Our Big Fat Italian Easter

Happy Easter! Despite living in a house filled with adults, I still like to spend Easter celebrating traditions from my childhood. That means this guy shows up in full force!

Bryce and I got Easter baskets with eggs and candy, plus some other fun items we picked out! His were energy bars and SPAM, for using with his new birthday gift.

Mine included shiny pastel eggs, Peeps, little bottles of wine, and Nutella! This was a welcome sight considering we gave up alcohol and Nutella for Lent.

As you can see, some of the eggs stayed in our baskets, but the others were all over the place: in the mixer and decorations!

We even dyed (actual) eggs! Thankfully I have mastered hard boiling eggs in recent months.

Bryce's holiday favorite is the Deviled Egg. This marks the third Easter in a row that he's made them for us. The first year they were traditional Deviled Eggs, and very good. Last year's Food Network Magazine had an egg-cellent variety of creative recipes and Bryce made the Neely's Barbeque Deviled Eggs. This year, we pulled that mag out once more and tried Ted Allen's chile cheddar deviled eggs, pictured here. They were all they cracked up to be!

Bryce, the eggs, and I celebrated the holiday with our dear friends Steve, Christine, and baby Steve! It will forever be remembered as Our Big Fat Italian Easter! In addition to the eggs, we started with proscuitto wrapped melon (by me). Juicy and sweet cantaloupe that's hugged by salty proscuitto - so good!

Steve cooked most of the meal and was happy to show off his creations!

Our first proper course was a salad. Sounds boring, right? Not this salad. The bowl was made of parmesan cheese, then filled with lettuce, scallops, and bacon! Best salad of my life. I saved part of the bowl for dipping in my pasta sauce later. Yes, I ate the rest.

We sat and relaxed (drank, chatted, played with the baby) between each course and the meal lasted all day long! Round two was lobster bisque - incredible. The soup was rich and heavy on the lobster! You'd never see that in a restaurant.

The main course was homemade gnocchi. Steve made these little beauties with ricotta cheese.

They weren't alone, but accompanied by homemade meatballs!

Don't forget the sausage and homemade sauce, too! The dish was exquisite: comforting, delicious, and shared in the company of great friends. What more can you ask for?

Oh... I know - dessert! Homemade cannoli from my family's cookbook, my favorite.

Our Big Fat Italian Easter was so perfect. Add to the great food and friendships this: an adorable baby on his first Easter!

I hope everyone else had a fabulous and memorable Easter, too! What were your favorite parts of the day or meal?