We’re having the traditional Easter lamb roast at the holiday house we have rented to spend Easter with our DD, DSIL and DGS in Bendigo to see the Bendigo Chinese Easter Festival.

Bendigo was a gold rush town and has a huge population of descendants of the Chinese gold miners who came in the 1880s to make their fortunes. Back then, they started doing a Chinese dragon parade at Easte to raise funds for the local children’s hospital and integrate into the local community. The original dragon, Loong, has retired to the museum and is the oldest extant Chinese dragon in the world, as the ones in China fell foul of the Communist regime. His ”son”, Sun Loong, came into use in the 1970s and also retired to the museum a few years ago and the job has been taken over by ”grandson” Dai Gum Loong, which is 125m/nearly 137 yards long.

I baked two batches of hot cross buns before we came, one the traditional kind with currants and candied peel, and the other with diced dried apples as DD and DGS don’t like currants.

My father's family was Jewish...never met them. He and my mother passed so many years ago there was no family cohesivness or gatherings or traditions to pass along. It's nice to hear about others plans. I also have iceberg lettuce salads and in our case, grilled fish for the next few days. That's just what we normally eat. :0) And....peppermint tea has become a favorite of mine.

Oh...and I found a few bargains on furniture @ thrift stores..so I'm in decorating mode. I've been asking Gemini 3 to add pillows or throws to my new-to-me furniture. I crave cohesive surroundings, joining my old with my new. :0) Rugs pads just arrived, 4 pillows are on order....things are being moved around and re-arranged. Feels like a whole new house! And...it's Spring...things are blooming!

Going to a family gathering for Easter, about 10 or so people. I was enlisted to make scalloped potatoes. Easy enough except all the potato slicing. I used to have a mandoline but found cleaning it was more hassle than just slicing the potatoes by hand. I'm only making 5# worth, so not too bad. I'm looking forward to the get-together but have to get up for work ridiculously early on Monday so that kind of puts a damper on things, having to watch the clock to get home to bed early.

We’ve been invited to dinner today… a bit of a drive. I’m bringing one of our family traditions — Babka (an egg bread with raisins) — and I just took these out of the oven. The one on the right got a little too big. lol!

Those look lovely, party!👍🏻

We’re going to our daughter and SIL’s tomorrow for dinner. They’re grilling butterflied lamb leg. Not sure about other dishes but I was asked to bring panzanella and a lemon dessert. Decided on lemon bars per DH’s request.

Those Babka look scrumptious! Do you put any syrup or icing on it?

As typical, local family is all over the place - some under the weather, some out of town and some just don't do many holidays. So a very small gathering on Sunday. We're having a ham (with leftovers to be shared out - yay!!), scalloped potatoes and asparagus. I am bringing smoked salmon spread and crackers and lemon icebox pie with mixed berry sauce for dessert.

My personal indulgence are hot cross buns. I may be the only one in the family that likes them so I treat myself to a batch from the bakery every Easter. Too much bother to make from scratch for just me!!

Not cooking related but I saw these cute centerpiece ideas some years ago. Fun for Spring/Easter. Our daughter has made some similar to the first pic, but these aren’t from her.

I saw this post while I was trying to figure out what to cook. I have zero Easter food traditions. This year I picked brisket and noodles because I like it and never make the sweeter version unless it is a holiday. My brother will be the only visitor.

But then today I realized that I actually do have a food tradition. Never missed a year 😂

WOW! Beautiful eggs and beautiful bread!

I hven't make a babka for years! Maybe I'll do one for Sukkot (Fall harvest). It's so fun!

Beautiful eggs, Joan and PM!! One of the traditional foods for Seder was (hard boiled) eggs in salt water. They were often served in tiny Dixie cups to cut down and water usage and need for space to put the dishes. About 10 years ago, I changed it to devilled eggs. The cousins like that a lot more, and the heat does the same ritual element of reminding us of the bitterniess of bondage while celebrating the renewal of Spring. The caterer's were very tasty but not really "devilled". More like egg salad on the half shell. But good. Still, it's not like when we were young. Mother would buy the kits with the dyes and transfers and let us color to our hearts' contents on the dozens of hardboiled eggs. Which on the morning of the Seder would get peeled and cut up and soaked in the brine. They did check for purple lines where the micro cracks were, etc., but occasionally one would find a splotch of turquise in one's cup. We kids loved it, though maybe the elders didn't...

