Sunday Suppa: Easter = ham not bunnies

For the past several Easter holidays I have consumed all the ham I can handle for a year on Easter. As part of a young couple without children and with family within 30 minutes, holidays tend to bring on the travel and multiple meals. It has definitely taken some adjusting in my twenties to not awaken to my mother’s beautiful Easter baskets with chocolate bunnies and other goodies. Instead it is all about the ham.

For breakfast we attended the annual breakfast at Mike’s grandmother’s senior housing. Every Easter she reserves the community kitchen and activity space for the large family gathering. Mike’s uncle poaches eggs in maple syrup and then there is ham, which is served plain and simple. It is definitely a meat and potatoes breakfast without the potatoes or any sort of vegetable or fruit. I tried Sweet and Low in my coffee for the first time as the regular sugar was gone. I do not recommend Sweet and Low AT ALL. Clearly, this was my punishment for not being Catholic nor taking part in Lent.

After breakfast it was off to my mother’s house for a late lunch. She had mentioned that she was going to do an unconventional Easter. I was slightly worried about this. Lately, she has been on a fish binge and I dislike fish, which she knows however my family has this nice way of ignoring my dislikes. When we arrived she had decided that the ham Easter dinner would do just fine. We had ham cooked with a fruit mixture, carrots cooked with maple syrup, asparagus, and potatoes baked in a cast iron skillet over the coals from my mother’s spring burn pile. Of course she had also made deviled eggs with eggs fresh from a local farm. For dessert she served up huge pieces of her cheesecake which we enjoyed outside in the rare Vermont Easter sunshine.

I am unsure about this newish ham fest that is called Easter. I miss the chocolate bunnies and I want bubbles and a pink jump rope. I might go and find a discount aisle somewhere just so I can have a little Easter redemption to balance out all this ham.

Sunday Suppa: getting our Irish on?

For several years now my fiancé and I have enjoyed eating yummy and frequently new recipes together on Sunday. I have had more time on Sundays to make a longer meal and it always leaves plenty of leftovers so on Monday nights we could always sit on our asses and relax. I’ve decided to dedicate Sunday blogs to our Sunday Suppas.

Today I decided it would be a good idea to try something a little Irish as a nod to St. Patrick’s Day this week. I’m sorry corned beef lovers, I did not choose to make corned beef as honestly I’m not even sure what it includes. I searched the web for the obvious and came across a recipe for Soda Bread, which I have also never had, and Beef and Guinness Stew. Stews I can totally rock out on; baking, well, I’m still practicing.

The process of creating the Soda Bread went as expected except thankfully my cat didn’t do his usual jumping on the floured counter spreading his lovely hair protein on everything. As soon as I started to knead the bread I knew that this was not going to be as pretty looking as it should be. I popped the knurly bread into the oven anyways as I dislike wasting food and with the thought that maybe it would taste better than the way I have made it look. The bread ended up being very dense. It tasted ok and was suitable for soaking up stew juices however, there was plenty leftover and it will stay that way.

I modified the stew recipe by adding baby potatoes and some beef broth. The stew turned out as it should, but the flavor was really subtle. It definitely did not have the POW that stews with wine can have. While sipping the Guinness beer we decided that this was not a super flavorful beer and that maybe using a different dark beer such as a chocolate stout might have amped up the stew a little more.

I was trying to create a festive Irish mood, but tonight’s dinner just didn’t do it. I am looking more forward to turning our milk green and setting up an elaborate booby trap to try to catch a leprechaun. Traditions must live on!  Stay tuned.