Cranberry ham sauce…

jellied cranberry sauce / fresh cranberries / 1 cup sugar / balsamic vinegar / rosemary

finely chop whole cranberries in a food processor, add whole can of cranberry sauce to pan with sugar 1 cup of sugar and a bit of water / incorporate together with a whisk / add two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar reduce by 1/2 / add fresh cranberries and 1 teaspoon of finely chopped rosemary/ salt and pepper to taste… remove from the heat when the desired thickness is achieved.

Happy Easter!
God Bless

Retired Magistrate here: I am 73 and my husband is 71 and I still make him an Easter Basket. I also make them for neighbors and for our pastor and his wife. I dye eggs on Good Friday and make and deliver the baskets on Saturday.

When I was little growing up in Portsmouth, Ohio my Dad would always buy my Mom an Easter Lilly so our front parlor was very fragrant. My brother and I would get Easter Baskets filled with goodies, a stuffed bunny and balloons. Mother would cook a ham, bake an Easter cake with coconut on top with jelly beans in the middle. Of course we would go to church in the morning.

One year after we moved to Columbus, Ohio in the mid 1950’s there was a drug store in our neighborhood. The druggist had these wonderful two huge stuffed bunnies; a brother and sister bunny. I longed for those bunnies. The night before Easter Dad went to the druggist and bought them for my brother and I; this was really an extravagance because my Dad didn’t make that much. I had those bunnies for years until our basement flooded and they were ruined.

I love Easter; it is the promise of new life, a new beginning all through Jesus Christ. Everyone enjoy the upcoming week. Blessings to all.

Hi Menagerie – Easter was the favorite holiday at our house. No baskets ever – my mom did not like the commercialization of Holy Week’s big finale. We did have new spring dresses & shoes for church that debuted on that morning. After church our extended family (grand parents, 10 aunts/uncles & 14 kids) gathered for a big lunch. Ham. And after, anceaster egg hunt of died eggs. My dad hollowed out duck eggs and painted them gold. The finders of these got a special prize. Everyone got a popsicle. We had a big yard & getting ready for this day was a lot of work gardening wise but so wonderful. All my cousins talk about how much they loved those Easters. My grandpa was a rancher & tearing him away from cows was always especially nice. He wore a nice bolo tie on Easter.

Easter was always a big deal for us. The religious celebration, new clothes for all, a flowery hat for me, the church full of Easter lilies, beautiful. And an Easter egg hunt in our yard. And Easter baskets!. But one especially tough year, I remember crying on Easter because I hadn’t been able to make up an Easter Basket for my son. He hugged me and said gently “Mom, I’m 21….”

On my sweatshirt “Mom is Forever”…

A happy, blessed Easter to all…

I’ve loved this thread every year; even took advantage of Menagerie’s lamb roast recipe in previous years (and plan to again this year).

I enjoyed the reminiscences greatly. My dad was a country preacher, and it seemed like we were always scraping by, five growing kids. We did wear pretty spring dresses, though not always new, black patent leather shoes – with folded down white anklets, of course – and sometimes an Easter bonnet.

But the excitement was the early hour: We drove to the little country village for an ecumenical outdoor Easter Sunrise Service involving all four of the churches. We sang our hearts out! Always had a trumpeter!

Christ is Risen! Hallelujah!

Then we were invited to a parishioner’s home for donuts and hot chocolate while waiting for it to be time for the regular service to begin. After that service, and driving home, it seemed like an exhausting day. And all I did was ride along, sing along, eat, and worship.

We too canceled our Easter gathering last year, but are entertaining my husband’s extended family again next week.

Christ be with us.

We are taking our 4 year old Grandson camping in the foothills of Idaho’s West Mountain range next to a tiny river. A beat up old hunting camper will allow my Wife and him to color eggs while she makes a ham and I cook (real) sour dough bread, biscuits and hotcakes. 5 working dogs will keep him company playing in the river (as well as keep away the local wildlife) and hunting the hidden eggs. There is nothing better than introducing youngsters to the wilds. Wonderful stuff.

Fridays in my Polish family began a three-day fast until Easter. Of course it never lasted with seven hungry children, but our hearts were in the right place– just not next to our stomachs. Fridays my mom would melt candle wax and draw beautiful pin wheels on boiled eggs which we would help dip into the different color dyes. The parish priest from our local Polish church would make the rounds on Saturday mornings, coming to the parishioners’ homes to bless their Easter baskets filled with eggs, babka, garlic and horseradish. Of course our basket always sat on a freshly ironed hand-embroidered tablecloth surrounded by ham, sausage, rye bread and pierogis (sour kraut and wild mushroom being my favorite). The priest would pray over the food and wish us all Easter blessings. All dressed up, we would wait patiently until he left and then grab chairs all around the table and dive into the food. Wait until Sunday? No way. Not seven hungry kids. Of course Sunday morning we fasted until after mass, which we attended dressed in our new Easter clothes led inside by my very proud Daddy (Tatus in Polish). After church my Mom served us made-from-scratch cake she had baked the night before. Then in early afternoon, we sat down to a meal of baked pork, more pierogis with ice cream and more cake for dessert. I am tearing up as I type this. I really miss those days and, of course, my proud Tatus and loving Mom.

