Holiday Preparations – Easter Ideas

7 Comments

• 

  Valentin Goncharenko

  Awesome suggestions Olga!
  Vitaliya and I will be making the individual lemon poppy seed cakes for the family get together on Sunday!!!

• 

  Vitaliya

  I love following you on Pinterest! Thanks for the suggestions! Valik and I changed our minds and craving the donuts you posted not too long ago, so we will be making those for the family Easter dinner:) thanks for all your wonderful recipes! Blessings!

  • 

    olgak7

    You’re welcome, Vitaliya! And thanks for following me on Pinterest:).

• 

  pat soltis

  Hello, Olga,

  I haven’t posted a comment here for a while. I hope that you, your husband, and your children (how many?) are well and happy.

  My family is restricted to me, my two sisters, and my brother. We’re all in our late fifties or early-to-mid sixties (I’m the eldest, and I’m creeping up on sixty-four). We’re all divorced, and none of us ever had any children.

  We all got together yesterday to cook together and enjoy the results.

  — My sister Susan contributed some wonderful, big sea scallops, several cheeses, crackers, and baguette;
  — My sister Kathleen contributed homemade pound cake with blueberry sauce;
  — My brother Daniel contributed the devilled hard-boiled eggs, two bottles of honest – to – God French Chablis, and several bottles of India Pale Ale — Kathleen prefers beer over wine;
  — I contributed cauliflower puree (to go under the scallops); a salad of Belgian endives with a dressing made of walnuts, walnut oil, orange juice, sherry vinegar, and diced Comte cheese; and an extra bottle of good California chardonnay.

  Don’t worry — we didn’t drink all of that wine, although we did taste all of it.

  That’s more or less typical of the way that we celebrate big holidays. I know that this one wasn’t a typical Easter — no ham, no lamb — but we had a good time.

  I hope that you and your family are having a wonderful Easter!

  Best,

  Pat

  • 

    olgak7

    Hi Pat!
    It’s great hearing from you again.
    It sounds like you and your family had a lovely Easter. It really doesn’t matter if you make the traditional, expected foods, as long as you all enjoy the food, right?
    Your menu sounds delicious and unique. I love it:).

    • 

      pat soltis

      Olga,

      My ex-wife’s family background is Carpatho-Ruthenian/Ukrainian/Polish. When we were married we would sometimes make what she remembers as “Russian” Easter. Ham with red horseradish (which my dad’s family — Slovak and Hungarian — also did). The dish that I remember most fondly is a sweet one. She called it “paskha”, which I know means, simply, “Easter”. She would cream together cottage cheese and unsalted butter with sugar and candied fruit. Then she would wrap the mixture in cheese cloth, press it into a mold with a hole in the bottom (usually a clay flower pot), and let it drain for a day or two. Un-mold, un-wrap, and serve, cut into wedges.

      Have you ever heard of anything like this? Do you know where I might find a recipe? I know that there’s a significant part of Ukraine between Belarus and what used to be Ruthenia.

      She also makes her grandmother’s bread, which is very similar to Jewish challah.

      One thing that I learned from my ex was an appreciation of traditional Russian Orthodox choral music. She has a good soprano singing voice.

      OK, enough.

      Best regards,

      Pat

      • 

        pat soltis

        This isn’t exactly what my ex makes, but it ‘s close — conveys the basic idea.

        http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Russian-Style-Farmers-Cheese-Paskha

        Best,

        p