Easter sunday is fast approacing and I am sure you are planning to host a dinner or a special treat fro your family. You would wish to serve delicacies  that are not only tasty but also easy to cook. I have a few recipes that you can try at home for the Easter Dinner. 

Ham with Appricot & brown sugar

Ingredients

1 (10 pound) fully-cooked spiral cut ham
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup apricot jam
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C).

2. Place the ham onto a sheet of aluminum foil, put the cut ide down. you may put the shiny    side up.

3. Mix together the brown sugar, apricot jam and mustard powder in a small bowl.

4. With a pastry or barbeque brush smear the ham with the mixture . Reserve any leftover glaze.

5. After coating the hams enclose foil around the ham and place on a rimmed baking sheet.

6. Roast for 2 hours in the preheated oven, or if you ham is a different size, figure 14 minutes per pound. Apply the remaining glaze 20 minutes before the ham is done.

Pepper and honey Chops

Ingredients

3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
2 1/8 pounds lamb or mutton chops
5 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 tablespoon diced green chile pepper, or to taste
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon anise seed

Directions

1.Mix honey, soy sauce, and hoisin sauce in a shallow baking dish.

2. Put the lamb chop into the mixture then cover and refrigerate for 3 hours.

3. Heat olive oil in a shallow wok over medium-high heat.

4. Add the anise seed, garlic, onions and green chilies, and saute until the onion is tender. this might take about 5 minutes.

5. before the onions start taking the brown colour place the lamb chops and marinade into the pan, and stir.

6. Turn the heat down to medium-low, and cover. Cook for 20 minutes, then remove lid, and continue cooking until liquid has evaporated.

7. Now Stir in green onions, and cook, stirring, until the internal temperature of the meat has reached 145 degrees F (63 degrees C)

After the recession, property and real estate taxes are increasing fast. There are strict norms for property assessment and assessors follow those rules . You can’t play with the figures but you can intelligently architect your property so that it values less in the eyes of the assessor.

worn out property

As a property owner you would not desire the city assessor to come into the interior of your property if your have some extensive work done there but if your interiors have not been repaired for long and things are in a shabby condition then you may want allow the assessor inside. Walk with the assessor and show him the damaged walls or the unleveled floor. The worn out condition of your property may reduce your property tax liability but don’t forget show the assessor some good points about the property too.

Correct assessment

The assessor might count a room as a bed room but in reality it may not be big enough to place a bed even. Look at your tax card and see what the assessor has mentioned on it. It is necessary for you to know the measure of improvement and damage that the assessor has noted. It is also vital to check your tax card to see if all particulars mentioned by the assessor are correct . You may even speak to the assessor to get the errors rectified so that you save yourself from paying tax for something for which it is not meant.

Permanent structures

All the permanent structures that you construct on your property increase your tax liability. Larger the structure, higher is the tax liability. If you want to use some space without making it heavy on your pocket then you may consider an above ground pool rather than a large garage. This keeps your assessment value low .

Decorating your property

You may have great decorative ideas for your property but if you wish to integrate all your thoughts to your property then your property becomes expensive in the eyes of the assessor. Your assessor would follow a set of guidelines but if something looks astonishingly great then it would play some role in. This does not mean that you won’t decorate. You may decorate but keep the decoration to bare minimum and save extra burden of tax.   

Survey

Have a look at some other properties too. Try and discover a few properties that are similar to yours. Look at the permanent structures built on it. There is a probability that the property similar to yours has more constructed area but has a lower value of tax. This could be because the assessor made a wrong entry or made some observational mistakes while assessing your property.

Utilize your property to the best of your requirement and keep in mind that you would be taxed for it so construct judiciously.