Mom always took each 4 of us kids shopping alone with her for our Easter Sunday church clothes. We always got to have lunch at a restaurant which was a big treat. We colored eggs on Friday night and had beautiful baskets when we woke up Easter Sunday. I still don’t know how they afforded it all.

Mom usually baked a ham and scalloped potatoes and green beans and carrot cake. She stretched that food into 3 meals a day for weeks for all of us (probably how they could afford it all).

As an adult I did many of the same things but changed some of the menu. Here is what I started making then and still do:

Deviled eggs
Lamb chops
Roasted baby red potatoes with asparagus on a cookie sheet
Big green salad
Carrot cake

I still make a basket for my son and get to eat the goodies myself!

Puppets with Eggs (Easter) | Sicilian Cooking (siciliancookingplus.com)

This gives many visual versions (Oh, the possibilities) and recipes for Puppets with Eggs.
Cudduraci calabresi, ricetta tradizionale per Pasqua | Ricetta | Ricette, Dolci di pasqua, Cibo per pasqua (pinterest.com)

The best part of the cookie dough version is the dough around the egg; therefore, cover the entire egg with dough.
Ahhh, memories

Baked ham and scalloped potatoes… I use a recipe from the old interwebs for the taters Look up “pats scalloped potatoes.” It’s delicious

“He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!” Easter is my special, spiritual time of year. We had a ‘poor Easter’ one year when our first daughter was a toddler – forty or so years ago. Not able to buy any goodies for a basket, I decided to make home-made ones. I had leftover baking chocolate from Christmas time, a box of crispy rice cereal, and a bag of jelly beans. I melted the chocolate, added the cereal and dropped spoonfuls of the chocolate mixture onto wax paper – a typical Christmas treat at the time. My husband grabbed the jelly beans and placed ‘eggs’ in each of the piles of chocolate cereal drops. And, our traditional ‘Birdie nests’ were born. We had so many nests that we spread them all over the neighborhood and to all of our friends. We were able to celebrate “He is risen!” with everybody! Still make the doggone things every year!

Lovely words from lovely people!

Thank You for this article!
Wonderful as always.

When my kids were younger and my nieces as well we used to have a Easter Egg hunt at
Mom’s house..the kids looks forward to it and we put plastic eggs with candy or pieces of paper telling you what you got (so the chocolate or candy didn;t melt outside) some had coins, then they kids counted who got the most and that person won a prize but they all got candy and they looked forward to having the egg hunt at Grandma house every year.

My kids are in thier 20’s now but I still buy them candy every year for Easter. We go to Easter service at church . This year they are having an outdoor sunrise service so I will go to that one…since it is outside… I shouldn;t have to wear a mask…then Easter dinner and Rice pie…

Many memories from your comments.

My mom always bought me a new dress and hat for church services. I was perhaps 7 or 8 and she got me a small purse to take.

I remember looking around in it during the service and the man in the pew ahead of us turned around and said, “What are you doing? Building a nest?”

Have never forgotten that and it still makes me laugh these many, many years later.

What a beautiful coconut cake and table setting!

Did somebody say lamb ? One of my favs , anytime.
I made Emerils ( New Orleans or Artichoke ) stuffed , rolled , boneless , Greek style recipe for the family one year , they still talk about it.
Only change I did was grill the butterflied leg of lamb to sear it before stuffing with a mixture of :

Artichoke hearts , diced
Parmesan
Greek oil cured olives
Real Bacon crumbles
Italian bread crumbs + spices ( Emerils Essence )
Fresh Garlic , minced
Onions.

How I have enjoyed all these lovely stories, thank you all. Could someone please share the lamb recipe?

We started a new tradition making garlic roasted lamb a few years back. The kids ask that I make this every year. Very good!!

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/12/slow-roasted-lamb-garlic-anchovy-lemon-rosemary-food-lab-recipe.html

Easter was always at my house for our 3 kids and 7 grandchildren. The egg hunt was the highlight of the day, and after finding real eggs covered in ants, we switched to the plastic eggs. In order for it to be a fair hunt for all ages (there was a 10 year span among them) each child was given a color and could only find “their” color and leave the easier-to-find ones for the little ones. Each child had 12 eggs.

