I don’t celebrate Easter myself, but I am currently in Germany where it seems the entire country is on vacation and/or looking forward to a lovely dinner tomorrow. The kitchen in my rental leaves a lot to be desired, so I haven’t been cooking a whole lot lately, but the festivities surrounding me have inspired me to make a nice meal for myself and my roommate for tomorrow. I’m planning seared duck breasts in a blackberry-red wine sauce, pasta with melted leeks and grana cheese, and a spinach salad with mustard vinaigrette. Dessert will probably be a chocolate bunny or two! Would love to hear what everyone else is cooking, and happy Easter to those who celebrate!
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Enjoy!!!
We have no religious faith so don’t celebrate Easter/Passover but do celebrate the weekend as the beginning of spring. There’s pretty much a ritual to the coming Sunday dinner - has to feature roast lamb.
We’ll start with potted shrimps (perhaps our best known regional delicacy - and rightly so). Then the lamb (it’s from a Herdwick sheep which is the most flavourful breed I know - and it’s also local to the region). There’s new potatoes, simply boiled. Peas - from frozen at this time of year. Gravy, of course. And mint sauce - with Easter being early and weather so cold, I don’t have many shoots coming up in the garden, but there should be enough. Then a nibble on some Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese. Mrs Harters has said she’s going to make rice pudding - it’ll be to a Nigel Slater recipe and served cold, with a dollop of supermarket bought gooseberry compote on top. Coffee will be accompanied by Cadbury’s mini-eggs - on the basis that, whilst you can take the girl out of Salford, you can’t take the Salford out of the girl (so Mrs H says).
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Ham, boiled baby potatoes, asparagus with lemon and butter, peas and spring onions in cream, carrots, and deviled eggs. Strawberry shortcake for dessert.
Springlike food. I’m on my way to the farmers’ market right now. 
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No easter meal here chez moi, not religious and no tradition. I just want some Easter chocolates! Other French families probably have some family meal like eggs or asparagus related entries and lamb as main, chocolate eggs, hens, fishes, as desserts.
A question concerning hot cross buns for @Harters. I am thinking of baking them tomorrow, is it too late now? Is it a tradition to eat this at Easter? When do you normally eat this? As breakfast or teas? Do you make you make it at home or rather buy them in bakery? Thanks.
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In wikipedia about hot cross bun’s various European versions, they talk about the Northern German “Hedwig” - maybe it is something you can try:
In the Bremen area in northern Germany, a “Hedwig” (lower Saxon: heet week) was an ancient Shrove Tuesday meal. On Shrove Tuesday, the top of a Hedwig was cut off and the Hedwig was filled with a tablespoon of hot butter and cinnamon-powder. The top was put back again and the Hedwig was served in a soup plate filled with hot milk or cream. Lastly, a tablespoon of cinnamon-sugar was mulled over the Hedwig, then eaten with a tablespoon. Today, a Hedwig is the sweet part of a Sunday breakfast in northern Germany.
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For single me, Easter is no more than a opportunity to get a TJ’s quarter ham. I managed to find one under 4# but it is still a lot of meat to get through. I chopped some up in Thai pineapple fried rice but mostly use it for sandwiches. Today’s was a success: with Swiss melted on a Thomas banana bread flavor English muffin, TJ’s truffle mustard, Kewpie mayo, romaine, and Stonewall Kitchen maple bacon onion jam.
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Yep - Easter tradition. The cross on the bun represents Christ’s cross. I suppose they’d be eaten as a snack, as might any cake or biscuit. Personally, I don’t like the flavour so never have them but, if I did, I’d buy them from the bakers (unless Mrs H decided to bake)
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At our house Easter=spring=lamb and we started tonight.
My husband made this NYT Lamb Tagine recipe with a few changes.
Vegatable stock instead of meat stock and added carrots for the last 60 minutes.
It was delicious. We almost omitted the almonds and lemon at the end but am glad we didn’t. Both really brought the dish up a notch.
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“Eternity is a ham and two people” (or in your case: one person).
Dorothy Parker or Irma Rombauer
Good luck! This post from Kalyn’s Kitchen blog about uses for leftover ham may help:
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My family is Italian-American and in the Northeast US Easter is often mild. We do not have a formal sit down dinner more of a casual lunch hosted by my Aunt and Uncle who have a spacious yard and rambling patio area. Easter standards are Pizza Rustica (a savory egg pie), artichokes in seveal forms and ricotta cheesecake but it is our most casual and unformatted of the major holidays. Im hoping for manicotti my aunt makes the crepes perfectly it’s her speciality.
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I was hoping for al fresco weather this year too, but alas, it’s snowing in Berlin today. My birthday is in early April as well and my mother used to plan outdoor birthday parties for me when I was a kid, eternally optimistic that spring would be here by then. In Michigan. LOL. I think we were able to play games on the lawn once in my entire childhood!
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Starting from next Tuesday, should be getting really warm there. 16ºC -20ºC daytime! Gee, even warmer than in Paris!
Yes, I saw that - can’t wait! Of course, I have to head off to Vienna just in time for the nice weather, LOL. Hopefully it will bring lots of green and blooming things to the surface for me to enjoy when I return!
Greek easter feast that starts at 1 am.
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