The matzah balls were actually good this year, and the rest of the meal. was excellent, though the green veg was delicious but unrecognizable and difficult to eat. Everybody came, so the leftovers were manageable. Too much fruit, always, but I think I have a taker for it. I'll package up the meat and freeze most of it tomorrow. There's a full half of the cake (Yay! They ate half! And I'm going to have to freeze that too. As always, I didn't really get a chance to talk to people, but it seemed like they were all having a good time. which is great considering all the time devoted to the service.

So for those who may be interested, the best matzah (not talking about the fully guarded and hand made very expensive true to tradition lumpy cardboard):

Manischewitz original (white) cooks the best, like if you're making stuffing, matzah brie or strata. It absorbs the liquids best.

Yehuda whole wheat is the only whole wheat one that doesn't taste like cardboard. It has flavor (excellent with jalapeño cheddar). Good texture. I like Yehuda white for straight eating probably better than Manischewitz, really, but not enough to choose it because of the cooking thing. A single box, if you can find it, costs more than the box of five (labor), so it's worthwhile getting one that will be used. Matzah is great as a binder for meatballs/loaf, etc.

I finally figured out why Streit's egg matzah is the best: Egg matzah is made with apple cider and egg rather than water. Because there's no water it doesn't count as "bread" so is good for a snack, without devoting a long time to long prayers. :) It's also soft, so good for people with mouth issues and the elderly. But as I was enjoying a piece with dinner a couple nights ago, I figured it out. Streit's egg matzah isn't just the foregoing, it's the brioche of matzah!

Four more days to go....

I’m glad to read that it’s already been done, because I’ve been thinking about a version of deviled eggs made by filling them with curried egg salad. :)

I’ve never seen matzah, so I wouldn’t know the tastes and textures involved in the variations of good or bad.

To all who've already read this, my apologies for the masses of typos I'm fixing now.

PM, my mind boggles that you've never seen matzah. Awhile ago all the folks with some common ailments were directed to eat matzah because of its purity and lack of salt or fat (except egg matzah, which does have fat, of course), so it made its way into staple groceries all over. Imagine making wheat paste and letting it dry flat while toasting it. ;)

I think I've eaten a version of the the curried egg you're talking about. Both last night's and the curried were just yolks in the "salad", but you could sacrifice a few whites for texture. Also, finely minced cucumber, carrot, pepper, etc., which I've also had, though I daresay the veg would likely weep some so for sure want to be eaten same day, whereas classic lasts surprisingly well in a good container. Do let us kniw how it goes.

plllog, I had typed a long response and somehow got interrupted and poof, it's gone! :(

First, you need to remember that there are people who only live in remote villages. And they only come into contact with equally remote village people. :O) So matzah sounds like a really bad cracker. lol! We went to an artists meeting last month and were offered "nettle shortbread". I politely declined for two reasons: I didn't know this person well, so wasn't 100% secure in her plant knowledge, and they didn't look very appetizing. :) At least as a shortbread they would have had fat....

The only curry egg salad recipe that I have used contains minced red onion and chopped granny smith apples, so it's not something I'd make ahead. And I think that at least some of the whites chopped into it would give it needed texture... a lot depends on the mince/chop size, I think. Wondering who I can try it on. lol!

So a new appetizer appeared yesterday: fried smoked kielbasa and sauerkraut with a variety of mustards. It was definitely a hit!

That sounds like a great appetizer that would actually whet the appetite, especially if it managed to not be drippy. ;)

Onion and apple in the curried eggs don't sound good to me. Too wet! Cucumber is probably too wet, too. Cashew would be good. Or if you want onion, maybe a scallion. Or if it's a salad, not a filled eggwhite, spread on a flat apple slice...

I think West Coast to Rockies temote villages are different from NE. Excluding Alaska, ours are not so insular. But even remote, matzah shops well and could show up as five boxes (standard carton) on the shelf in any country store where someone wants it for the salt free, etc. You're right, though about the ”bad cracker”. When you grow up with it, it's not bad, but it's no Ritz, ;) It represents the dough the enslaved grabbed up when Pharaoh, after the tenth plague (death of all first born), told them to get out. The dough baked on their backs, in the heat of the sun. Matzah is meant to be a priavtion and remind us of when we had nothing. Cheese, however, gives salt and flavor, and we're allow to improve things, to celebrate the harves, so long as the basics of when we were enslaved are there. But if you're on a salt restrictive diet, there's dipped in your herb tea...

I do not even know what matzah is!??? Of course , I have to google a lot of stuff on here.

