I can’t remember the last time the weather looked as good as this on Easter Sunday. I know it’s a bad habit but I check my phone when I wake up, perusing all my social networks and clearing my junk mail ready to tackle the day when I sit down at my desk. On Sunday, I saw a photo of  a perfect sunrise over Sunshine Beach, posted by a friend we’d be spending Easter with and I just had to go and see the perfection for myself. This photo hasn’t been edited at all and I snapped it on my good old iPhone.

It was a quiet extra long weekend at mum and dad’s house at the coast this year with my sister and her man on a little getaway to Fiji (he surprised her last week, he’s a keeper that one!). Will and I made the trip up on Thursday night after work to get the full four days in. Friday morning I got a text from my sister ‘has mum burnt the hot-cross-buns yet? It is tradition after all.’ Literally a minute later mum yelled out ‘oh no the hot-cross-buns’ and pulled this tray out of the oven.

Don’t think we’re being mean to our lovely mother. It’s a running joke in our house and it wouldn’t be Eater without at least one extra-toasted batch. I have a feeling she does it on purpose now because we all find it so hilarious.

Will was in meat heaven arriving to a barbecue loaded with pork ribs on Thursday night. When mum said she was making slow cooked Mexican lamb for dinner the following night it was like all his Christmases had come at once.

Seeing as my sis was away Busta got to come to the beach too. You wouldn’t think he was all that happy about it with this face would you? Don’t feel too sorry for him, he has a lovely time up there.

After I saw the beach photo on Easter morning I jumped out of bed and opened the door to find that the Easter Bunny had visited and left us with quite a treat. Can you guess which side of the bag was for me and which was for Will?

It was about 7.30am that I emerged from my slumber and mum had already decorated the whole house and set the table for our Easter lunch.

Luckily she prepared the quail eggs the day before. I woke up at about 8am (I had some big sleep-ins for someone who’s usually up at 6) and mum was leaning over the sink with a look of despair on her face. She’d been peeling quail eggs for 40 minutes and still had about 12 of the 48 to go. I jumped in to help her and we got those last ones done in record time but let me tell you, they’re seriously fiddly. Mum soaked them overnight in a mixture of saffron and spices to make Easter eggs for the salad.

Because mum was so organised we had time for a stroll on the beach on Sunday morning and of course I took my phone for photo ops. I couldn’t resist a photo of this cuteness. Don’t worry I asked him if I could. He probably wanted to say no but seeing as I already had my phone shoved at him it was a bit hard to get out of it.

Kevin the sourdough starter had his first trip to the beach over Easter and actually his first big lunch. He performed brilliantly and everyone was very impressed with the homemade bread, even dad who is very particular about his bread.

Doesn’t the table look beautiful? It just so happens that mum has an egg-shaped table. It’s like it was made for Easter.

Now on to the food! Mum’s never one to under-cater (which she passed on to me) so of course we ate very well. We feasted on mum’s newly-created fancy potato bake (recipe below), smoked salmon, zucchini slice, filo wrapped stuffed chicken breast, freshly-baked sourdough and a two-colour quail egg salad.

For dessert, I baked an apple and blueberry frangipane tart and the best ever brownies with and Easter twist and one of our very clever guests made the adorable carrot cupcakes. After indulging in so much food it’s a surprise I didn’t retreat to bed for a nap but somehow we powered through and made pizzas for dinner. I’ll admit I was a little surprised when I announced I was off to bed and saw that it was only 8pm. I think that’s a sign of a wonderful day.

What about you, how did you spend Easter?

Easter and mum's fancy potato bake

Yield: 10 as a side dish

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Ingredients

• 1kg baby potatoes (skin on)
• 600ml cream
• 250g gruyere cheese, cut into 2cm cubes
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C fan-forced.
2. Lay the potatoes out in a single layer in the bottom of a baking dish.
3. Scatter the cheese on top of and in between the potatoes.
4. In a bowl, stir the cream, garlic and salt and pepper together then pour the mixture over the top of the potatoes.
5. Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until the top is golden and the potatoes are cooked though (to test, skewer a potato, if it goes through easily then they are cooked).