What's your signature Easter food?

[mutepointe]

Easter brunch rocked. We had yadda, yadda, yadda, and Mimosas.

[Peewit]

My daughters both love to cook. One is a professional chef; at her house yesterday, Easter lunch was Korean Bibimbap (from the pages of Bon Appetit) - marinated beef, crispy rice, many vegetables, toppings, and sauces. (No kimchee, but that was OK with me.) Oh, so good! She also made wonderful hot cross buns. We were so full we didn't even start the lemon tart.

My other, faraway daughter made quiche Lorraine and "the best chocolate cake ever" (which is saying a lot), and a special cocktail. Here's a description on her food blog http://thelittleredkitchen.blogspot.ca/ ... pring.html

I don't recall any traditional Easter meal. Maybe we had ham when I was growing up, and lamb when the kids were growing up - my husband loved to cook, so that's where my kids got the genes & talent

[burnsbyrne]

Columba! It's an Italian sweet bread like panetone but shaped like a dove, sort of.

[Caroluna]

An after-Easter fave -- toasted peeps



http://www.salon.com/2010/04/03/toasted ... ee_recipe/

Before we start talking about torching up our Peeps, there are a couple of things you should know: 1) there’s a lot of trial and error, and 2) someone will probably yell, “What the hell is wrong with you? You keep away from my kids, sicko!”

But you can calm them down, because you’re just doing it out of love: Fire makes the sugar coating on Peeps get amazing, turning it into a glassy shell, all toasty and caramelly, a crackly crunch surrounding the soft, puffy marshmallow inside. Suddenly, everyone’s favorite candy Styrofoam tastes sophisticated! So you know in your heart of hearts that you’re subjecting these adorable critters to a flaming crucible because you just want them to be all they can be. OK, so that does sound kind of sick. Whatevs.

Anyway, as with crème brûlée, the magic is in the sugar and the heat. When dull, simple sugar gets hot, it breaks down and reforms on a molecular level, creating compounds that give us the nutty, buttery flavors of caramel. And as it cools, the liquid sugar turns into a new, solid crystal structure, which gets harder the hotter the sugar gets and the more it’s allowed to sit still as it cools. (This is why hard candies like Jolly Ranchers and taffies can be still mostly sugar but have such different textures.)...

[oleorezinator]

Kielbasa with really strong, fresh horseradish.

This is all that's left over from my Polish heritage (great-grandparents came over on the Pickle Boat).
When I was growing up, my grandmother used to send us a package before Easter that had toys and goodies for the kids, and also had a big jar of FRESH horseradish that she had grated just a few days before. Whew, good stuff. So, about 10 years ago we planted some horseradish plants and the following Easter I tried grating the roots myself. I have never cried so hard in my life That was it, didn't try that again. Meanwhile, the plants had become huge and were taking over that whole area. I tried digging them out but that just made them mad, and they grew back tougher than ever. Finally I gave in and now they're a 'garden feature'. I tell myself that they're there because they're food for the butterflies (the cabbage white butterflies love them).

I think of my little Polish grandma every time I see them though, so that's another plus.

1. It was my grandparents who immigrated from Czechoslovakia.
2. My parents' friends made our horseradish. The added pickle juice to give it a red color. Homemade horseradish is so much more fragrant that store bough. My parents' friends passed away and all we have now is memories of wonderful horseradish.
3. I could never handle keilbasi, so my Mom always added hot dogs to the sauerkraut for me.

Other than that, pretty much the same story.

Yep. I haven't made horseradish in many years.
I remember one year my father grinding horseradish
with a hand cranked meat grinder in the kitchen, clearing
the room in a few seconds with that sinus opening jolt and
my mother telling him to take it outside which he did to
everyones relief. He would make both white and red.
He'd grind beets for the red stuff making it a tiny bit milder.
Like you nano, baked smoked bone in ham, smoked and fresh
kielbasi, along with cirek, paska bread and an Italian Easter pie.
Sublime.

[Nanohedron]

Peeps disgust me, yet I find myself oddly compelled by Caroluna's pic of the torched Peep-on-a-stick. I'm digging the concept. "What's for dessert?" "Your favorite - Peeps Savonarola."

[Feadoggie]

Hey! Don't be dissing my Peeps. We got wheels ya know and we can find you.





We even lower 'em from great heights to bring in the New Year.

[I.D.10-t]

I wasn't expecting to log in today and find a peep show.

[benhall.1]

I've been struggling for a while in this thread, basically because I didn't know what you guys meant by "peeps". Over here, that word is now commonly used just to mean people, especially people connected with oneself, as in the commonly used phrase "my peeps", meaning "my friends". I think it's possible that it may have started with these guys:

[mutepointe]

More than I want to know about Peeps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peeps

When we get peeps, we immediately cut a hole in the package and wait until they dry out a bit. A finely aged peep is something to enjoy.

[Nanohedron]

I've been struggling for a while in this thread, basically because I didn't know what you guys meant by "peeps". Over here, that word is now commonly used just to mean people, especially people connected with oneself, as in the commonly used phrase "my peeps", meaning "my friends". I think it's possible that it may have started with these guys:

In the UK perhaps it did, but in that case I suggest that it wasn't invented by, but imported via the Jim Henson Company, because the word was already in use in African American slang before the Hoobs ever hit British screens in 2001. I recall hearing it in the earlyish 1990s and still associate it strongly with Hip Hop culture. AskYahoo! has some credible info and attributions about the word. In the US it caught on big-time in the public mind if not in general use, because due to its enduring and specific cultural associations, those who present themselves as being at a sizeable remove from the 'hood tend in my experience to be less likely to use it with any regularity, and then mainly in a jocular vein; to a Yank, the irony of a suit saying "my peeps" is rather on the rich side, after all.

What I find odd in such a brief search is finding no mention of what seems glaringly obvious to me: that "peeps" is a sort of back-clipping of the word "people".

[Feadoggie]

What I find odd in such a brief search is finding no mention of what seems glaringly obvious to me: that "peeps" is a sort of back-clipping of the word "people".

In that case, shouldn't it be spelled "peops"?

Just Born's Peeps have been around for 60 years. Old McDonald's peeps go back a bit further in time.

Anyway. Marshmallow Peeps were 50% off on Monday. The cupboard is full.

When we get peeps, we immediately cut a hole in the package and wait until they dry out a bit. A finely aged peep is something to enjoy.

You're a connoisseur, MP. Do you revive them in the microwave?

Feadoggie

[Nanohedron]

What I find odd in such a brief search is finding no mention of what seems glaringly obvious to me: that "peeps" is a sort of back-clipping of the word "people".

In that case, shouldn't it be spelled "peops"?

No way. You'd have to pronounce it "pee-ops". C'mon, admit it.

"Peeps" seems completely logical to me in a world where pronunciation-based sensational spellings like "boiz", "soulja", and "dawg" are part of the presentation; otherwise "sitch" for "situation" should be spelled "sit".

Anyway. Marshmallow Peeps were 50% off on Monday. The cupboard is full.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I would say that people should never eat those things, but on the other hand could you imagine the landfill situation if they didn't?

[chas]

I wasn't expecting to log in today and find a peep show.

In the words of Crocodile Dundee, that's not a peep show, THIS is a peeps show:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/peeps

[Caroluna]

A finely aged peep is something to enjoy.

Save them for a year, and you can get a never-ending supply!