Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday! I love an excuse to prepare a feast! So for today I ordered a leg of lamb and stocked up on luxury ingredients - the channel island double cream, the madagascan vanilla, the french butter, the best wine... Christmas and Easter, thats when we go all out and it really makes the special days special!

So with my nearest and dearest sitting happily around a decorated table, I served up our first course...

Velvet Squash Soup

(this is beyond easy and a great starter when you've guests as you can make it in advance and reheat)

You'll need

1 Butternut Squash

4 cloves garlic

500mls chicken stock

Method

Split the squash in two, and scoop out the seeds. Drizzle with olive oil and place in a roasting dish. Split the garlic cloves and place them in the hollow of each piece of squash. Pop into a hot oven (200c) and roast the bejesus out of them, until they are so soft the flesh will come away from the skin without much pressure.

Scoop the roasted flesh out and into your food processor or into a jug if you're using a hand blender. Pour on the stock. Blend until smooth and velvety.

Add salt and pepper to taste, cream if you like and a pinch of parmesan if you have it.

So everyone tucked in, this soup really appeals to all!

Main course time, so we opened a bottle of our favorite special occasion wine...

Easy Peasy Leg of Lamb

Order from a butcher, he will give you the right size for the amount of bellies!

You'll need

Leg of Lamb

Olive oil

Sea salt

Rosemary sprigs

Clove of garlic

Method

Rub your lamb with the olive oil. Halve the clove of garlic and rub the oiled meat with it. Spear the leg all over with a sharp knife and stick the rosemary sprigs into the holes.

Roast at 190c/210c until the juices run clear-ish! (My oven took 2 and a half hours)

Serve with roasted potatoes (add them to the roasting tin about a half an hour after the lamb, but par boil them first and shake them around a bit to be sure of crispy edges!) and cabbage! I always add cream and a bit of onion puree to cabbage on special occasions, ! Don't forget the mint sauce and of course the gravy - I made todays with the juices from the lamb, a cup of boiling water, two tsps redcurrant jelly and a tbsp of bisto which may not appeal to the food snobs out there but I really think bisto makes the best gravy!

So the tums were almost full, the lamb had turned out perfectly, just pink in the middle and crispy on the outside.

All we needed now was dessert!

Lets call these,

Raspberry Mmmms....

You'll need

200gms white chocolate (use green and blacks organic if you can)

200mls double cream

200mls creme fraiche

handful fresh raspberries

chocolate flake.

Sit the white chocolate in a bain marie until melted. Take it off the heat then and stir in the creme fraiche, the chocolate may seize but keep stirring - it'll be fine. Add the cream.

Plop into serving glasses (looks gorgeous in any wine glass) and refridgerate.

Just before serving pop in a few raspberries and sprinkle with crumbled flake.

Mmmmmmm....