Christos Anesti!

I'm not sure if I've told you this or not, but Easter is my favorite holiday. It has been for as long as I can remember, and I only love it more since I've started my own traditions as an adult. This year is a little bittersweet, though. It is our third and my last Easter brunch in Boston, so I wanted it to be extra special. Unfortunately, all of our carnivorous friends cancelled on us, so no lamb. Sanne and I decided to go vegetarian so that Jordan wouldn't feel bad about his lifestyle choices.

Even though this one felt slightly more thrown-together than our typical planned-months-in-advance holiday meals, I am pretty happy with how it came together in the end. And, as you know, I do enjoy a good challenge every now and then. So putting together a vegetarian Easter on a whim was great fun.

Sanne found a super cool recipe for tiny cakes baked inside of hollowed-out Easter eggs, and I finally decided on a salad. We also decided on white truffle green beans and a quiche. Jordan brought two different kinds of Matzo Kugel -a traditional Passover dish.

I started with the vinaigrette for my salad. I followed the recipe exactly, but found it to be a little dry, so I added a little more lemon juice and olive oil.

2 cups (packed) flat-leaf parsley (leaves and stems)

1/2 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 tablespoon Champagne vinegar

1 garlic clove, crushed

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Meanwhile, Sanne got to work on the eggs, dyeing and draining them of their innards.

After draining them, she rinsed them really well and set them to dry overnight. 

I boiled some water for tea, and added some sugar and a half a bag of frozen strawberries. I put that in the refrigerator overnight.

This morning, I joined my mom for church while sautéing some spinach and shallots for quiche. You really can't go wrong with quiche, and there are so many possibilities.

To that, I added some chopped tomato, about 1/2 a medium chopped onion and 8 oz. of cheddar cheese. Also, 1c half and half (or 4 1/2t butter and a little milk).

For the salad, I sliced 2 stalks of celery on an extreme diagonal, and tore off the leaves of 1 medium radicchio head. Hehe, radicchio-head.

I tossed the radicchio with a few tablespoons of the dressing and laid it out on a platter.

Then, I did the same with 1 can of drained and rinsed cannelini beans and celery...

...put it on top of the radicchio, and topped it with 1 drained can of albacore tuna (in water, not oil). I drizzled a little of the vinaigrette on top of that.

Sanne mixed up a lemon-y sour cream cake and used a ziplock bag with a teeny hole snipped out of it to fill each egg shell about halfway with batter. Using aluminum foil, she propped them up in muffin tins and baked them at 350 for about 20 minutes.

We needed one more quick and easy side, so I sauteed some green beans and onion in a little olive oil and white truffle oil, seasoned with s+p and a little italian seasoning.

Jordan brought a sweet kugel with apples, and a savory one with mushrooms and onions, which had a little kick to it. Both were delicious!

Finally, it was time for dessert! The cake overflowed a little from the eggs, but situated just so, you can't even tell. They were adorable. And the cake turned out awesome-- light and fluffy with a great flavor.

me and my jew

so fun to eat! Definitely try these if you have kids!

I'm really glad we went meatless this year. Sometimes a great salad and a few thoughtful side dishes are all you need. I don't know if I could pick a favorite, but the salad was really tasty, especially the vinaigrette. And the cakes, of course, were heavenly. Also, mushroom kugel, I'm glad I kept some leftovers. Go team!

Speaking of eggs, look at Shamus's Easter-y self, lookin out the window...

How was your Passover/ Resurrection Sunday/ Easter? Cook anything good? Anyone celebrating again next weekend? It's Greek Easter! I might take that opportunity to try out that lamb! Plus, it means I would get to celebrate my favorite holiday two weeks in a row. Any more Easters I should know about?
m

Good Friday

As I was perusing Easter recipes this past week, I came across a few interesting menus on www.bonappetit.com, specifically spring salads. I really liked a few of them, like white bean and tuna with radicchio and parsley vinaigrette, and frisee and wild mushroom with poached egg, and this one: spring greens with smoked fish and herbed aioli. I thought the last one would be the perfect traditional Good Friday dinner. Plus, I've been meaning to try my hand at a homemade aioli recipe. I followed the recipe almost exactly, except I didn't have chives, and I did add a pinch of cayenne pepper, which I had seen in another aioli recipe.

whisking eggs, water, lemon juice and olive oil in a double broiler

adding more olive oil...

...parsley and cayenne pepper, s+p to taste.

toss with evoo and lemon juice...

and assemble.

Holy crow, was it delicious! The fish was like butter! I've been a little obsessed with green salads made with anything besides romaine lately. Also, I'm sick, sick of this cold weather. I want to go bare-legged and I want to eat salads, is that too much to ask?!

I'm still trying to nail down my portion of Sunday's menu, but I do have my heart set on lamb. I've never made it before, and it is a traditional Easter-y meat, so I really want to try. I'll probably make one of those salads, too. Oh, and some strawberry black tea from last year (man, I miss my short hair, and my Josh).

Something else exciting happened today... I BOOKED MY TRIP TO GREECE! That's right, I am taking a two week vacation this July to Northern Greece with some of my favorite people... these guys:

I haven't even met them yet, but something tells me we are going to be good friends. Needless to say, July cannot come soon enough. Oh, how am I ever going to write 11+ pages of literacy papers?!

Hope your Good Friday was as good as mine was! What are you doing for Easter? Cooking anything good? Have you ever made lamb?

m

"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

Southern/Southern Indian Party

In case you are just tuning in, I am in the process of moving back to Florida. I have a to-do list on my wall with all the things I need to get done before I go: call Goodwill, finish my book review, renew my passport... and at the bottom, a few of the fun things that I want to do in Boston over the next few weeks. Near the top of the list is to have my friend SusieGee cook dinner at my house. Friday night, I got my wish! Susie made a delicious pink slime beef curry and potato cutlets. I decided to make some Southern favorites to go with.

The curry had the usual suspects: jalapeno, red onion, tomato, garlic, masala, etc.

...chili powder, red peppers, and ground beef. And some other stuff too.

I made some stewed tomatoes with okra. One of my faaavorites growing up.

 Rajiv explains the importance of vitamin C to NJ.

For the cutlets, Susie boiled some red potatoes, skinned and mashed them and mixed them with cilantro, onion and some spicy spices.

Then, Sanne breaded them and they got fried up.

these were especially delicious for breakfast the next morning.

The cornbread, I'm told, was one of my Granny's favorite versions of this southern classic. It is:

2 boxes jiffy mix
1/4t salt
1/2 canola oil
1 8oz can cream corn
8oz sour cream
4 eggs
2t sugar

Bake in a greased 9x13" pan at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

For the tomatoes, just heat 2 cans whole or crushed tomatoes, 1lb. chopped okra, a slice or two of chopped bacon, salt and pepper over medium heat.

The fried chicken recipe can be found here.

Then we decided that we needed to compare Sanne and Rajiv's leg lengths.

Conclusion: Sanne's are shorter.

 And then we started dancing...

newest dance craze

On an unrelated note, for the past few days, this purple blanket muppet has been hanging out outside my bedroom. It makes me smile every time I see it. Who knew dirty laundry could be so entertaining? Jim Henson, that's who!

So Sunday, we had all this leftover chicken. I decided to spare my skin (and thighs) and bake it this time around. So I s+p'ed it, rolled it in some breadcrumbs and baked it at 350 for about 45 minutes.

And served it with some leftover cornbread and tomatoes and rice.

So, what else should I do before I go? More importantly, what should I eat? Are there any restaurants I have to try? 

m