Easter 2017

To all who celebrate...I hope you enjoyed yourself!

As is the yearly tradition, we headed to my aunt's to celebrate with family.
This year, two of the cousins are bringing their significant others for the first time.

One cousin, K, decided to have a little fun. When H (girlfriend) asked him what we usually have to eat, he got all serious and decided he was gonna "sell her" on our Easter. He was like "oh, it's great...we get fresh kielbasa and boil it. It's a very lovely shade of gray once cooked. Then we get eggs and dye them with onion peels, they come out flat brown"
At this point she had a what did I get myself into look on her face.
My aunt said she couldn't stand it anymore, she started laughing.
I get it, we have some odd foods for Easter, but, that's what memories are made of.
(click here to read more about our traditions)

Hubby has just had his surgery, but he was determined to go. He ended up lasting about 2 hours. Pretty impressive if you ask me!

Due to, well, life...our "guest list" is smaller than usual this year, so Auntie is being very specific about what people are bringing, she doesn't want 100 lbs of leftovers.
This year I have been asked to make
Baked Beans
Coconut Pound Cake

Hope everyone had exactly the day they hoped for!

Pork Fritters

To all who celebrate, I hope you enjoyed your Easter!

We went to my aunt's house with most of the rest of the family It's weird as the kids get older and begin their own lives. We were missing 3 of the cousins to other obligations, and they were really missed!

We did all of our typical Lithuanian traditions and foods as well as other delicious stuffs!

Per usual, I was asked to bring baked beans and a dessert. I managed a polka dot cake this year which was really awesome!

Ingredients:

1 Lb pork tenderloin (sliced ½ inch thick)

1 Egg (beaten)

3 Tbsp Milk

1 Sleeve saltine crackers (crushed fine)

¾ Cup All purpose flour

1 Tsp Salt

½ Tsp pepper

Oil for frying

Directions:

1. Flatten pork with a meat mallet

2. Place egg and milk in a small bowl and blend well

3. Combine crackers, flour, and seasonings in another bowl

4. Dip pork in egg mixture, and then in crumb mixture until well coated

5. Heat oil in large skillet

6. Fry pork until deep golden brown on both sides

Print

Adapted from Gooseberry Patch

Come party with me HERE!

Happy Easter 2015

To all my readers, Happy Easter and Happy Passover to you all!

Today we head to my aunt's house, we get to see all the aunts/uncles and most of the cousins (on my side at least).
One cousin can't come home from college for the holiday, and one has to work...but, we can understand such things.

On hubby's side of the family, a group of them headed to Ireland for vacation, leaving one aunt home alone for the holiday. She will be joining us for the festivities, which will be a huge change for her. Hubby's immediate family is a much smaller crew than my side. When we get together, it's 12-14 people....on my side, it's more like 30-35.
She's the type to feel overwhelmed at this.
We are heading over early so there will be less people when we get there...isn't it always easier to adjust when you are one of the first ones there?
She knows everyone who is coming, she is just nervous.

Today I am bringing
Baked Beans
Creamed Spinach
Banana Cake with Peanut Butter Icing

Let the egg cracking commence!

Easter 2014

Happy Easter to all who celebrate!

Loved checking out FaceBook this AM and seeing some of the Easter baskets and treats some of my friends and family have done up.
My kinda cousin was scanning Pinterest and decided her little lady needed to see bunny toes when she woke up this am....

Dying to hear what the reaction will be!

This year is a little odd for us.
My mother in law decided last minute that she was going to host a small Easter and wanted us there.
(Hubby doesn't get it, he thinks a week is more than enough notice, I say it's still short notice when it comes to a holiday, esp one you already have plans for. What say you?)
So, breakfast with my side and a later lunch with his.
Can we say mass quantities of food?!

My side:
(for further description of odd sounding dishes, check out last year's Easter where I explain them all)
Babka
Kielbasa
Pyraga
Fruit Salad
Ham
Egg Casserole (x2...one regular, and one gluten free)
(I made the following)
Baked Beans
Strawberry Cheesecake Cake
Key Lime Pie

Hubby's Side:
Ham
Steak
Mashed Potato
Sweet Potato Casserole
Salad
Raspberry Cake
(I made the following)
Chocolate Toffee Cream Pie


Let me tell you though, my kitchen stories of the day.
Sigh.

