Easter Party Goodness

Easter 2017

I’m deep into prep for tomorrow’s Easter party, so that means it’s time to see what we did last year!  Our traditional Easter menu never changes, but I always mix it up with the cake…which was gorgeous last year! 

This was the first time we tried making the pierogies ahead of time and they were amazing warmed with butter in the oven on the day!

George helped.

The Menu:

• Potato Pierogi
• Sauerkraut Pierogi
• Pierogi Sauce
• Buttery Onions
• Hard Boiled Eggs (dyed with onion skins) with Horseradish
• Rabbit Food (Spring Vegetables)
• Kielbasa
• Honeybaked Ham
• Aunt Anna’s Easter Bread
• Cake (flavor and vibe changes each year)
• Iced Mint Tea

I love trying to make good arrangements from cheap Trader Joe’s flowers…it’s a fun challenge every year!

For last year’s cake, I had a 50’s vintage vibe in mind so I did two tiers, one with hand-painted gel food color flowers and the other with simple white and green piped flowers on a vintage butter yellow buttercream.  I didn’t nail the vintage yellow I was envisioning but it was still lovely…I think I wanted it to be a touch more dusty than primary, if that makes sense…maybe more like old school french vanilla ice cream?  Anyway, that’s beside the point!   I pretty much only ever use the Cake Bible yellow downy cake recipe for my basic cakes, but I always flavor them in different ways.  The bottom tier was orange strawberry and the top was ginger rose (a TRIUMPH!). 

This is my favorite meal of all time, and I’m always amazed that basically just six potatoes and a bag of flour can feed a crowd.  It’s such an awesome feeling to peel a bag of onions for the pierogi topping and then use those same onion skins to dye two dozen eggs.  I love how this particular tradition reminds me of how my ancestors could stretch food to feed many, many mouths with very little waste.  It’s simple, filling, happy food.   One day I’ll share my family recipes so they can live on forever online, but for now, I need to make some cakes for tomorrow (because I already dropped one batch INTO the oven…oh the DRAMA)! 

Happy Passover and Easter everyone!