Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, friends. My parents and siblings came up from CT on Thursday night and we had a lovely weekend here in VT.

We celebrated Easter on Saturday, kicking off the day with breakfast at home.
While my parents were downtown doing some shopping, Casey and Dennis helped me make this beauty – carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

Then, we started on dinner – Vermont grass-fed filet mignon with carrots, asparagus and rosemary mashed potatoes.

How gorgeous is asparagus? I massaged it with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder and roasted it at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes. Then, topped it with some grated parmesan cheese before serving.

I did the same with the carrots, but added a drizzle of honey.

While those were roasting, Tommy and I grilled the steaks. All we did to prep was mix salt, pepper, garlic powder and thyme in a small bowl and press the mix into each side of the filets. Then we let them rest on the counter until they came up to room temperature. We seared them on the grill for about 6 minutes per side until they were medium to medium rare.

When everything was ready we peeled the boys away from March Madness to eat.

Our basketball fans during the Duke game.

Obligatory family photos first, of course.

And a friends photo too.

I would show you a photo of dinner, but I was so excited to eat that I forgot all about my camera. I assure you it was incredible. The filet was perfectly seared on the outside and juicy and pink on the inside. I loved every bite of it.

Don’t worry – I got a snap of dessert before that was eaten too.
You may think that that was the end of the evening, but we had one more treat in store. Mom and Dad brought the legendary Conetta family Easter egg hunt to Vermont. After dessert they headed upstairs to assemble the eggs. Then they sent us all upstairs to drink wine wait while they hid them.
Here’s our crew waiting for the green light.

Yup. Even a houseful of twenty-somethings enjoys a good egg hunt.
It was such a fun way to end a great weekend. I love our family traditions but every once in a while I really enjoy branching out and doing something a little different. It makes me realize that it doesn’t matter what we do, it just matters that we’re all together. I’m so grateful that my family made the trip up to Vermont so we could all celebrate together. And, love that they brought our favorite Easter tradition with them.