Matzah is made from wheat which has not had a chance to harbor wild yeast in it. Traditionally, the last grain of the wheat harvest was saved in smallish bags and hung in the rafters near the chimney where the air was dry to prevent any yeast spores from developing. Trusted watchers would inspect, turn and guard the wheat. Just before Passover, the weeklong remembrance of the Exodos from Egypt, and celebration of the first harvest after Winter and coming of spring, they'd grind the wheat, mix it with water and bake it all within 18 minutes to prevent any yeast from forming. This would be the only bread eaten during the holiday. Nowadays, they have wider ways of choosing the yeast free wheat, and use machines to make big squares. Once the matzah is cooked, the requirements are fullfiled. No leavening may be used, though some communities use baking powder ( a "new thing" (non-biblical), but made special for the holiday to be flour free), and others allow egg rising. It clearly says in our commentaries that "hot air" and "puffed-up-ness" are what we're avoiding, not just rising, so I try to avoid them. Other rising grains, like rye and barley are forbidden, too, of course, though so are any "small things, like other grains. The rabbis have approved New World things that aren't in the bible, like corn starch, potato starch and quinoa. I don't agree. The tradition I grew up with was that the issue was flour. Rice flour was banned, but rice that's cooked but identifiable as rice grains is fine as a starchy vegetable. Therefore, the question of alternative flour should be about the flour. So cooked quinoa yes as a vegan staple, but not as flour.

It's all an interesting intellectual exercise. Which is the point. It keeps our minds on questions of freedom and equality, of making sure the poor have enough. and those who have plenty do not do so to the detriment of others. Even with all the fuss and ritual, even with yummy cheese and sandwiching delicious leftovers, matzah is humble food and reminds us of the joy of when all we had was freedom.

Just getting to this - we had no special meal today, as we've been emptying out our house because it's been sold and we close on Thursday. Today was our self-imposed deadline and there's STILL stuff to remove .

Haven't had a Seder in so many years, and almost all the Jewish relatives around here are gone now 😔

I grew up on matzoh - Manischewitz of course - it's really good with butter, IMO.

I used to like these too - I don't think they're strictly kosher, tho...

I remember my mom using matzoh meal to make fried fish - and the leftover egg and meal were mixed together to make little fritters - I loved those - and her dense matzoh balls. I never liked them light and fluffy because of her 😄

My mom was a (sort of) good WI Catholic girl when she met my NY Jewish (and divorced) dad, BTW.

What a lovely memory! Matzah hush puppies?

TamTam crackers are definitely kosher, and when so marked, kosher for Passover, but they're like egg matzah and don't count as eating matzah for ritual purpose. If you're doing the three whole matzot per day thing, you don't want to fill up on TamTams. Same with cooking with them. But they're kosher to eat, and make nice Pesach canape bottoms. ;)

On the indulgences front, today, I had a few leftover eggs, some matzah and cheese, a piece of chicken, chocolate, a beef rib, a cookie, more cheese... I have a fridge chock full of vegetables, vegetable soup, ready to eat leafy greens, fruit, ready to cook veg... What got 'et was a bunch of animal fat and protein....

We had Chinese food for Easter lunch at the restaurant next door to the museum where the dragons are displayed. I discovered that as well as Bendigo’s original drangon, Loong, being the oldest extant Chinese Imperial dragon, the newest dragon, Dai Gum Loong, is the world’s longest Imperial processional dragon. Not bad for a smallish Australian country city.

As it turned out, it gave us a ringside seat to seeing the various lions, spirit animals and minor dragons coming out of the museum before Dai Gum Loong himself came out to start his procession around town. One kind lady gave us her chair for our grandson to stand on so he could see better. It was just awesome.

After we had a great time watching the parade we went back to our holiday cottage for a nap then I cooked our roast lamb dinner, which turned out very well despite the unfamiliar kitchen and oven.

carolb, wow, good luck.

plllog, Indulgences? sometimes you’ve just gotta! I bought this ice cream and can’t resist it! :)

Roast lamb here too. Roast potatoes, roast root vegetables, steamed Savoy. Simnel cake for pudding.

We'd already eaten the Colomba sent by the Italian relations.

Floral, I so love your posts! You have so many things I've never heard of or which are different there than here.

