Easter 2023

[Margaret Pilgrim]

2 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I made it once when I lived in Montana. It is delicious but a lot of work. Yours is gorgeous.

Husband's Austrian-Montanan grandmother, mother, aunt and cousin all  made poteca, silently suggesting it was in their genes.    I started making it and thought that mine rivaled any of theirs    Husband repeated told me, "It's not like my grandmother's."    I finally asked him just how hers differed.   "She used a wood stove oven without thermostat and hers were always burned on top."    I put up the white flag, saying, "I give up."

[Tropicalsenior]

6 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Austrian-Montanan grandmother, mother, aunt and cousin all  made poteca, silently suggesting it was in their genes.

The family that I was visiting was Polish and that was exactly their attitude. They made theirs at Christmas time and one holiday in the summer. The world would have fallen apart if they hadn't made poteca.

Edited April 12, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[heidih]

I am pleased to say that I was abe to re-purpose my fiasco country pork ribs into a delighful "curry". Cut the lean meat away from the slabs of dense fat, small chunks. Sauced with onion, serrano chile, salsa verde, and hot mustard. Finished with tons of rough chopped cilantro and yogurt. Served with CalRose rice and leftover coleslaw.  2 happy meals of those leftovers. Felt good to not be left with the lingering "ick what was I thinking" fom Easter.

[chileheadmike]

On 4/12/2023 at 1:23 PM, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Made poteca, a traditional Eastern European holiday bread from husband's family, to take to Easter brunch.   

Dough rolled thin

 

Walnut filling spread

 

Rolled and rising

 

Baked and sliced

 

It looks very much like povitca from Strawberry Hill in Kansas City, KS.

Really good stuff. 

 

https://strawberryhill.com/povitica/

[Kim Shook]

I knew that technically fried chicken shouldn’t have been at the Seder, but there are SO many cloudy areas (I found restrictions about matzoh balls and recipes for matzoh ball soup), that I just said the heck with it – no shcllfish, no pork and no leavening.  LOL

 

Funny to find so many rosemary-averse cooks at a food site.  I’m one, too.  I love the smell and don’t mind a tiny bit in certain foods, but a little goes a VERY long way, I find. 

 

Things got away from me this year (what else is new?) and I was just overwhelmed.  I was still cooking and cleaning and decorating at 9am Easter morning and that is NOT me.  Didn’t manage church because I still had so much to do – even after 2 almost sleepless nights in a row.  But dinner was good and what our guests could see of the house looked fine.  I posted the meal HERE on the dinner thread. 

 

The table:

 

 

 

Each place setting had these little treat baskets:

 

Jessica did really well with her food.  She didn’t complain or resist making half recipes to cut down on our normally huge amounts of leftovers.  She got the timing fairly well and she worked herself pretty well into my timeline.  And we didn’t argue.  Mr. Kim predicted we’d bitch at each other and embarrass him in front of his family (I grew up in two very loud ethnic families, so I embarrass him on a regular basis).  We secretly agreed to prove him wrong, and we did. It was actually fun not fighting. 

 

Still on an about food note, my MIL gave me these placemats for an Easter hostess gift:

Could not be any more ‘me’!

[blue_dolphin]

Your table looks so pretty and spring-like, @Kim Shook, I love it!

[heidih]

18 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Your table looks so pretty and spring-like, @Kim Shook, I love it!

Love it!  And the lady bug chocolate. As kids we enjoyed them visually but not so much to eat as they were usually a very dark chocolate with  a marzipan center. As far as I went back then was the dark chocolate in those Hershey minis.

[Duvel]

1 hour ago, Kim Shook said:

The table:

Just lovely, @Kim Shook 💕

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Absolutely lovely, and I appreciate the

amount of work that went into so much planning and detail.    

[Shelby]

2 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

I knew that technically fried chicken shouldn’t have been at the Seder, but there are SO many cloudy areas (I found restrictions about matzoh balls and recipes for matzoh ball soup), that I just said the heck with it – no shcllfish, no pork and no leavening.  LOL

 

Funny to find so many rosemary-averse cooks at a food site.  I’m one, too.  I love the smell and don’t mind a tiny bit in certain foods, but a little goes a VERY long way, I find. 

 

Things got away from me this year (what else is new?) and I was just overwhelmed.  I was still cooking and cleaning and decorating at 9am Easter morning and that is NOT me.  Didn’t manage church because I still had so much to do – even after 2 almost sleepless nights in a row.  But dinner was good and what our guests could see of the house looked fine.  I posted the meal HERE on the dinner thread. 

 

The table:

 

 

 

Each place setting had these little treat baskets:

 

Jessica did really well with her food.  She didn’t complain or resist making half recipes to cut down on our normally huge amounts of leftovers.  She got the timing fairly well and she worked herself pretty well into my timeline.  And we didn’t argue.  Mr. Kim predicted we’d bitch at each other and embarrass him in front of his family (I grew up in two very loud ethnic families, so I embarrass him on a regular basis).  We secretly agreed to prove him wrong, and we did. It was actually fun not fighting. 

 

Still on an about food note, my MIL gave me these placemats for an Easter hostess gift:

Could not be any more ‘me’!

You really go all out.  I used to be like that.  Then,  I stopped lol.  It's just gorgeous.  Could you come over and help me with my house???   

[Anna N]

How very lovely, @Kim Shook  

[Kim Shook]

Thank you all so much for the compliments!  Setting a pretty table is always a fun project for me.  The new thing that I really enjoyed this year can be seen best in the 3rd photo.  That is a decorative paper vase cover.  We found them at a little shop when we were on our anniversary trip.  They come in a bunch of different designs and sizes (three different sizes come together) and you use them to cover up useful, but not terribly attractive "vases" for flowers.  The largest one covered a tall drinking glass, the medium one covered a small canning jar and the little one covered a spice jar.  They are very heavy, glossy paper and I'm hoping that they'll last a long time.