Sunday, April 8

Today is Easter Sunday. Happy Easter, everyone!

We were up around 7 a.m., so I could make a pineapple upside-down cake before breakfast. Sometimes, when I try to turn this kind of cake out onto a cake keeper, some if it sticks to the pan. But today, it came out all of a piece, pineapple rings and maraschino cherries prettily decorating the top. It looked very Easter-y.

After breakfast, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house, where I presented her with a jigsaw puzzle, and an Easter basket containing an Easter card and Jelly Belly jelly beans.

Then the three of us worked to put together a dish of scalloped potatoes for the oven later. Hubbie peeled and then sliced the potatoes in the food processor, while I gathered all the ingredients and tools, and heated the milk. Mother put the recipe together, layering the potatoes, margarine, shredded Monterey Jack cheese, garlic, and spices, over which I poured the milk. This recipe is an adaptation of a recipe clipped from a magazine, which is an adaptation of a Julia Child recipe. It's really, really good.

Then, while I got ready for the day, Mother made deviled eggs. I put the potatoes in the oven around 11 a.m., and close to noon, I heated asparagus and ham in the microwave, and rolls in the oven.

The cats were banished to the sunroom, so we could display the vase of azalea blossoms on the dining room table, and we sat down to Easter dinner shortly after noon. What a pretty, eye-appealing, spring-like array of food, with the pink ham, white scalloped potatoes, green asparagus, orange carrot salad, and yellow deviled eggs.

Afterward, Mother began working on her new jigsaw puzzle, Hubbie watched TV, and I threw a gentle-cycle load of clothes in the washer, read the Sunday newspaper, programmed the DVR, and finished my John Grisham novel.

Around 3 p.m., we enjoyed helpings of the pineapple upside-down cake. Mother was ready to go home afterward, so I walked with her.

Hubbie and I spent the rest of the evening watching TV, including the 1962 classic movie, "To Kill a Mockingbird." In the 1932 south, a lawyer defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and teaches his children not to be prejudiced.