Getting ahead of ourselves

Easter is next week! My favourite time of year. Here are some things to cook before and on the big long weekend.

Photo by Monique Lovick for a collaboration with Carlotta and Gee

Easter time is the best time. Autumn is in her full glory, and the light, leaves, and times are golden. It's school holidays and this year, happily, we are all at home. Friends are coming to stay, and from Good Friday to Easter Monday, the plan is to shut the front gate, go nowhere but the paddocks for picnics, walks, and the odd job and to cook and share the below.

The below menu and plan features some of my back-pocket favourites (the pie, the curry, the cake for starters), its a nice balance of crowd favourites, make ahead winners and tasty tasty things.

Look, this is all a bit of a dream, I know reality will barge in and make us change plans, remind me I forgot something essential that requires a trip to town, etc, etc. And things will change as guests suggest other things to bring, contribute etc. But there’s always a plan to fall back on and that, to me, is a comfort.

And aren't we so lucky to even be planning such a thing? I've been deep in Handmaid's Tale rewatches this past week ahead of last night's season six kick off., and am feeling very very grateful for the way we get to live.

The recipes for the Friday night menu are below. And in the interests of not making this the longest email ever, and because I think a few of you good people already have my books. I’ve put the other recipes in a folder you can click through and open, link at the bottom.

Sophie x

Friday night

Saturday breakfast

Brekkie is a good meal to delegate out to house guests who are offering to ‘do a meal’ and if ‘you’ are reading this my friend - here’s a hint!!

Perhaps suggest they bring eggs, some nice streaky bacon, tomato chutney, bread rolls etc and do barbecue bacon and egg rolls outside with coffee.

Saturday lunch

I'm hoping the weather will be good and we can get everyone out for a walk through the farm into the forest for a picnic. In which case, we'll pack a backpack of sandwiches and/or wraps and chocolate caramel sesame slice or honey seed slice (What Can I Bring, page 48, also below).

Saturday dinner

All these recipes are from the Winter chapter of In Good Company (also below).

And for dessert, what about chocolate ice cream balls. These are really easy and good and can be made weeks ahead. All you do is scoop vanilla (or whatever flavour you like) ice cream into balls about the size of a walnut, lay these on a tray and put them back in the freezer for a day to harden up. Then melt some chocolate, stick each ice cream ball with a skewer or toothpick and dip in the chocolate. Then, if you like, sprinkle with crushed hazelnuts, 100s and 1000s or any other crunchy thing). They go back into the freezer until ready for dessert. Then pile up in a cute bowl and pass around.

Sunday breakfast

Hot cross buns of course! With salted butter, jams, honey and marmalade.

Sunday lunch

Ok here we go - the one I'm most excited about…

Let's do barbecued OP ribs on the bone (order these in advance from your butcher), a super herby potato and apple salad (from What Should I Cook this Weekend? pg 128 ) and a warm ratatouille (also from What Can I Bring? Pg 105 ) I keep this warm in my Billy Boil and then when we go to serve the meat, it is sliced and placed atop this - helps keep the meat warm and is also super tasty. Some good crusty bread or focaccia, a few chutneys. After lunch, the morning's Easter eggs are for dessert, and maybe just a plate of nice plums, some nuts, and a bit of cheese.

Things we can make-ahead

• Chocolate ice cream balls: Make these 1-2 weeks before and keep frozen

• Plum yogurt cake: Bake 1-2 days ahead

• Honey seed slice: Make 3-4 days ahead

• Gremolata for tabbouleh: Prepare the herb mixture the day before, then mix with other ingredients just before serving

• Pickled onions: Make 3-5 days ahead for better flavor

• Ratatouille: Prepare 1-2 days ahead and reheat on the day

• Spices for Rogan Josh: Measure and mix spices in advance

A few more things we can do now to high-five ourselves about later

• Get lots of lovely bread and freeze or the bringing of bread to friends who are coming out/over.

• Order the OP ribs from your butcher at least a week ahead

• Buy extra hot cross buns to freeze for toasting later

• Buy Easter eggs!

• Buy wine/beer/drinks

• Clean and organize fridge/freezer

• Sketch out a basic timeline for each meal so you have a plan for what to chop, reheat, and do when.

• Sort out the plastic container cupboard for leftovers (anything that doesn’t have a lid - delegate to another use)

• Stock up on extra good cheese, bread and crackers to fill hunger gaps.

Things you can do/buy/make now and freeze

I am aware many of us could be tight on freezer space, but if you have room and the time to make any of the below, you’ll be loving yourself sick come the weekend in question.

• Hot cross buns

• Honey seed slice (cut into portions before freezing)

• Chocolate ice cream balls (these are meant to be frozen anyway)

• Focaccia (par-bake for 75% of time, then freeze)

• Fish pie filling

• Rogan Josh curry base

• Ratatouille.

• If you wanted to do something other than an Easter egg on Sunday morning, what about making up a cute little egg box of treats (as per below)? You can get the boxes at craft of those $2 shops and fill with whatever you fancy. Has anyone else noticed how expensive Easter eggs are this year?

And now for the Good Friday recipes…

These photos and the recipes below were taken by Monique Lovick for a collaboration with Australian linen brand Carlotta and Gee. I love these kinds of photo shoots, when we all bring our things to make great pictures and share what we have and do. To go with our fish pie and gremolata, we had our friend’s Em and Ed’s beautiful Printhie Wine.

Fish pie