extras. I made the 3D carrot bunny with this cutter. I cut them the night before. I used romaine and served with tomato and ranch or Italian dressing.
• Bread – I wanted something easy so we followed these directions that use pop-a-can bread. Anna and I used chocolate chips for the eyes and dried cranberries for the noses.
• Butter – I shaped butter a few days before in plastic Easter shape molds and stored in my freezer.
• Soup – I used this recipe (with vegetable broth) and it was delicious! I made it the night before and it will now be my go-to asparagus soup recipe. It was fun to serve it in the little bunny bowls with lids.
• Crepes – This is how I normally make savory crepes but I asked Mayumi for filling suggestions and she said, “zucchini, red pepper and onions” for the vegetables. It was an tasty combination!
• Easter Egg Shaped Sugar Cookies – I made these simple cookies. I know that they are not beautiful but they were delicious.

I made little Easter baskets for each of them to provide a cultural experience. We also dyed eggs. This was a memorable meal for me and I hope that it will be something my guests will remember for a long time.