Feeding body and soul
Basket of hand-painted Easter eggs. Photo: public domain
Safe travels to all of you who are the road or in the air this holiday weekend. It seems that I have spent nearly every Easter weekend of my life in transit to be with family somewhere: to Pennsylvania or Indiana when I was young, later on to Connecticut, or, since our daughter settled in the Boston area, to Massachusetts. But this year, for once, we’re at home.
One thing I will miss is the big family meal on a table set with the good china and silver and well stocked with assorted relations by blood or marriage. In my youth the centerpiece was usually roast ham with about 150 side dishes. And of course, the contents of Easter baskets, which were quickly foraged down to the lurid and inedible plastic grass.
Later, we adopted Cuban traditions from my family by marriage, which centered around roast pork loin rubbed with a paste of garlic and herbs and marinated in wine and citrus juice. Plus black beans and rice, or “moros y cristianos,” to take the tradition back to medieval Spain.
But this year, we’ll follow up Easter Sunday service with a different tradition, Easter brunch out at a restaurant with friends. If it runs true to form, I will not need further caloric input until Monday.
Let us know what you’re eating to keep body and soul together with family this weekend. Recipes and stories from your Easter, Passover or other spring family traditions welcome in a comment below.
Tags: food traditions, listeningpost
Easter was the holiday that introduced me to a new and different tradition: my wife’s grandfather grew up in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey and Armenia. Her family cherished lamb, heavily laced with garlic, livened with lemons. They ate feta cheese and drank strong coffee. My family was from old rural northeastern roots. They cooked their beef gray, my Mother served her vegetables in butter and cream, and the cheese of choice was cheddar.
The Mediterranean foods were a revelation …… especially when we got to baklava! A friend later said, when we served it, “that sure beats chocolate cake”.
Easter comes at a time when temperatures are rising into the 70s, when flowers are sprouting, evenings are light, and —- for people in the Seaway Valley —— the ships are sailing again. Happy Easter!
Hi Dale, One Easter we headed home from Limekiln Lake to Ballston Spa our home town for Easter dinner with our folks. It was snowing lightly and by the time we hit North River Hill there was six inches on the highway and not plowed. We had our three children with us and it was quite a thrill ride down the hill that day, more like Gore on skies but we made the bottom after a few ahs and ohs. It got better about Warrensburg and we had a great meal at what we then called home. Gary