Innovation: As y'all might imagine, matzah gets boring (about halfway through the weeklong holiday, one starts to dream of puffy pizza). As you might have noticed, I'll try most anything. I had been intending to get deli whipped cream cheese from the bagel shop, but they closed a few days early. There was one disappointed minion! But by good fortune, the current batch of natural cream cheese (just milk/cream and salt, no gums or anything) is creamier than usual. I don't know if that's a permanent change or just the ladies being Springy, but it's soft, and the flavor is as excellent as always. But having just finished up some chicken, I espied the white schmeer on my matzah (for Passover we keep more kosher than usual, but that doesn't extend for me to the separation of chicken and dairy, which was decided by one vote of the Sanhedrin, not a commandment). I dribbled on a bit of the sweet barbecue sauce. Winner! Cream cheese and barbecue sauce on matzah is now a thing. :)

I have a lot of leftover chicken from the seder. I'm trying to figure out a casserole I figure I can dice it and soak it in the little bit of soup left, mix it with chopped leftover broccoli sprouts, and top it with the leftover scalloped root vegetable, but I'm trying to figure out the rest. At one point I was thinking a loose béchamel, but I can't find my cake meal and the FP or blender won't make fine enough. Or...I could use potato starch. That actually sounds beter than trying to make it with matzah cake meal., though I thought the toastiness would taste nice. I'm glad I thought to tell ya''ll about it and work that through. And I can put some matzah in too.

I’ve never had a Columba, @floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK, though I see them in the shops all the time at Easter. Are they similar to panettone in substance? We love panettone and have to be very strict with ourselves around Christmas, or we end up gaining 5 kilos on panettone alone.

Progress! I was feeling energetic and the need to stretch, so I got out the chicken--four of those humongo white meats sliced and stacked, so easy to cube up--and a casserole dish I thought would be the right size (Emile Henry, a gife from friends of my parents and just right). There was a quart container of soup left; totally gellid with three matzah balls, carrot chips and chopped parsley. I reserved the matzah balls and dumped the rest in the dish. It wasn't enough, so I went willy nilly and added the containers of charoset left from the table--this is getting baked after all. There was a little classic pecan and apple with Vietnamese cinnamon and lots of concord grape wine, and more, and more liquid o the nut free, which was navel orange, baby cucumbers, raw baby corn, dates, dried peach bits, ground cloves and sherry. Stirred all together, it was great. The saltiness and herbs of the soup toned down the spice and sweetness of the rest. I stirred in each piece of chicken as I cut it which helped a lot with the distribution. There was also a pile of shaved fennel and some chicken goo (sauce and/or drippings) in the container, so all that went in, along with a square of regular matzah left from the Seder broken up with the first piece of chicken, and a square of egg matzah at the end. It was all incorporated and moist, and is now covered and meditating in the fridge.

I also found the cake meal as I was looking for the potato starch, which I also found. I'm thinking to add several eggs to the chicken mixture, and the bechamel over the top, unless it seems to need some stirred in. I'm debating whether to try making some matzah crunchies for the top. I could learn something, since the casserole is for home. Or I could go indulgent and do the variation of casserole topping where you stir a couple of yolks into the béchamel. That sounds good! And I'm going to stamp down the thought that a little orange zest would be the thing. There's a little orange in the chicken, but this does NOT need it and I'm not going to wreck an entire casserole on the say so of a little imp's craving.

Yes, Colomba is similar to panettone. But don't say that to the Italian relations.

That Simnel cake looks good! I initially thought they were browned marshmallows on top. :)

No they're marzipan balls representing the apostles. Only eleven. Judas gets left out for obvious reasons. He doesn't deserve a place on a cake. 😉

I only know what's common knowledge about Christian dogma, but shouldn't Judas have been forgiven? I thought he repented and gave back the money? Or is it G-d forgives but people get to hold a grudge for millennia...

Quite possibly. But he still doesn't get a marzipan ball. I am describing the tradition, not my personal beliefs.

Well, I do get tradition. We have a lot of inexplicable traditions. I was just really surprised. And I pretty much love homemade marzipan, though I've never had it with fruit cake. :)

Here marzipan is traditionally used to cover a fruit cake before icing it with either rolled fondant or royal icing for weddings, birthdays and special occasions such as Christmas or Mothering Sunday. It blocks the white icing being discoloured by raisin and currant juice seeping into it and also smooths out all the lumps and bumps of the cake to give a nice flat surface for the fondant.

Exactly. Christmas cake has marzipan under the icing. Personally I could skip the icing and have double marzipan. I find icing too sweet but I love marzipan.

Talking of which, one of the Easter treats sometimes sent by the Italian relations is a marzipan lamb. Not great quality marzipan though.

Well @plllog I'm impressed by your advocacy of the virtue of compassion (re your post on the number of balls on Simnel cake). Now will you kindly practice what you preach and have the compassion of NOT using that very offensive word "minions" when referring to people whose livelihood depends on you?