Made the Chocolate Cream pie. Looked delicious....put it in the fridge.
I went to grab something later....and knocked a whole pound of butter INTO my pie! You should have seen me trying to doctor it up. Sigh. I did the best I could. It's no longer gorgeous...but it will have to do.

While making the Key Lime Pie, I set it in the other room to cool (my kitchen is too tiny, and when I have a million projects, I take over the dining room too). Kept going and forgot about it. Realized I needed it in the fridge, grabbed it...and promptly stuck my finger into the meringue on top. There is no fixing that. One could say...I left my "mark"...(cue drum roll....)

Then there was the strawberry cheesecake cake.
I always thought my round cake pans were 9 inches
and that my springform was 9 inches.
Yeah, not so much.
My cheesecake was much bigger than my cake. Always fun to try to carve frozen cheesecake. That is a Saturday adventure everyone should have (sigh).
Then my frosting didn't turn out frosting-y...it's gloopy.
I used it anyhow because it tastes amazing.

That's OK.
I am sure the family enjoyed them anyhow. Ugly food can still be good food.

Happy Day After Easter!

To all of my friends who celebrate, I hope you enjoyed your day!

Our yearly celebration takes place at my Nana's house every year. We have all sorts of traditions, and it's a joy to watch all the generations happily participating.

1. Onion Peel Eggs: Always someone has the traditional red eggs (I do believe this is a Greek custom). They are made by boiling tons (we save 6 months- 1 year worth) of onion peels with some vinegar. Strain, and let return to room temperature. Use this liquid to boil your eggs, up to 20 minutes.

Of course the littles all bring their eggs made with the multi colored dye packs, but we have had the red eggs every single year.

2. Egg cracking contest: This is an old Polish/Russian tradition. One player holds their egg in their palm, wrapped in a fist, with the top of the egg poking out from the circle made with your thumb and first finger. The opponent grabs his egg and end-to-end cracks yours from top.

If your shell cracks, you must flip your egg and try again.
The person with two broken ends gets to peel and eat their egg.
The "winner" has to keep going until either they end up broken as well.

At the end of the day, we have a"Champion of the Free World".
This person's name gets hung up until next year. When people are ready to start "cracking" they need to start with the reigning champ.

3. Candy hunts: The Easter bunny leaves candy eggs around the inside of Nana's house! Nana has the hotline number, she calls him every year to let him know how many grandkids are going to be there.
(for the record, there are 14 of us grands and great grands. Age ranging from 45-3).
While the kids are looking for those, the Easter Bunny comes back and hides some in the yard!
Nana takes such joy at watching the kids look for candy! Even the teenagers of the family (usually "too cool" for such things) love doing this, even if only to help the littles.

4. The food: We all knew I would get to this at some point!

As a true Lithuanian family, we stick to some of the old food traditions.
Every year we have a potato babka. (not to be confused with the sweet yeast bread babka). It is a dense potato cake made with shredded potato, eggs, milk, and onion. We serve it hot with salt and sour cream (2 of the cousins use butter. no thanks!)

We also have pyragas, which is a dense, sweet, raisin bread.

Always, always, always we have fresh kielbasa. Served with heaps of mustard.

On top of all this, family brought so many other good things.
Fruit salad
Egg/Ham frittata
Spiral ham
Apple muffins
Cinnamon rolls
Fudge
Cookies

Yeah, and if that wasn't enough, I brought these favorites
(Will link when posted)
Biscuits and Gravy
Baked Beans
Tortellini Salad
Pear Bread Pudding

We all ate way too much, and left there way too full!
Not jealous of those who had to leave right after to eat again at the spouse's family's Easter!

Us, we ate our fill, came home and watched a movie.
(Paranormal Activity 2. WORST MOVIE EVER!)
The roast beef and broccoli casserole are in the oven now.

It's been hours, we are ready to eat again.
Don't judge!

I hope you enjoyed your holiday with your loved ones.
What are your traditions and favorite Easter recipes?