Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. Many of us will seek ways to walk more intimately with Jesus as we remember the last days of his life. Before we enter into these more somber days, I thought it would be a good time to share some recipes and ideas for celebrating with kids.
I will have three of my grandchildren for a couple of days this week, and I’m probably going to make some braided bread with them, and maybe a few other things. I always enjoy the special times with the kids, and I like to do things they will remember and learn from.
Do you have favorite Easter recipes and activities? I am always especially grateful for any old family “ethnic” recipes and traditions. I am still trying to decide between a ham and lamb. And narrow down the dessert selection. We gave up sweets this year, and contrary to what they say about losing the craving, no, we haven’t!
A fun thing my kids have always enjoyed over the years is making a bunny cake. You just need two round cake pans. The cake in one pan is the bunny’s face and the other pan’s cake you cut into the ears and a bow tie. We just frost our bunny cake with a regular spatula and use birthday cake writing gel for the face and then we usually use M&Ms to decorate the bowtie. Here’s a sample of one more artfully frosted. https://homanathome.com/2016/03/bunny-cut-up-cake/
I have been making that cake for at least 50 years!! It may have been the beginning of my baking career.
Our small city within a very large city has a duck pond. Our tradition when the children were small, was to give each a duckling. Easter. We raised them took pictures and they played with their ducks. When they were grown, they were relocated to the duck pond where the city provided a lady to give ducks grain. These tame friendly ducks made the best winter snow pictures.
I was raised on a farm and we enjoyed duck thanksgiving and Easter. Chicken was on the menu year round.
In my company, We have always been closed Good Friday.
Davey And Goliath | Episode 67 | Easter Special | Happy Easter
Davey and Goliath was one of my favorites growing up! First grandchild coming in July, I’m going to search it out on DVD. Thank you!
Best wishes and Happy Easter! I use to watch them when I was a kid also.
My kids and I make resurrection rolls every year the Sat before Easter.
Roll a marshmallow in butter and cinnamon and sugar, and then roll a canned biscuit around it completely. As they bake, the marshmallow ‘disappears,’ symbolizing Jesus’s empty tomb and his rising.
That’s cool! I’ve never heard of this. Thx for sharing 🙂
Dutch Baby – one of my all time favorite breakfast dishes on Easter (along with Quiche!)
Thank you so much for this recipe; I have been searching for a good one for years!
Happy Easter!
These are delicious! We eat ours with butter on them and then some fresh squeezed lemon juice and powdered sugar.
I want one of these right now!
Thanks
Excellent instructions.
I’ve made this gluten free for a loved one that has ceoliac(allergic to wheat) with great success. Replace the flour with a cup-for-cup GF alternative.
I make it with a heavy skillet that has high walls. I like the curl/crunch that forms at the top. I swirl the batter in hand just above the oven door quickly to get the height, but it’s scary.
Try lemon with powdered sugar and butter as another poster suggested. IHOP uses that on their “German” style pancakes. If you can get lingonberry syrup/jam, that’s “Swedish”. Happy Easter!
My super sloppy quiche recipe:
In a bowl I whip up a lot of eggs (sometimes 4, sometimes 8 – I totally wing it), sour cream (at least a cup), 1/4 cup whole milk, grate in whatever cheese I have on hand – a little or a lot, add green onions or scallions – a little or a lot, a handful of cut up ham or bacon, salt and pepper to taste, mix it all together. I make a butter crust and press it into the pie pan – sometimes I take the time to roll it out, sometimes I don’t. I pour the egg mixture into the crust and bake. The more eggs you use, the “puffier” the quiche.
Bake at 425 for 10-15 min, then lower temp to 375 for another 20-25.
I am a super sloppy cook, but everything turns out delicious.
lol.. that’s the same way I make a quiche.. spinach, bacon, onion and green chilies are my fav.. totally wing it every time..
Cookie salad is tradition here!
1 lg box instant vanilla pudding
1 cup buttermilk
Mix those two with a mixer and then fold into that 1 container of Cool Whip.
Next, drain each of these and mix together: 1 large can of fruit cocktail, 1 can of pineapple tidbits, 1 can (or two if you love them like we do) Mandarin oranges. Optional to use a few marashino cherries cut in half.
Mix the fruit with the creamy mixture.
1 package of Keeler striped shortbread cookies broken into chunks (keep about four to break in half and make a decoration on top), wait until just before serving to add the cookies or they will get soggy.
