Posts Tagged ‘Easter’

You smell the incense before you see it. It’s sweet, piney, copal warmth. It’s moving at the perfect pace with the breeze. And to catch that scent, out in open air means it’s burning heavily, rolling through the streets like the vol­canoes that frame the sky of Antigua, Guatemala. The cobblestone streets are lined with families. Makeshift push carts of nuts and cotton candy move past you. Fresh slices of papaya are offered by traditionally dressed women, seated along the curbs. They are slicing at their ground-level kitchens. It almost […]

I normally host Easter Sunday for my family and friends, and right now, I’d be gearing up for the party – ordering the paper goods, getting all the soda, liquor and wine, buying the canned antipasto, olives, artichokes and roasted red peppers.  Today and Saturday I would’ve been on my feet, cooking nonstop in preparation for Sunday. It feels strange to not be doing it this year. To mitigate this feeling of “Easter is canceled”, I pulled out the bins of decorations from the basement and made the house look […]

I was a little overzealous after my successful baking venture with homemade pretzels a few weeks back. This past weekend, I decided to bake something for the Easter season, to get into the spirit. It would cheer me up, since obviously, I had to cancel my annual Easter Sunday Party. I thought it would be fun to bake Italian Easter bread (Pane Di Pasqua). This bread is symbolic of the season.The eggs represent rebirth and renewal. The bread, the Body of Christ, and the sweetness is for celebrating after the […]

Eggs, for thousands of years and in many cultures are symbolic of birth and renewal. Deviled eggs* are commonly made as an appetizer (pickys!) on Easter Sunday for this reason. My family follows this custom every year. My mother has always used a traditional mix of mustard, mayo and egg yolks for her deviled eggs. She garnishes with a sliced black olive and paprika “for color”, as Flo always says. But there are many contemporary variations – you can use combinations of garlic, horseradish, pickles, turmeric, relish, chilis, salsa, thyme, cilantro, […]

As Easter approaches, I am reminded of my days as a little girl in Ozone Park awaiting wearing a lovely new dress, shiny patent leather shoes, a wide-brimmed hat and the arrival of the Easter bunny with lots of chocolate and jelly beans. We wore the pretty dress and hat for church and the sweets would be there in the basket when we got home. There were some other connections to the taste of Easter with the Italian pastries that included grain pie and sweet bread with colored hard-boiled eggs […]