Easter Traditions (for this multi-faith/ethnic family)

Since becoming married and having a child, blending and balancing our religious faiths and traditions has been interesting. When it was just the two of us, taking turns for holidays was never too difficult because Jewish holidays don't often coincide with Catholic ones or at least Jewish celebrations often have multiple days. Having a baby didn't matter much either because she really didn't know what was going on that whole first year other than "It feels good to have my diaper clean," and, "That food is great!" That baby is now a full fledged tantrum throwing, emotional-hot-mess, no-no-no, "Delilah do!" human being who knows that this bunny strangers we meet in the grocery store talk about is REAL. So after a wonderful Passover Sedar at my parents house, we in fact had a visit from the Easter Bunny this morning. In more serious news, this Bunny left a basket with TWO chocolate eggs, one for each sweet year Delilah has blessed us. In addition, gardening tools, stickers, hair bows, bubbles and socks filled said basket. 

For the last seven years Bryan and I (and for some of that time, Delilah) visited his family and enjoyed a most scrumptious Easter Dinner. Every year we come to expect his mom's delicious artichokes that are humongous globes of awesomeness, her cheesy potatoes and traditional ham. Many of her recipes come from the women in her family no longer with us, and I love hearing about her memories of them. In fact, one of my favorite parts about holidays is hearing about our parents stories of those they love and miss. 

With such a short spring break this year, not to mention the semi-banshee, semi-angel toddler we are sporting now-a-days, we had our first Easter ever as couple at home. It was bittersweet: sweet that we didn't have to ride in the car for 7 hours each way with you-know-who; bitter that we haven't seen our family since New Year's and are missing this gathering. So I tried to incorporate many of the foods we have in NY for Easter on our menu today:

Breakfast played homage to the cheesy potatoes my Mother-in-Law bakes: I did hash-brown cups with baked eggs over asparagus spears. Bryan's mom always supplies us with eggs to decorate, which we eat Easter morning while we wait for the real meal. And it is Easter, so we had to have eggs! 

We enjoyed artichoke risotto and grilled lamb chops marinated in rosemary and garlic. I have to admit, even though the risotto was so good and "the best" Bryan's ever had, I did miss my MIL's steamed artichokes! On a side not, I tried this new organic wine from Frey Wine Vineyards out of California, as any good chef would before using it in their risotto, and it was delish!

For dessert I made a strawberry-rhubarb pie. Typically we have carrot cake in NY, but I made one with this recipe for our Passover Sedar, so this spring pie was shouting to be made! 

Now that dinner is over, and the sidewalk chalk has been broken out, Bryan and I need to think about how we will be blending our faith's in the years to come, especially as Delilah starts to expect things/questions things/be a teenager one day :(. We all know we will be starting with the food, so at least that part is going to be easy. Happy Holidays!