Easter Post
a weekend of fine eating that embraced many cultures and yielded potentially delicious leftovers
Friday night’s Hot Cross Buns kicked off the holiday weekend at a happy hour at Rose and Stephen’s house to meet the new neighbors, Rob and Alex.
Saturday was busy with Easter Bunny visits and filling eggs. The Alpine Community Center hosted a fun event for children of all ages. Kirk is happy to hunt eggs at home and find them loaded with small crackers or pretzels instead of candy. He will find out otherwise soon enough.
Our Saturday evening salon at Paula and Dave Currie’s home was a good venue for the reveal of the Easter Pizza/Torta Rustica so highly recommended by Joe Torrell. It was a variation very different from his Nunna’s but enjoyed by all who had no expectations.
Easter Day was a big celebration. After we sang all the hymns that we used to belt out at St Athanasius back in the 50’s and 60’s, we had a light Irish/Jewish breakfast of Paula’s gift of Irish brown bread with horseradish cream and lox. A perfect match even substituting tangy local plain yogurt for the mayo in the recipe. (Our local Shumway Farms yogurt is similar to creme fraiche.)
Rose and the kids came over for lunch and Kirk and Iris hunted eggs to the tune of Jesus Christ Superstar, Rose’s quintessential Easter jam. We had the Polish White Borscht for lunch. Ah, tradition.
After Kirk’s nap he helped me to shape “carrots” out of cheeseball ingredients to make an April Fool holiday appetizer. We practiced saying “Do you want a carrot?” and then “April Fool!” The joke worked well enough and was a nice accompaniment to our pre-dinner Bee’s Knees cocktail, which our friend Alexandra Nalevanko enjoyed with Rose.
This was a ham year for the “am” holiday (lamb vs ham) and the Niman Ranch spiral sliced ham from Whole Foods was delicious with creamed smashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, and roasted pineapple. We barely had room for a light salad before our dessert, a Lemon Yogurt Cake with Coconut Yogurt and Raspberries, same as last year.
This week the challenge will be to turn some of that leftover ham into a rich cheddar chowder and to also turn those dyed eggs into Deviled Eggs. The holiday comes once a year and we are now connected to our diverse roots. Alleluia!
English Cheddar Chowder
This recipe is from the Seasons of Central Pennsylvania cookbook where it is credited to Connie Snyder, a great gourmand from Williamsport, PA. I’ll post a photo once I make it ;D
Serves 10-12
2 cups water
1/3 cup carrot, finely chopped
1/3 cup celery, finely chopped
1/3 cup scallions, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
½ cup butter
½ cup flour
4 cups milk, hot
4 cups chicken broth, hot
1pound sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Salt, pepper and cayenne to taste
¾ to 1 pound of smoked ham, finely chopped
Green scallion tops for garnish, chopped
In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil and add carrot, celery and scallions. Boil the vegetables for five minutes. Reserve.
In a soup pot, cook the onion in the butter for one minute, or until wilted. Blend in flour and slowly add hot milk and hot chicken broth. Whisk the mixture constantly until it is well-blended and smooth. Add the cheese, the reserved vegetables and their cooking liquid, mustard, seasonings and ham. Continue cooking the soup, whisking constantly, until the cheese is melted and the soup is well-blended. Garnish with green scallion tops.
Yes it was and we were so glad that Alexandra could join us.
Wonderful celebration!