I don't care about bunnies. (Although I love chocolate!) And we do sponsor Easter egg hunts for the little kids... the bigger kids!!! And then the grandkids, so I'm not as purist as I could be!
I don't put up lots of fluff/spring decorations. (Although there's nothing wrong with that!!!) But Lacey has some cute stuff she brought for Easter brunch so we could take family pictures by the fireplace, and that was fun. Dave brought home a couple of flowers to put alongside, but it's been so cold and gray here, they weren't blooming! So funny!
Here's Seth and Lacey's family pic:
And you can see that the fire is going behind them, because it was snowing out! :)
Gotta love the north! Go Yankees!!! But back to Holy Week, such a treasure of faith and grace:
I love the glory of Palm Sunday dissolving into the angst of an innocent man, accused...
I love Holy Thursday, the washing of the feet, the beautiful Mass, the choir, the solemn procession of the Holy Eucharist at the end, the Veneration... and then church hopping, an old tradition of stopping into three separate churches to pray before you go home. And the churches are open, lights are on or dimmed and folks gather to pray, from church to church.
And then Good Friday, the solemn service remembering the greatest sacrifice. LOVE IT.
This year I decided we'd bring back an old tradition from my grandfather, Jack Logan. Lamb.
I love lamb. (KAV!!! I'M SORRY!!!!)
So this year I bought lamb chops at Sam's Club and honestly, what a simple feast! These were 1" cut chops, so fairly thick which is good because they're small (shh.... we don't have to think about WHY they're small!!!)
And then on Easter, in the busy-ness, I couldn't find my little camera. OH. GRRRR!!!!!!
But I've got a nice final picture, and really, this was easy, traditional and one of those Easter things you should try. ( But not Kav because she'll probably never speak to me again for eating lambies!!!)
Sprinkle lamb chops with Roasted Garlic and Herb seasoning.
Cover bottom of large frying pan with a thin coating of olive oil. Heat the oil until hot... Add in the seasoned lamb chops, sear on one side. Flip. Then sear on second side. Flip again. Cover and cook over medium heat until desired doneness.... We like ours medium, so slightly pink in the middle.
Serve with mint jelly.
Oh my stars, (hides head while admitting this!)... These were so tender and delicious! And it reminded me of Biblical times and times when my Grandpa would drop off a leg o' lamb before Easter. Once Grandpa passed away, we never had lamb again, and it wasn't until I was grown up that I realized that the cost made lamb prohibitive, and that was okay... Ham is wonderful, too! And another old/new tradition is Jello jiggler Easter eggs, a crowd pleaser:
It has been an experience sharing how we all celebrate Easter, no matter where we are. My favorite day of the year for so many reasons. Take away Christmas, I'm good but Easter and Holy Week? Like you said, the sanctity and grace suffuse the air, no matter where you are, if there is already pollen blowing or still snow on the ground.
ReplyDeleteI am not speaking to you about lamb. I am still recovering from our Farmer's Market vendor putting up cute pictures of piglets born last week...the same ones that will appear at market in another form at some point. Ack!
Happy Eastertide to you!
You know, when I wrote "Waiting Out the Storm" about a woman, Sarah Slocum, who raised sheep and lambs for market, I expected a backlash .
DeleteI didn't get it, and I was so glad of that! Shepherding has been around since the beginning of farming, and those shepherds in that field when Christ was born weren't just hanging around. They were watching over tomorrow's meals and sacrifices.
So when I played with the idea of bringing lamb back for Easter it seemed right. Support your local sheep farmer! :) I noticed a lot of the lamb displays came from New Zealand in cryovacced packaging. And people will go to New Zealand to learn more about shepherding, isn't that interesting? Although I found a sheep expert at Cornell University cooperative extension who took me through their barns in the North Country (St. Lawrence County, NY) and explained the STARS program to me, which I used in "Waiting out the Storm".
If I had more time on the planet, I'd probably be raising a flock. No shearers up here and that's a crucial element of shepherding. Gotta have shearers!
I might be laughing at you about the piglets. :) I do love bacon!!!
Wait...I though Sarah raised her sheep for the wool. You mean....gasp!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI always thought I could be a shepherd. Cute fuzzy sheep that you shear once a year ....or is it twice? And voila, everyone lives happily ever after. Me at my spinning wheel spinning the fleece, the sheep frolicking in the meadow and plenty of shelties to herd the flock. My farmer girl bubble has just popped. Waaaaaaahhhhhhhh!
hahahahah! I'm so glad you're not mad at me! Sarah raised her lambs for market and then sold the yearly wool shearing for commercial wool, but once she started her own farm, she never had time to spin or weave... so Craig bought her three little sheep with finer wool to tempt her into marriage at the end... Although it might have been the gorgeous house, cute guy, great kitchen and bedroom with a view that tipped the scales, LOL! I love that story. Sorry about the farmer girl bubble!!!! :)
ReplyDeleteI just wrote a beautiful comment. The best ever.
ReplyDeleteAnd blogger ate it.
Maybe is wasn't as great as I've led myself to believe.... hmmmm....
Anyway - here's the upshot:
Sheep. Yes! I would love to raise sheep! But it's only happening in my work-in-progress :)
Easter. Yes, yes, yes! My favorite day of the year. The center of everything!
Amen to all! Blogger did that to me twice last week, and it was WRONG. So very wrong!!!!
DeleteI've only had lamb once--at my cousin's house in California. And I have to admit it was delicious, even though I had a hard time eating it. :) I just couldn't think about it!
ReplyDeleteI love the jigglers, though!! I'm all about Jello as well as gummi bears. LOL
Am I without a conscience? Am I heartless? I mean we eat fish all the time and they're way smaller than lambs! :) I intend to make this a tradition because my son-in-law Jon and Xavier and Finn both loved it... so we'll start a new heartless generation, Missy! Laughing!
DeleteLOL! I don't know what it is about little lambs! Maybe because they're so cute. Little salmon or tuna? Not so much. ;)
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