Good morning. What I smelled during a 10-minute bicycle ride today: wood smoke, diesel exhaust, grass, frying bacon, rotting wood, bleach, balloon rubber, dollar pizza, a tendril of burning weed, the sharpness of electrical ozone, cart coffee and, last, the strong, sweet scent of lilies — Easter in the air. Good Friday!
There’ll be ham this weekend, at least for some: honey baked (above) or layered into sliders with Swiss cheese and a buttery glaze. If you’re amenable to the cut but didn’t manage to order one for the holiday, you can make what’s called a fresh ham: a pork butt scored and roasted beneath a lacquer of maple syrup and balsamic vinegar, with pecans and candied ginger. How about some Sweeney potatoes to go with it? Some creamy macaroni and cheese?
Featured Recipe
Honey Baked Ham
Some may prefer a paschal lamb, maybe butterflied with lemon salsa verde or braised with celery root purée. (I love this kind of Swedish version Craig Claiborne hustled up in the 1950s, with coffee and a sprinkling of sugar.)
Others will make a carrot maqluba or the creamy spiced eggplant known in India as bagara baingan to break the Ramadan fast.