Always without fail…Italian Easter Pie (aka Pizza Rustica) or in southern Italian dialects you might hear it called something that sounds like Pizzaghaina. There are probably as many recipes for this as there are Italian cooks. Here’s one of the easier ones for those wanting to give it a try. There are others all over the web (and on Youtube) for those more adventurous. If ever I’m in a situation to be asked what I want for my last meal, this would be it.
https://thisitaliankitchen.com/italian-easter-pie/
My mom always made a custard pie for Easter. Her custard pies were legendary among our friends and family members. Mom was a decidedly southern lady so she was always more than a little circumspect about just how she made such wonderfully tasty pies. Decades later when she was in a nursing home my cousin was trying to replicate mom’s style of custard pie making. When she went to the nursing home and asked mom for advice on how much vanilla to add, mom smiled her secret smile and just said “Oh, a little bit . . .”. 🙂
My second favorite kind of pie is coconut custard.
That is the response I got when I wanted to learn recipes from a couple older family members. I was looking for precise measurements, and they said you just add a little of this and a little of that!
My aunt and her cousin went to their grandma asking for recipes and measured what she said and printed a little recipe book for family.
Easy Peasy , 😉
http://bakingbites.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/fieldofpeeps.jpg
https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.QwjHQwCCgwngjQVJALp2XwHaE8&pid=Api&P=0&w=233&h=155
My favorite Easter story. Every year our church would have a sunrise service and my father took great pride in setting it up on our farm. He would put up crosses in exactly the right place so that the shadow of the cross would be on the people assembled for the service making the bright sunlight surround the cross. I was helping him early one Saturday morning right at sunrise. We were finishing up and admiring “our” work. My dad asked, “What do you think?” My response was “If Easter is the resurrection, why do we have crosses and not a garden?”
Dad thought for just a moment and sort of nodded and said, “We need to be reminded that Jesus conquered death for us on the cross and because of that there was nothing to see in the Garden.”
My Grandfather was a Congregationalist Minister so Easter was very special. I
Do not remember this but my first Easter he was giving the sermon and I started blabbering very loudly. He got me and did the rest of the sermon holding me at the pulpit.
So the Grandparents have been gone for many years now, my dad too. I still do everything like they are here. Spiral Ham with orange caramel glaze. Fill the bottom of sauce pan with brown sugar, medium heat. Squeeze and orange or 2 into the sugar and stir until it looks right. Sorry, nobody writes recipes on either side so however a glaze should look to you!
I also do a quiche, usually spinach and bacon with whatever cheese I want that year. One stick frozen butter to 3 handfuls of flour, sometimes 4 and a pinch of kosher salt. I use my hands to combine the flour and butter to a curd like consistency. I add a few handfuls of ice water depending upon the humidity could be 4 could be 6. Turn onto wax paper, twist into a ball and refrigerate for at least 5 hours no more than 12. Roll out. Add 5 or 6 eggs beaten with about 3 seconds of cream, spinach, cheese, cooked meat. Sometimes I blind bake the shell for 10 minutes at 350, sometimes I forget. Anyway the whole thing takes about 45min to 80 minutes when knife is clean.
Both Grandmas were German, with Dad’s mixed with English. Dad’s dad was Scottish and Mom’s all Welsh. For me, Easter is all about them and how much I miss and love them. Some wonderful people. So glad we get to tell our stories!
Bird nest cookie time:
Thanks, I just bought all the stuff to make this with the kids!
Country ham, biscuits and red eye gravy with a side of fried apples. Maybe some eggs maybe not.
We raised our own hogs on whey from the dairy and old milk with enough ear corn to top them out. My uncle cured the hams for two years. The hams were deliciously salty and the thickly-sliced meat was deep red and firm. It was friend in a skillet with the fat attached. The fat was its own crunchy treat. Some liked and some did not, but the ham was always cooked in its own fat. There is really nothing quite like a two-year old country ham with hot biscuits and homemade butter .
Sounds wonderful
Wow. I can almost taste it. Now I’m going to dream about it.
Dang, you brought back some memories! And you are right, there is nothing like it.
My father-in-law loved peeps. Don’t try this at home…
Retired Magistrate here: During the year I pick up baskets for between 25 cents and $1.00 to use as Easter Baskets. On Good Friday I dye the eggs and then prepare the Easter Baskets on Saturday. This year I found really good deals on German Chocolate Bunnies and Eggs at Aldi’s. I deliver the Easter Baskets to neighbors and friends. Of course I make a basket for my husband also.
One of my neighbors is 84 and she is taking care of her 56 year old daughter who has breast cancer and is undergoing chemo treatments all this year. It is really an aggressive cancer. So, I hope the big basket I am taking them will bring some joy. That is what this life is all about; bringing joy to others.
Our little country church will have an Easter sunrise service, then Easter breakfast, then our Easter service with communion. We have a small older congregation, but we love the LORD and each other.
Kind of place I would love to go to
Sharing for sure!
May I add one more “must have” on our table for Easter? It’s a sweet Italian Easter bread. Not only is it tasty, it serves double-duty as an attractive centerpiece on the table. Again, there are as many recipes for this bread as there are cooks. Here is a link to just one of many. A web search and Youtube will show many more for you to find one of your liking.
