Today, our food attention turns to the non-meat dishes.

When I am hosting an Easter brunch, I always make at least 2 kinds of quiche.  Rich in eggs, cream, and cheese, they are the opposite of Lent's deprivations.  They are also a good option for vegetarian guests.  If you have leftover quiche, it's good hot or cold for a light lunch or dinner. The portions should be relatively small because it packs a calric and cholesterol punch.

All quiche has the same base, a deep dish pie crust (store bought or homemade), shredded cheese (I typically use Swiss or Jarlsberg, but you can use what you like), and a cream and egg mix. Then you mix in the vegetables of your choice. (If you don't want to keep it vegetarian, diced ham and crumbled cooked bacon make good fillings.)  Defrosted and drained frozen spinach is a good add in.  Broccoli is also good.  One of my favorite combinations is asparagus and roasted red peppers.  Green peppers and diced onion is another good combination.  Basically, any veggies that taste good together generally will be good in a quiche.  If you use fresh vegetables, steam them lightly before you add them to the quiche so that they will be tender.

When cooking a quiche, I strongly recommend putting a pan underneath.  I've scraped way too much quiche off the bottom of my oven.

Now, on to other side dishes.  Think about produce available in early spring:  new potatoes, baby carrots, asparagus, and peas.  Asparagus is lovely steamed lightly.  If you want to serve it cold, steam until very tender and top with a reduced orange juice and some zest.  Peas are just lovely cooked lightly and topped with some butter.  Same with baby carrots which should be served whole. 

New potatoes taste wonderful roasted.  Scrub them and cut them in half.  If they are on the large side, in quarters.)  I mix them with a smidge of oil, some crushed garlic. coarsely chopped rosemary, and salt and pepper.  No fuss, no muss, and lovely flavor.

If you dyed Easter eggs, you'll have lots of hard-boiled eggs sitting around with nothing to do.  Devilled eggs are a quick and easy way to use them.  I mix the yolks with 2 parts mayonnaise and one part salad dressing (like Miracle Whip), plus a small amount of dijon mustard.  You can use the same base mixed with chopped hardboiled eggs to make egg salad.

Now that the main course is finished, tomorrow, we'll look at dessert!