My Polish Easter

I enjoy keeping food traditions for holidays. My heritage is a mix of Polish, Hungarian and Puerto Rican. Easter always means Polish for me. Having lived with my Polish grandma for a good part of my life I can't imagine the Easter meal any other way. There is something about the experience of food that brings back memories very deeply. I love thinking that the traditions I create now will live through my children and their future children. 

My New Years Eve meal is always Latino. It can't get more festive for ringing in the new year than that! I make some of my own concoctions as well as my husband's favorites that he grew up with. He is 100% NY Puerto Rican, his family is steeped in food tradition. His mom has taught me how to make the family favorites. Our Thanksgiving is all American, we like to eat what we suspect the Pilgrims might have. For Christmas it's Victorian England for us, we have no familial ties there. Both my husband and I are literature fiends, we wish to experience a Dicken's fantasy Christmas. Let's get back to Easter!...

I used buttery babka dough this year to make buns for Good Friday.

Of course, the lamb cake made its appearance. You can see one of my "dressed" lambs here.

Days before Easter my daughter was busy planning out her egg dying designs as I was busy planning my meal. I will probably save this paper forever.

Good Friday/Baking Day

I started baking for Easter on Good Friday (Bad Friday as my girls refer to it). I planned to do some on Friday and some on Saturday, but one thing led to another and I went and did it all. Here are my traditional hot cross buns that we have every Good Friday for tea.

Another tradition for me and my Polish Easter meal, the Babka. Babka baking is one of the best smells.

Hot Dog Buns, not exactly the usual Easter fare at my house, but I wanted to have something to take to church on Friday night. Something to share that's easy to eat. I don't have TV but I do have a couple of Youtube channels I watch faithfully. One of the is Kumigar, The Dancing Chef. I recently saw her make these. She calls them "Sexy Buns", for me they are just hot dog buns. Anyway, they're a handy portable snack. 

I make chick and bunny shortbread cookies each year, but this is the first year I am really happy with them. They are always good (butter, sugar and flour-what's not to like?), but never that perfect shortbread I've always been looking for. Until now. I think I have it. Everyone in my house has dubbed these the best so far. They are from my newest favorite tea book, Vintage Tea Party. It's really good if you want traditional tried and true British tea recipes.  It's visually inspiring as well. All of the ingredients are measured out on a scale, the European way instead of using measuring cups. Maybe that's why they came out better. I like the easy cleanup of using a scale, one bowl and no cups to wash. I'm considering converting my American recipes to ounces after spending years converting the other way around!