Dash Off A Memoir/Easter Memories

It's GUEST BLOG FRIDAY, and here's Dorothy Ann Skarles with another installment of Dash Off A Memoir.

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Easter Memories

Photo credit:  treviño

Did you know that this year two Easters will be on the same day?

The Greek Orthodox Easter greets the Christian Easter observance on April 24, 2011.

It is unusual that the two fall on the same day (although in 2014, it will happen again).

In many homes, both Easters will happily collide together into keeping family traditions alive by eating and breaking bread, with a house full of company in an affectionate gesture of hospitality.


Photo credit:  treviño

Easter morning, my husband’s father would come over to cook dinner, serving either a baked lamb or goat, along with making his sweet Easter bread, that we all enjoyed. Then my three sons dyed hard-boiled eggs red to put on a plate surrounding the bread.

The whole house filled with heavenly smells as food cooked, enticing all of us to nibble on cheese pasties, Baklava, and Greek cookies.

My father-in-law would shout, “Don’t eat too much or you’ll spoil your dinner.” But it seemed as if we still ate all day right into the evening.

I did learn how to cook a few Greek dishes just by watching my father-in-law prepare a meal.  But I never wrote anything down.  I thought I would remember all the ingredients forever.

Saying I am sorry now is an understatement. I am forever calling up my sisters-in-law and asking, “How much oregano do you put in that dish?” Or “Can I use hamburger instead of ground lamb in the stuffed grape leaves?” And that answer is always, “No!”

Photo credit: Konstantina (Exei gousto)

However, it’s the Baklava that’s hard to make.

I not only didn’t write the recipe down, I never measured ingredients when making the dessert. It took my grandson to write and measure every ingredient down as I worked hard to remember.

Four hours and three large baking pans filled with Baklava later, I finally got it right.

So take my advice and “Dash Off A Memoir” of your own favorite family recipes to pass down to your family.

1. Write the favorite recipe of each child.
2. Add your husband's or wife’s favorite recipe.
3. Did your mother or your dad have a favorite recipe that he\she liked to make?

My mother (who made the most delicious biscuits that rose as if they were muffins) mixed soften butter with a tablespoon of honey to spread on those hot, flaky breads.

Kalo Pasha----Happy Easter

daskarles©2011

P.S. Dorothy's book, Scent of Diamonds, is on sale at Amazon for a limited time for 99 cents.

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Thanks Dorothy,