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/easy-italian-easter-bread/
My family makes colored eggs the day before Easter, and I make Hot Cross Buns about a week before. Between church and the kitchen, I stay pretty busy – and then with grandkids tossed into the mix, it’s a little crazy! But fun. My grandkids love to go to church with me because my church is small and homey.
yeah let’s promote an agenda that seeks to marinize the real reason for Easter. We are being duped by the bunny and the santa.
Good example of one of the reasons Christians have become such poor evangelizers. People like you take the joy out of everything. I have made posts every Sunday since Lent began, had an Ash Wednesday post, and I have a number of things scheduled for Holy Week, very somber things.
I will spend a lot of time in prayer this week, and attend special services at my church on Thursday night. Friday at 3 I’ll be where I almost always am on Good Friday, I’ll be in the empty Sanctuary waiting with Jesus. I will not be at a special family get together because the chose Good Friday to have it.
You know nothing about me and my faith and your condescension and scorn is offensive. I suggest strongly you just skip my posts in the future.
God bless. My kind of person!
I went to the Stations of the Cross service at a rural Catholic Church last week. It was powerful, so I thank you for encouraging people to go an actual Stations of the Cross service, otherwise I would have never attended.
I thought of you and included you in my prayer time. The churches I attend have various traditional Easter services I participate in, but I had never gone to one at a Catholic Church. It was good and I am happy I went.
im glad you enjoyed to Stations, and thank you so much for your prayers! I will return them to you.
Love this
God bless you, Menagerie. Thank you for your response to Mr Pie. His attitude is really a good example of why Christians have become poor evangelist.
How is sharing recipes for traditional religious celebratory meal a bad thing?
Saint Nicholas was the 3rd century bishop of Myra. He performed many miracles both before and after death and was generous to the poor. Santa Claus is a garbled version of his name but the sentiment of giving remains the same. There’s nothing wrong with a bunny delivering eggs to children.
Where is it written thou shalt never have a smile and laugh in life ? I have another suggestion but I’m going to honor my Grandma and not say it. 😉
https://www.mangiabenepasta.com/easter_11.html
Easter Egg Bread. I made this recipe two years in a row because as a child my Italian grandmother would give me one of these breads for Easter and I was always fascinated about the way the colored hard boiled egg was weaved into the bread itself. I am no baker or cook but the bread came out wonderfully! I must say it is tastiest made with lard which seems traditionally Sicilian and its only once a year.
I belong to the Byzantine church; it’s my canonical parish but I wasn’t raised there. Historically, our fast was 3 days of water only and we would eat a substantial meal after the Easter Vigil, therefore, the tradition is for each family to bring an Easter basket with ham, sausage, bacon, wine, hrin (grated beets with horseradish), a butter lamb, salt, ard-boiled eggs dyed red with beet juice or colored with onion peels wrapped around and bound, Pascha bread and a simple overnight cheese, covered with an embroidered cloth, and there’s a candle. The candles are lit, Father blesses the food and those who want to stay and eat do so.
The Easter fast is vegan for 40 days; no meat, fish, eggs, dairy, oil or wine. Some people still do that but others can’t, the simple fast is going meatless on Wed and Friday, which is more common. When people talk about “meatless Mondays” I let them know that it’s the traditional Christian fast not to eat meat on Wednesday and Friday, they’re just copying us and doing it on Monday to seem secular.
But definitely lamb
My grandma always, ALWAYS had pickled beats she canned herself, pickles, cheese and deliciousness on the Easter table in addition to all the normal food ! I loved it!!!! She was always such an amazing hostess! She’s still alive but doesn’t host anymore because with all the grandkids and great grandkids there isn’t any room at her house for all of us!
You’re sweet enough Menagerie, but if you make them, I’ll eat your share so the cravings won’t last. tee hee hee.
When my kids were little we made empty tomb cookies. The recipe covers the Resurrection story while you are preparing them. You tape (seal) the oven while they bake on low overnight. When you open them they are hollow in the middle.
Amazing, Menagerie. I’ve never seen anything like this . I enjoyed the video a lot and thanks so much for posting it.
So, I’m late to the party here. My kids were late with the menu for our gathering tomorrow. My granddaughter has requested banana pudding and deviled eggs. I make the pudding and Gramps makes the eggs.
We are going to try coloring the egg whites before filling them. I found the instructions online. Mix 20 drops of food color in 1/2 cup of unheated water. Peel the hard boiled eggs and drop them in the colored water. Can leave up to 2 hours for a deeper color. This only cors the outside. I’m going to slice the eggs in half and remove the yolks then place the whites into the different colored waters while Grampa makes the filling. This will be interesting and I’m hoping they turn out like I’m imagining.
I better get busy with the pudding. Happy Easter to one and all.