Salmon, Green Beans, Asparagus and Onions Dinner with Lemon Cake

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of the Easter dinner I made for our friends. Every Easter, I like to cook a simple, delicious dinner for our friends. This year I wanted to make something a little less traditional (every Easter meal seems to include ham or brunch items). While searching for a unique menu, I found many great recipes but they all seemed too fussy. I ended up choosing the Easter menu I found on the April issue of Everyday Food Mag on iPad.

The dinner was easy to make but a little time intensive. Here’s what it included:

salmon with brown sugar and mustard glaze
asparagus and green beans with chili-orage oil
balsamic red onions
salt and pepper rolls
(I cheated on this one and just heated up some yeast rolls I had in the freezer)

The salmon was a hit! Everyone loved it. The combination of brown sugar and grainy mustard was genius. The green beans and asparagus very tasty, but did not have as much orange flavor as a I hoped. If you use this recipe I would about 1 1/2x the amount of orange juice. The onions were very tasty and extremly easy to make.

This menu would be perfect for a graduation lunch, a bridal shower, or just a weekend dinner party with friends.

Oh and did I mention dessert? The menu included a simple lemon cake. The recipe entailed boiling fresh lemon slices and mixing the batter in a food processor. I had never made batter in my Cuisinart before. It seemed a little unusual but I love how it meant one less bowl to wash. The cake was very moist and not overly sweet. I will absolutely be making this again. Soon. Real soon.

Everyday Food suggested serving it with raspberries and fresh whipped cream. I took their suggestion for the raspberries, however, I served it with the best store bought gelato on earth (if you haven’t bought this you must!). This was seriously heavenly.