How silly and unexpected, but the color designation got to be a big thing, as they gathered to hear their color announced. “Ellie has…Purple!” and she said: “Oh, good,” LAST year I had pink!” Or, a little one running over to his parents and exclaiming: “I got ORANGE!”

I prepared each set of eggs with either a little picture of a fish inside, or a smily face. If they got a “fish” they would go over to a curtain where I sat behind it and they went “fishing” with a toy pole, and I attached a wrapped-in-tissue prize for them to pull up. Stickers, a hair scrunchie, a yo-yo, matchbox car… As I write this, I can still hear a 3 year old James, with an unnaturally deep voice, yell from the other side of the yard: “Grandma, I got a FISH!!!”

They were always so helpful to the younger ones and would suggest that they might want to look here or there… They each had a little gift bag to keep their gifts separate and developed different strategies. Some, sat down in place and opened it on the spot. (The boys) and most of the girls saved them all until the end, and carefully opened each one.

As they got older, it got harder to find objects to give them for the fish reward. I didn’t want “junk” but kept my eye out all year long for clever little things like a ceramic little animal; a craft item from Michaels; an inspirational paper weight; colorful pencils. What fun I had!

They are all, but one in college and this is the second year since we stopped the egg hunt. Writing this, I feel a little misty. How I miss it!

I make this every year at Christmas for my parents

We had new Easter dresses and coats, Easter bonnets, and new shoes. We went to church in the morning and then had a large meal that my mom cooked for her husband and three daughters and always some cousins and Aunt and Uncle. It was a day for feasting and social visits…all day people would come. Fun!! We had an Easter egg hunt in the back yard.

We did get Easter baskets and also we colored eggs ahead of time….

We had ham but I don’t remember the specifics of the rest of the meal. My mom loved to cook and she was a very good cook. She also baked. She made potica which is a Slovenian nut bread that is only made for Easter and Christmas. It took all day it seems to make. Lots of rolling out, resting, filling, etc.

Every year I make Italian Easter bread – sweet, lemon-kissed challah type bread made in the shape of a dove and studded with almond paste and sugar. My kids won’t let me NOT make it.
In past years, to keep our Neapolitan roots deep in my Montana gang I’ve made pastiera di grana (Easter wheat pie). But since I recently made a ton of desserts for my son-in-law’s birthday I instructed him and my daughter to bring those sweets. Nick Malgieri has a wonderful recipe: https://www.nickmalgieri.com/news/neapolitan-easter-pie
I use short-grain brown rice since I can’t find (afford) the canned cooked wheat (it works fine!)
I make this raspberry jello mold for most holidays:
2 – 6 ounce boxes raspberry jello dissolved in one cup of boiling water. Mix in 18 – 32 ounces applesauce and an 8-ounce pkg of frozen raspberries and pour into a lightly Pam-sprayed mold.

I am from a family of ten — 8 kids. I’m number 7. Every year we girls would get a new outfit for church. My Mom would go into her closet and pull together this and that for herself. She always looked like a million bucks. Easter baskets that my Mom would hide and we’d have to find. We made dyed eggs with our names on them (using a crayon to write them on the eggs). We also used bacon grease in the egg dye to make absolutely beautiful eggs. My Mom always made it special. I loved Easter services…Jesus Christ is risen today. Alleluia. Such a beautiful song. Such a joyous day for Christians. Thanks for reminding me!

Made this dish yesterday for friends and all agreed that it was amazing. Will brighten any Easter brunch or any brunch during the year. As one friend stated, “I do not like French toast, but I love this recipe.”

Ah, yes, and it does contain challah, a Jewish bread. Note: need to prepare ahead, as is refrigerated before cooking. Also recommend putting blueberry lemon topping and the powdered sugar in separate bowls for each person to spoon over individual servings of the French toast.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/baked-challah-french-toast-5526035

Long ago, we visited our families in a distant State the week before Easter..we had to drive 26 hours straight through with 2 kids, a standard poodle and a cat on board..we arrived home at 5am Easter Sunday, and tucked in the kids then pulled out their baskets (purchased before the trip)..2 hours later, my youngest woke me up and announced “He (Easter Bunny) did not come” I went downstairs, and the baskets were empty ! A few jelly beans did remain, hidden under the colorful grass..
My poor dog, had not been fed during the long journey and in my exhaustion, I neglected to feed him, so he ate 2 large chocolate bunnies, lots of foil wrapped eggs, chocolate covered marshmallow eggs, and lots of pretty cookies and PEEPS.
I kept a close eye on him, knowing chocolate is toxic to dogs, but the only sign of him eating chocolate was the foil, shining in the piles in the grass in the yard over the next few days..

