My Easter Celebration at the Farm

April 18, 2017

I hope you all had a pleasant Easter weekend.

Holidays are so much fun. I love celebrating them with my daughter, Alexis, and her beautiful children, Jude and Truman. I also love Easter traditions - especially my big annual egg hunt. This year, I dyed more than 250-eggs in vibrant colors. All the children had such a great time searching for eggs around the farm. Afterwards, we enjoyed a delicious feast - my friend, Chef Pierre Schaedelin of PS Tailored Events, and I, planned a lovely meal including glazed ham, lamb chops, stuffed artichokes, smoked salmon, fresh salads, homemade biscuits, and so much more.

Enjoy this photo gallery from my wonderful Easter.

: I took this photo early Easter Sunday morning, before 6am. The day was expected to be unseasonably warm – near 80-degrees Fahrenheit here at my Bedford, New York farm.

: Before the party, we pulled out all the necessary platters and serving dishes. We also positioned them, so we knew everything would fit on my kitchen buffet counter.

: Here are the biscuits just before they went into the oven. I made these biscuits Easter morning.

: Here is one of the most beautiful Easter cookies I have ever seen. It was baked and decorated by my talented friend, Robert Twardzik, from Southport Connecticut.

: Robert personally delivers a decorated cookie every year. This chocolate cookie is this year’s treat – so beautiful.

: On the island in my servery – a nest of blown out eggs surrounded by smaller feathers dropped by one of my white peahens.

: My executive assistant, Shqipe, picked some beautiful daffodils to place in the glass vase inside this paper mache chick. Wait until you see my long daffodil border this year – the flowers are coming up so wonderfully.

: This large table in my Brown Room seats 16. It was just one of several set for the occasion – each one decorated so beautifully.

: This smaller table in my Brown room seats up to six additional guests.

: I bought several chocolate bunnies from See’s Candies – these went into my grandchildren’s Easter baskets. http://www.sees.com

: My daughter, Alexis, is a very talented baker. She made this coconut cake for Easter – it was divine.

: We set a “kids table” outside on my terrace parterre. I had a total of 28-children attend my Easter party.

: All the children loved the foil covered bunnies. They all thought they were real chocolate.

: My housekeeper, Laura Acuna, made the napkins look like bunny ears at each place setting.

: Kevin Sharkey makes me an Easter basket every year. Here is this year’s – it’s so pretty sitting out on my porch. Please follow him on Instagram @seenbysharkey

: My friend, Chef Pierre Schaedelin, has been helping me prepare wonderful meals for my family and friends for years. He has a catering business called PS Tailored Events. http://pstailoredevents.com

: Here are some of the dozens of sugar cookies I made for Easter. Truman chose one of the rabbits, Jude chose an egg.

: I made lots of sugar cookies for the party – Which is your favorite?

: And here are some of the 260 hardboiled eggs I colored for the hunt. Not all were found by the way. We may be discovering eggs for some time. All these eggs were laid by my beautiful chickens.

: There were solid colored eggs, eggs with flowers that I made on the Today Show earlier this week, and of course, the gold and silver eggs – the big prize eggs for my egg hunt.

: Here is Jude with the Easter Bunny. Everyone loves the Ester Bunny.

: I loved seeing all the children have so much fun collecting eggs. This is Juliette, the granddaughter of my good friend, Jane Heller.

: This is Christophe, the son of New York interior decorator and author, Jeffrey Bilhuber. Christophe was our big Easter Egg hunt winner – he collected 42-eggs including a gold one.

: Our friend @thefacinator, Douglas Friedman, walking with my granddaughter, Jude.

: Lunch was served soon after the egg hunt. These lamb chops were a huge hit – they went very quickly.

: We also served assorted soups in these mini cups – beet, parsnip, carrot, and pea.

: Here is my dear friend, Chef Geoffrey Zakarian, cutting slices from one of the bourbon brandy glazed hams. Geoffrey brought a delectable white asparagus ice cream for dessert.

: I have these giant asparagus delivered to me every year from Mr. Spear in California. Chef Pierre likes to peel the bottoms of the asparagus stalks and then tie the asparagus in bunches before blanching. They are served with these bunny-shaped carrot cutouts. http://www.misterspear.com