Sorry, for some reason this did not go out as planned.... so here it is !

Every year we have a sizable party for friends and family. Every year I try to include some traditional dishes, but also some things to surprise and delight. Right now I am letting you in on the menu planning process.

This year, Passover does not coincide with Easter. Most years, it seems like it does. Since I am Jewish we do not have leavened bread on those years. However, this year, we will be able to.

Last week’s Food Friday went over many of the traditional foods from around the world. Because Easter occurs so early in the spring, it is before crops are really coming in. Thus even the festive menus include foods made from preserved things, like cured meats and fish. But, when you think about it, dried wheat ground into flour is a preserved thing, and so breads are among the traditional dishes, especially if they contain dried fruits and candied citrus peel.

For our bread this year, I am looking forward to a traditional Russian Easter Bread made by one of my Russian friends. My mother in law usually brings lamb, which is herb encrusted. My daughter is quite the chocolatiere, and I am going to try to persuade her to make a batch of handmade chocolates in fanciful shapes on Saturday. We like to make bugs and butterflies from molds. Her husband is the salad expert and produces an extraordinary spinach salad with candied walnuts and sliced strawberries. I will handle the new potatoes, smoked salmon with cream cheese and pickles, and new asparagus. Also I cannot resist making a meringue cookie in honor of one of the great grandmothers in the family. For them I will use only the whites of the egg, and so will liberate numerous yolks. To utilize these, I will make lemon curd. I have discovered that just about everyone in my family loves it. Few here in the states eat it. It is more popular in Britain. It is a rich lemony spread made with butter, sugar, yolks and lemon juice. You can even make it with lime juice. People use it like jam. It is a beautiful sunny color.

And that is quite enough for the cooked sweets, since there will be the egg hunt in the nearby forest. There will be lots of treasures, such as spools of thread, coins, buttons, ribbon and more, but there will also be candy. Some of the eggs will be wooden and painted, and some will even be stone. In the past I found some that rang like bells. They went to the permanent egg collection.

Make no mistake these gatherings are for more than fun and food. They forge the social bonds we need to be happy and healthy. So regardless of your religious , political, familial or cultural affiliations, get together and make something nice. Renew old bonds and forge new friendships.

Welcome to my spring holiday table. I would love to hear about yours.

I am fascinated by traditional holiday foods from around the world. Each dish has a fantastic story that embodies the history, agriculture and joy of the people who produce it. Let’s check into some of the lovely choices. Every holiday table should have the tried and true family favorites. But there should also be some well rehearsed culinary adventures to sample as well.

I have noticed that many traditional Easter foods involve a sweetened and decorated yeast bread. Examples would be Kulich, from Eastern Europe. This baked in a tall tin and decorated with icing. The Mexican Easter Bread is called Capirotada, and is a baked bread pudding flavored with raisins, cinnamon cloves and cheese. England of course is famous for its hot crossed buns.

There are a couple of versions of sweet yeast breads which are decorated with colored eggs. They are Mona de Pascua from Spain and Tsoureki from Greece. The first looks like a donut topped with a hardboiled egg. In the second case, the eggs are dyed red to symbolize the blood of Christ. Columba di Pascua ( The dove of Easter) is a Italian bread with candied citrus peel much like Pannetone eaten for Christmas.

It is important to remember that Easter occurs in spring. Historically, one would have to rely on the pantry or garden to make meals. Greens would barely be beginning to come into gardens. Perhaps there were new potatoes, peas or onions ifone were lucky and Easter was late. Thus breads from stored wheat, eggs from chickens just starting to lay again, and meat, either fresh or cured was accessible, and figured prominently in the Easter menu. Accordingly we see the observance of “ Gründonnerstag” in Germany on Maundy Thursday, when a soup of greens is eaten. In Naples, bread, cured meats and cheese were combined in a tortano for Easter day picnics. In Greece, lamb was traditional, cooked as a stew, with greens and an egg and lemon sauce.

Eggs of course, figure strongly into Easter menus throughout Christendom. Most traditions provide for them to be decorated. Did you know that this tradition of egg decoration predates Christianity by thousands of years? The custom was sanctioned early on by the early Christian church as the egg was declared a symbol of the risen Jesus. This custom was raised to high art in the Eastern European arts of Pysanka, with complex deeply colored geometric patterns, and ultimately to the jeweled eggs of Fabergé. While I would love to see and touch a Fabergé egg, I would prefer to have a fanciful design made in chocolate.

Did you know even the making of Easter baskets has roots in the church ? In Poland decorated baskets are filled with decorated eggs and special foods, and are blessed collectively by the town priests. Modern children whose baskets are filled with toys should remember that in days gone by, the special foods given in baskets were a great luxury.

I hope this gives you a little inspiration as you prepare your celebration. Remember to plan ahead and involve every one in the preparations for the festivities.