My mother and grandmother also made elaborate eggs and treats and memorable family holidays.

Oh but that was when motherhood was respected and valued.

Now mothers have to work and if there is no father around, it’s even worse.

I like apricot jam and Dijon mustard on top of a ham..plenty of cloves in the ham. YUM.
If you wind up with too many boiled eggs, try pickled eggs..
One Mason Jar
1 cup sugar, 1+1/4 cup white vinegar, (bring those 2 to a boil..then let cool..one 15 oz can of pickled beets, sliced onions..place onions, 2 eggs, some beets in the jar, then layer in more..when full, pour in the vinegar mixture Include the beet juice to the cooling vinegar. Close the lid..this should be done about 5 days before eating,,keep in the refrigerator. The beets and juice will color those eggs..beautiful in green salads or alongside a ham sandwich. Better than any pickle.

Easter I will smoke a boneless leg of lamb using pecan chips. Lay the lamb out flat,grub both sides with good olive oil, chopped garlic, rosemary, thyme and salt and pepper. Smoke until rare. The wife will make Israeli cooscoos with mushrooms, sweet onion and pees.

This is my go-to ham recipe. Always a hit.

1 (10-pound) smoked, bone-in ham
1 cup honey
1/4 cup whole-grain mustard
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick)

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the lower third.
Remove any plastic packaging or netting from the ham. Trim away any excess fat, leaving about a 1/4-inch layer all over. Set the ham aside to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with several sheets of aluminum foil (it will make cleanup a lot easier). Place the ham, cut side down, on the baking sheet and cover it with a piece of parchment paper. Tightly cover the ham and parchment paper with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter melts and the brown sugar has completely dissolved, about 3 minutes. Set aside and let cool to lukewarm (the glaze should be the consistency of room-temperature honey).
When the ham is ready, remove it from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 425°F. Discard the foil and parchment paper and, using a sharp knife, score a 1-inch-wide diamond pattern (don’t cut more than 1/4 inch deep) over the entire ham.
Brush the ham with a quarter of the glaze (about a generous 1/3 cup), return it to the oven, and bake uncovered for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, brush with another quarter of the glaze, and repeat every 15 minutes until all of the glaze has been used and a dark golden-brown crust has formed, about 55 to 60 minutes total. Let the ham rest 20 to 30 minutes before slicing.

Retired Magistrate here: In Reply to Annie: We moved from Portsmouth, Ohio to Columbus in the section between Clintonville and Beechwold next to Whetstone High School. Of course Whetstone had not been built yet. It was a farm and the real estate agent told my parents that no one would ever build there. Surprise; about four years later Columbus starting building Whetstone High School.

Before that we would have pheasants come on the front porch, deer in the yard, turkeys, etc. We were close to the Olentangy River so all kinds of wildlife.

It was a lovely place to spend my pre teen and teenage years.

I am going completely non traditional this year. This will be the first year where I will not have all 3 kids at home. My eldest is here because her college is forcing her to take classes remotely from home. My twins are at Purdue. Luckily, their grandma only lives about an hour away, so my nephew is picking them up and taking them to Grandma’s for Easter. I wrote her last night and asked her to put together a little bag of candy for them, because mom didn’t send anything out early enough. Grandma is now going to do it for all the grandkids. She’ll be in her glory. Loves cooking for family holidays.

For us, I’ll be making chicken felice, a recipe my mom found years ago in the newspaper. It’s an Italian dish, kinda like a chicken Parmesan casserole. I’ll make tiarimisu for dessert. Think I may need to go out in the gloomy wind and rain today to get my oldest a small chocolate bunny.

Last year, I got them all chocolate bunnies for Easter, just small ones as they’re older and didn’t want a lot of candy. I even got one for my husband because he tended to munch on theirs and eat too much of them. So, about a week after Easter, my daughter declared her bunny was missing. She hadn’t even touched it yet, was saving it. I had noticed my husband was eating an awful lot of chocolate over the last few days. It turns out he figured she didn’t want her bunny, so just ate it himself. Didn’t even ask. (Really, he’s a terrible mooch.). So I got mad at him and made him go buy her another one. There weren’t any traditional bunnies left, so she got a bunny-shaped flat bar of chocolate.

He tells me this year he is dieting so don’t buy anything for him. But I’ll probably get him something because I can’t trust him to leave my daughter’s bunny alone.

Sending blessings to everyone on this Palm Sunday!

So enjoying the recipe sharing. Will definitely make Stella’s leg of lamb for Easter. My dad made something similar for Easter that was delicious. Does anyone have the recipe for the beautifully decorated coconut cake pictured with the article? If so, please share. Thank you!