From the context in a previous post of yours in this thread -

"-I'm able to cook again, but still not up to all the carrying and shifting, and the minions aren't always around."

- it appears you're referring to your household help. And no, it doesn't come through as jocular. It's grating and offensive.

I'm sorry you were offended. I use it as a word for those shouldering some of my work, mostly family. Livelihood is not an issue.

Wow, @wintercat_gw, talk about jumping to conclusions. (I suggest you find a copy of The Phantom Tollbooth and read it.) Do you know, whenever @plllog mentioned ”minions”, it never occurred to me that she might be referring to employees. I guess because plllog has never in my memory posted anything which was unkind or disparaging. So I always interpreted her meaning as she describes, helpers (probably family or friends at a gathering) who are all buzzing around working together to assist her.

My goodness. I would never, never interpret your use of "minions" as being anything other than affectionate, endearing and fun. Judging by your always informative and entertaining posts, being in your kitchen, and being a part of preparing a huge and complex meal for often a very large crowd, must be loads of learning, sharing, and a great time. I hope your feelings weren't hurt. You don't deserve that. Heck, I'd love to be a minion in your kitchen!!

Wintercat is a long time member here, and I'd rather field her concerns than have them fester. Both Colleen and Hobbitmom have my intentions right. I have included some employees (who are also friends, and whose jobs aren't about doing me favors), in the word, but it started with my pseudosister and eldest cousin, grew from there, and is really about the family helping out. In the above, I was saying that without more actual work from them all, the Seder meal would be too much for me, so I hired actual employees to cook and serve. I don't want to cause upsets, however, and will look for a new word.

Thank-you Colleenoz and Hobbitmom for the very kind words!

Goodness, I sign all my work emails:

"HRH

The Night Minion

Amy"

Whats wrong with being a minion?

@plllog, I wouldn’t bother to look for a new word. Some people are always looking for an excuse to be outraged.

Definition of minion: a follower or underling of a powerful person, especially a servile or unimportant one.

It is a derogatory word, and I can absolutely understand wintercat’s objection.

This forum is dying for a reason.

Obviously, I wasn't using the word that way. Underling, yes, in a silly way, but neither servile nor unimportant. It has been used this way by others in my circles for decades. If anyone else took it badly, they could have said so. I reject the notion that one word, interpreted in a disagreeable way, without challenge until now, is killing the forum. The forum is dying because every tech transition cut a large portion of participants who couldn't adapt, and it went from top hit on Google to not even on the list of topics on Houzz.

I took it to be volunteer helpers. I have never heard of the other definition.

ETA: Someone who took direction from you, but did the heavy work you could no longer do.

ETA 2: Keep using Minions. We know what you mean.

“…helpers (probably family or friends at a gathering) who are all buzzing around working together to assist her.”

Exactly!

plllog, I wasn’t implying that your use of one word was a problem. Not at all. The cooking forum mentality of having a small group of people attacking another poster is the problem. They jumped on wintercat the same way that they jumped on me because I didn’t phrase something to their liking in the ”what’s for dinner thread”. I will never post anything on those threads again. whatever. just keep doing what you're doing.

and I will edit to add that I do think your use of the term minions IS cringe-worthy.

@party_music50 - Thank you for standing by me. It does take courage in a forum that's turning into a clique.

PM and Wintercat, I checked with a friend who lives some miles away today, and she said she calls her helpers the same thing. She also said it's normal here, as did I here. But when it was pointed out that people were taking it as derogatory, I said thank-you and that I would retire it. No bad feelings were ever intended, and I don't mind that it's a minority of those who've spoken out. I'd rather be kind to the minority than be "right" in the majority, and I know there are lurkers whose feelings we don't know, no matter how much I appreciate the kind and supportive posts of those who took it as it was meant.

I think we're forgetting, however, what it was like here fifteen years ago. When I joined CF there was internecine warfare between factions who tried to recuit me by e-mail, and others who tried to smooth things over by e-mail, and others who just e-mailed to make trouble--let alone all the sniping that was done in the Forum itself (I mostly just closed those threads, but it was very unpleasant). I stayed because I admired many of the noncombatants...er, posters...and was learning a lot from them. I took breaks when the bullies turned their guns on me. Others were so kind and helpful and I've learned so much in the intervening years, I try to post to give back. There's no need for hostility or forming cliques or any of that. And I think we're all adult enough to take a critical comment for its value without tearing things apart. Nothing uncivil has been said here, on either side, and I value all who have posted. It's not worth battling over! Please let it stop here.