Easter Monday - a reason to celebrate

Easter, like Christmas and Thanksgiving, means tradition. These are the days when we pull out the favorite family recipes - gussied up a little, maybe, or tweaked with new methods or ingredients - but still the favorites.

Easter Sunday when I was growing up was always a busy, busy, busy day. My Dad was a pastor, so not only did we have the usual round of Easter pictures, brunch at church, making sure Mom and I both had our matching pairs of white gloves, and praying that April showers would pass by this day, all the usual Sunday things had to happen, too. Dad polishing his sermon in the early morning hours, Mom making sure she had practiced the prelude, offertory and postlude (yes, she was our organist all the way through my growing up years), and my brother and I arguing...all the usual stuff!

But somehow, I remember having big Easter Sunday dinners after we got home from church. Once I was grown and married with my own children, I found myself wondering how Mom did it. I know she got a lot of help from Dad, and I'm sure my brother and I were drafted for table-setting duties, but how did she put Easter dinner on the table?

It's still a mystery.

I know we had ham for dinner most years, or maybe turkey, chicken, or a beef roast. Potatoes, of course. Bread, a green vegetable, pickles (sweet, dill, olives, sometimes pickled beets), and...wait for it...Asparagus Casserole!!!!

I haven't eaten this casserole in years. My dear husband (aka the asparagus hater) won't even let me talk about it.

I forgot to mention, it also had hard-boiled eggs in it, and those are on his list, too. Right up there with asparagus.

Since I haven't made it, and don't have the recipe, I have to guess what's in it. Now keep in mind, this list of ingredients has been plucked from my memory, and the recipe has to be at least sixty-five years old (I'm not that old - only the recipe)! I'm not even sure you can still buy some of these ingredients...

Asparagus Casserole

Ingredients:

2 cans cut asparagus
4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
1/2 cup toasted bread cubes (croutons)
1 can cream of asparagus soup

Mix everything together, reserving a few hard-boiled egg slices and croutons, and put in a casserole dish (use the teal colored pyrex - the round one with the clear lid). Decorate the top with the reserved egg slices and croutons.

Bake uncovered in a medium oven (about 350°) for an hour or so. It should fit in the oven on the rack next to the ham.

Sorry, no pictures. I'm not allowed to make it, remember? If you try it, let me know how it turns out!

But Easter is about so much more than food.

A year ago yesterday, we celebrated my mom's life at her funeral.

If you remember, losing her was a decade-long goodbye as Alzheimer's disease stole her from us a little bit at a time. And the funeral was a bittersweet end to that farewell.

But Easter, Resurrection Sunday, is a reminder for all of us that death is not the end. It's another beginning. It isn't a time to look back - it's a time to look forward into the misty reaches of eternity.

So while I remembered my mom this Easter, and the miracle Easter dinners she somehow fixed for us, I know she is singing the song of the ages in the presence of her Savior.

Hot Cross Buns and Happy Easter!

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I thought I'd share an old (old, old, old) favorite today. I thought maybe someone (Ruthy?) had done this post before but since I don't see it in the labels, I'm going to assume I AM THE FIRST. Don't correct me if I'm wrong!

  So, it's Good Friday (technically Holy Saturday by the time you read this) and hot cross buns are a tradition in our family. You can read about the history of it here. There are some funny superstitions, too, like the belief that they won't go moldy. (I can't check that one since they're already gone, but I'll be a skeptic and say that's false.) Also, some believe that you should keep one on hand for medicinal purposes. Hmmmm, now that I think about it penicillin is a mold, right? Just perhaps someone was cured from a moldy hot cross bun in olden times? Probably not, but a fun theory.

 So, this is what you'll need:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast 
• 1/3 cup  butter, melted
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour 
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup currants
• 1 egg beaten, for the top before baking.

  Combine milk and water in a pan and heat to just steaming. let it cool a bit and sprinkle on the yeast and a bit of the sugar. 

 

 Whisk the butter, eggs, and vanilla together. (Hey, it's looking at me!)

 Wait ten minutes while the yeast gets all happy and has a little yeast party. Add the egg and butter to this mix.

  Mix the flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon (we ran out! Crisis!), ginger together and make a well in the flour. Add the liquid mixture and stir until it's all sticky. Add the currants and mix well.

 Turn the whole thing onto a floured surface and kneed until elastic, about seven minutes. Then put it in a greased bowl, in a warm place, and let it double in size. This usually takes about an hour but it only took 40 minutes so I decided to call it good.

 Form into small balls and place in greased pans. Let them rise again. Do some dishes, some laundry, put the kids in the bath, return a few phone calls, iron church clothes, and track down the puppy who got out of the fence and is wandering the neighborhood.
Or not. You could always just sit down and read for a while. That's always an option.
 When they're nice and puffy, put them into a preheated 375F oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes. Your whole house will smell like EASTER.
 (I forgot to take a pic after forming them into balls, so here's a picture of my oven!)

