Easter Traditions--old, and new.

A few of my own personal Polish and Ukrainian Easter Eggs.

I miss the traditions associated with the Polish Easters from my childhood in Michigan—everyone wearing the ashes of Ash Wednesday, the fasting of Lent, the washing of feet on Maundy Thursday, the Stations of the Cross at noon on Good Friday, the blessing of the Easter Basket on Holy Saturday, and, of course, the beauty and solemnity of Easter Sunday with masses of fragrant Easter lilies surrounding the altar, brilliant white candles ablaze, and the smell of incense in the air. Even Easter lilies don't smell like they used to--they are very pretty, but not very fragrant.

I love Polish and other Slavic Easter eggs decorated in vibrant colors. The Polish word for decorated eggs is pisanki. I once tried creating them myself, but a tragic accident involving a broken bookshelf destroyed every one of my eggs. Since then, I began to collect eggs rather than create them. Some of my collection is visible here on my page. I found an outstanding website, Pisanki – the decorated Easter eggs in Poland,  that goes into much detail on the history of Polish Easter Eggs. There are also examples of eggs from different regions of Poland.

New Pysanky from the Ukraine, 2019.

At my grandmother’s home in Detroit, our Lenten fast was broken with a traditional Polish Easter soup (Biały Barszcz)—bowls filled to the brim with smoked meats, eggs, cheese, and rye bread, ladled over the top with a tangy white broth made from the cooking of the Easter kielbasa.

If you are looking for a recipe for our traditional Polish Easter soup, you can find it on my website here.

I found an idea for serving Polish Easter soup in rye bread "bowls". I thought it was a very creative idea. Click here to go to the website.

Dessert was usually a white cake covered in coconut in the shape of a Pascal lamb often made by my Aunt Hattie.

I often make a Easter Egg Nest Cake---it's a yellow cake accented with orange zest, and frosted with Sander's Buttercream Icing. 

A few weeks ago, I made a different cake that I thought would be a great cake for Easter because of its colors of purple-blue and vibrant yellow. The flavors of lemon and blueberry also make for a nice finale for an Easter Brunch.  

I found the recipe at Delish.com and made no changes to the recipe. It was delicious!

Lemon Blueberry Cake

INGREDIENTS

Lemon Blueberry Cake

1 18-oz. box vanilla cake, plus ingredients called for on box

Juice and zest of 1 1/2 lemons, divided, plus more zest for garnish

1 3/4 c. fresh blueberries, divided

3 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened

3 c. powdered sugar

1/4 c. heavy cream

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

pinch of kosher salt

2 thin lemon slices, for topping

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350º and grease three 9" cake pans with cooking spray. Line with parchment. Prepare cake mix according to package directions, then stir in juice and zest of 1 lemon.

In a small bowl, toss 1 cup blueberries and flour until completely coated (to keep the berries from sinking). Gently fold blueberries into the batter.

Divide cake batter evenly among prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

Showing the beautiful layers of lemon buttercream and blueberries.

Make frosting: In a large bowl using a hand mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, beat butter and 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar. Add remaining lemon juice and zest and heavy cream and beat until combined, then beat in vanilla and salt. (Add remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar as desired for texture and flavor.)

Place a dab of frosting on cake plate (to keep cake in place) and place parchment strips on each side of the cake plate. Place down first cake and top with frosting, then top with second cake and frost.

Repeat with third cake and frost sides.

Garnish with remaining blueberries, lemon slices, and zest and serve.

I found the recipe here: Delish

https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipes/a52625/lemon-blueberry-cake-recipe/

Happy Easter in Polish!

Adam's Chicken Riggies

Adam's Chicken Riggies

Adam's Chicken Riggies

I really enjoy finding and preparing U.S. regional dishes--Key Lime Pie from Florida, Shrimp and Grits from Charleston, City Chicken from Polish neighborhoods in the midwest, Cheesesteak Sandwiches from Philadelphia, etc.

I found this particular recipe on the Internet and it intrigued me as it appears to be a regional dish specifically associated with the Utica/Rome area of New York State. It is a spicy pasta with chicken and red and green peppers in a creamy tomato sauce dish.

I found most of the recipes for this dish to be much too spicy for me (and there are endless variations on the Net) so I played around with the recipe until I made one that suited my palate.  My contribution was using premade arrabiata sauce. You can easily make this dish spicier by adding additional arrabiata sauce, or dried red pepper flakes. I like it just as it is in this recipe. This recipe will easily feed five to six people.

Ingredients

MARINADE

1/2 cup dry sherry (I used 1/2 cup white grape juice and 1 teaspoon wine vinegar)

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed

SAUCE:

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 medium sweet red and green pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 15 ounce can Italian diced tomatoes

1 1/2 cups arrabiata sauce

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 box (16 ounces each) uncooked rigatoni

1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

4 ounces cream cheese, cut up

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1-1/2 cups grated Romano cheese

Directions

1. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine sherry, 2 tablespoons oil, garlic and oregano. Add chicken; seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate 1 hour.

2. Drain chicken, discarding marinade. Heat 2 tables olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken in batches; cook and stir until no longer pink. Remove from pan.

3. In same pan, heat butter over medium-high heat. Add peppers, onion and garlic; cook and stir until tender. Stir in diced tomatoes, arrabiata sauce, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 8-10 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Add chicken; heat through.

4. Meanwhile, in a stockpot, cook rigatoni according to package directions. In a small saucepan, combine cream and cream cheese over medium heat; cook and stir until blended. Add to chicken mixture; stir in Romano cheese.

5. Drain rigatoni; return to stockpot. Add sauce to pasta; toss to combine.

6. Plate pasta and sprinkle with fresh chopped basil.

Variations of this recipe on the Internet call for a much spicier version—too spicy for me. If you want to easily control the spiciness of the recipe you can add additional arrabiata sauce to taste.

If you try this recipe, I would love for you to post a comment and let me know what you think!