Couple of sure fire Easter-time recipes for you (Holiday menus being absolute dogma here, Easter always, always means ham). Yes, Easter has passed, but I've always said that I have the world's worst timing.

The dressing recipe works with ham year round, not just at Easter. Probably also works with chicken--anything that a pineapple taste would accompany well. And the mustard sauce works with everything. Ham, cheese, hot dogs--you name it.

This is good stuff-honest. Absolute staples here.

Pineapple Dressing

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained
6 slices day old bread, cubed

Cream butter and sugar together, beat in eggs. Stir in pineapple. Fold in bread cubes. Put into greased 1 1/2 qt. casserole. Bake uncovered at 350 for 45 minutes.

That's the "heirloom" recipe. Actually it's more like eight or so slices of bread. Stir bread in until it's looking sort of dry. It'll come out just fine. Six slices of bread comes out pretty wet. More bread feeds more people, anyway. Seriously, this is good stuff. Try it with chicken in the summer, whatever. People like it a lot.


Mustard Sauce

1/2 cup dry mustard
1/2 cup vinegar

Combine the above, shake well and let them sit overnight.

On top of a double boiler beat one egg, then add 1/3 cup sugar, dash of salt and the mustard mixture. Cook over hot (not boiling) water until it thickens slightly and coats a spoon. Cool. Mix about 50/50 with mayonnaise (I'm a Miracle Whip person).

Obviously, once made it goes a long way. Keep the base mixture in a container and spoon it out, mixing it 50/50 (or so) with your favorite poison (mayonnaise or salad dressing) as needed. Taste it and adjust it as you go--a bit more mayo, a bit more mustard...Cooking the egg in the double broiler requires some restraint--keep the heat a bit low so that you don't end up with scrambled egg. Don't sweat the cooking of the egg. It's probably cooked just fine, and anyway the vinegar reduces the pH to the point where bad bacteria die anyway. If you accidentally end up with some scrambled egg, just put the mixture through a sieve (this is the voice of experience). Good stuff, I promise. Works well with ham, very good with cheese, summer sausage, chicken, hot dogs...you name it. It's a year-round recipe.