 The icing should be nice and soft. Or whatever. I'm just making it up at this point. Let's just say, icing goes on the buns in the shape of a cross.

 Awwwww. MMMMMMM.....

 I love the blend of nutmeg and ginger and cinnamon.

 Our favorite part?? The eating!!! My oldest is giving me the "Are you really taking a picture of me right now? You didn't even let me brush my hair!"

 Happy Easter everyone! 

  

 

 

Easter Recipe BONANZA!

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and this is a multi-purpose post. Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and EASTER SUNDAY! We've made it! HALLELUJAH!
                                                             But first... rewind....

 

 I hope everyone has had a wonderful Good Friday. We usually attend a Good Friday service at our church where we venerate the cross, meaning everyone comes up and usually bows or kneels at the foot of the cross. It's very solemn and serious. But this year we were invited by our friend Barbara to a retirement center. She wanted to have an Easter concert sing-a-long. Hey, we love to be invited anywhere, so we said "sure".
   Then we had to practice. Most of the songs she chose were hymns we'd never heard before. The youtube clips she sent for us to listen to (and practice with) included Tennessee Ernie Ford and Alan Jackson and Johnny Cash. My kids had NO IDEA who these people were. It was a great education in musical history and gospel hymns!

                                  (Is it just me, or is this a hilarious little statue to have in a nursing home?)

 Anyway, we learned a lot of new songs, sang a few from our tradition (like Lord of All Hopefulness). It was great fun and there was a big turn out. Of course, these older folks already knew the hymns, so we hardly needed to lead. Which was good because the little guys were busy looking at the fish tanks and rolling around on the ground. They were there for entertainment value, definitely. At the end we passed out Easter goodies, in tiny pastel boxes. My husband folded them, the girls and I filled them with confetti, and the boys added the candies. Hm, I wonder where there were hardly any leftover candies??

Something I love about the Easter season is finding new ways to share the Easter story with kids. The sacrifice of the cross is not a warm and fuzzy story, but it's powerful. But how to introduce small kids to it in a way that really helps them remember the sacrifice and God's love for them?

 Food, of course! We all love food, and we usually remember a good dish long after a puppet show has faded from our memory. My friend Christalee sent me this link to Resurrection Rolls.

 You take a package of refrigerated crescent dough, roll a marshmallow in melted butter, then in sugar and cinnamon. (The sugar and cinnamon are supposed to symbolize the spices the women were bringing to put on Jesus' body.) You roll up the dough, explaining how they rolled a big heavy stone in front and there were soldiers guarding it. And when the rolls are done, you crack them open, and show them... Ta-DAH! The tomb is empty!

I was wondering a little about the marshmallow melting all over (can you tell I have a very literal child who would wonder why Jesus melted??) and then I realized we could talk about how they only found his linen shroud.
 I also want to make them with PEEPS. (photo above)

The next thing I saw was this awesomely cool Easter egg made out of yarn and a balloon. "Heyyyy, I have yarn and a balloon," I thought. 

I was egged on (haha) by my facebook friends.

 (I am sure they only wanted to see the "nailed it" result but I decided to try it.)

Wellllll, here it is. One bottle of Mod Podge, a skein of pink yarn, and the ruin of one giant green balloon later. It wasn't strong enough to sit upright on a pretty cake platter, so it's resting in a plastic bowl. I already have the giant Easter bunny to go in it bu THE KIDS DO NOT KNOW THIS. They think it might appear there, on Easter Sunday. Or maybe some eggs. They're not quite sure what is going to be in there when they wake up on Sunday morning.

 We'll dye eggs tomorrow and the kids always have a great time... but then we have a bazillion boiled eggs that no one wants to eat. Here's another great recipe for colored deviled eggs. How cute are these?? I'm thinking I'd like a tray of just teal and pink. Or maybe just light green and teal.

 The site's directions are very simple. Basically, proceed as if you're making a normal batch of deviled eggs, but use the leftover dye. (What? you threw it out? Oh, wait... you didn't because you haven't dyed your eggs yet, like me.)

Now you're probably wondering where all the REAL food is, right? (Or not, since we're now the blog that is run completely by people trying NOT TO EAT.) Well, Pioneer Woman Cooks (REEEEEE!!!! I love you!!!!) put up a link to all her Easter recipes EVAH.

You need a ham recipe?

 Here's her glazed Easter ham.

How about the most delicious fruit salad on the planet? I've made this without the vanilla bean and it was just as good!

Or this strawberry sparkle cake! This is what i'm making for my post this next Tuesday. Don't expect it to look anything like this, so feel free to immediately forget this photo. Enjoy it now, but come Tuesday, no LAUGHING when my version is somewhat less beautiful. 

I'll leave you with this steampunk egg by Thierry Atlan, the great chocolatier. Forty pounds, five thousand dollars. Who wants to buy this for my Easter basket??

Have a wonderful Easter everyone! May the joy and blessing of the resurrection touch each and every one of you. As we say in our Easter service, "He is risen! Indeed, He is risen!"