Celebrating Easter Traditions in RED!

Every year in March and April, we gear up for new beginnings with spring cleaning, new ventures, vacations, and new ideas. Our culinary projects are no exception to this rule. Springtime brings with it beautiful colors, textures, and foods that speak to our need for new beginnings. Spring is a great time for us to gather at parks and other outdoor venues where we enJOY sharing family birthdays, school breaks, and just being together.

In mid-March, we enJOYed celebrating our grandson's tenth birthday at a local park, just before taking him on a trip to Savannah, GA during his spring break from school.

 After a great week in Savannah, we arrived home and were greeted with a yard full of colorful apple blossoms, dogwood blooms, and an abundance of purple phlox and bird-foot violets.

Dogwoods are just one of the traditional symbols that have been adopted to go along with Easter. Of course, the "Legend of the Dogwood" is just that--a legend, but I like the reminders it provides. Here's how it goes:



"At the time of the crucifixion, the dogwood had reached the size of the mighty oak tree. So strong and firm was the wood that it was chosen as the timber for Jesus' cross. To be used for such a cruel purpose greatly distressed the dogwood. While nailed upon it, Jesus sensed this, and in his compassion said, 'Because of your pity for my suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used for a cross. Henceforth, it shall be slender, bent, and twisted, and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross–two long and two short petals. In the center of the outer edge of each petal will be the print of nails. In the center of the flower, stained with blood, will be a crown of thorns so that all who see it will remember.'" (SOURCE: http://www.appleseeds.org/dogwood.htm and http://www.twoeggfla.com/dogwood.html)

Celebrating Easter with eggs has also become a tradition all over the world.

Some say that Easter eggs have come to symbolize long life and happiness. Also,"... because the use of eggs was forbidden during Lent, they were brought to the table on Easter Day, colored red to symbolize the Easter JOY..." (SOURCE: http://foodtimeline.org/easter.html) For some, the red Easter egg is much more than a celebration of JOY at the end of fasting -- it is an attestation of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave and of the HOPE we have in Him for eternal life. (SOURCE: http://mybloglovegreece.blogspot.com/2011/04/holy-thursday-tradition-of-red-easter.html)

I hope you will take time to read the trivia concerning the use of eggs (BOTH red and multi-colored) at Easter and share it with your children and grandchildren.

Although I don't recall ever coloring our eggs red, I really like the idea that red was used to symbolize Easter JOY! However, since I'm not a fan of boiled eggs (they smell awful), and I imagine you already know how to boil and color them (just read the instructions on the kit! :-), I decided to share one of my favorite red spring salads ---also guaranteed to bring much JOY to the eater. (NOTE: We're calling it a "salad" because it has less calories that way! But, if you choose, you can also serve this if you're craving a light dessert.:-)

I love it when the grocery stores begin stocking fresh, juicy, crimson red strawberries (and when the prices drop low enough that I can actually afford to buy them :-). Such was the case this past week, so I purchased two quarts. I used one to make my mama's strawberry cake (click on this URL for the recipe: http://www.pinchofthissmidgenofthat.blogspot.com/search/label/strawberry%20cake) and the other to make my "Favorite Strawberry Pretzel Salad" (see page 28 of "A Pinch of This... A Smidgen of That" cookbook). So, let me share a bit of spring with you and get you in the mood to celebrate Easter JOY with your friends and family. Follow me to the kitchen and start gathering ingredients!

Preheat oven to 375°. Mix 2 tbsp .sugar (more if you like a sweeter crust), crushed** pretzels and butter and place in a 9-x-13-inch baking dish. Bake 8 minutes, then cool in refrigerator or freezer. (**Hint: To crush my pretzels, I place an estimated 2 cups of them in a large ziplock freezer bag, seal it, and use my dough roller to beat them---a great way to release pent up tension! :-)

I really should have hit that bag a few more times. I didn't get my pretzels broken up as small as I like them (but I didn't realize that until I sampled the salad... I ate it anyway! :-). You can choose how fine you crush them. I like mine in really small pieces (not quite crumbs).

Since I purchased fresh berries instead of the frozen ones, I washed, sliced, and placed them in the freezer to chill before time to add them to my jello mixture. (You can skip this step if you bought a package of frozen ones :-).
Aren't these pretty? The bright RED juciness really does inspire JOY!

Cream together 1 cup sugar and cream cheese.  

Add whipped topping and mix well.

Spread over cooled pretzel mixture;

place in refrigerator until cream cheese mixture is firm.

Mix boiling water with strawberry gelatin; stir until dissolved. (Yes, I know... it wasn't too smart to use a RED bowl when trying to photograph RED Jello! Next time, I'll know better! :-)

Add frozen strawberries. (REMEMBER: Since I used fresh strawberries for this recipe, I washed and sliced them, then put them in the freezer to get cold before I added them to the warm jello water. If you let them freeze, they will speed the jelling process.) The colors in this mixture just get prettier and prettier, don't they? :-) (Are you feelin' the JOY yet? ;-)

Place gelatin mixture in refrigerator until it BEGINS to thicken, then pour and spread over cream cheese mixture ...

and chill until set.

YUMMMM! is all I can say!

Slice and enJOY! Store in the refrigerator.

 Don't forget to print or copy/paste the recipe below:

FAVORITE STRAWBERRY PRETZEL SALAD

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. plus 1 cup sugar (powdered or granulated), divided
2 cups crushed pretzels
1/2 cup butter; melted

1 8-oz. package cream cheese, room temperature
1 8-oz. container frozen whipped topping, thawed
2 cups boiling water 

1 6-oz. (large) package strawberry gelatin

1 10-oz. package frozen strawberries (or one quart fresh strawberries, sliced)

Preheat oven to 375°. Mix 2 tbsp .sugar, pretzels and butter and place in a 9-x-13-inch baking dish. Bake 8 minutes, then cool in refrigerator or freezer. Cream together 1 cup sugar and cream cheese. Add whipped topping and mix well. Spread over cooled pretzel mixture; place in refrigerator until cream cheese mixture is firm. Mix boiling water with strawberry gelatin; stir until dissolved. Add frozen strawberries.  (Since I used fresh strawberries for this recipe, I washed and sliced them, then put them in the freezer to get cold before I added them to the warm jello water. If you let them freeze, they will speed the jelling process.)  Place gelatin mixture in refrigerator until it BEGINS to thicken, then pour and spread over cream cheese mixture and chill until set. Slice and enJOY! Store in the refrigerator.

 I pray that you and yours enJOY a BLESSED Easter together.

Share some of your favorite Easter traditions by leaving a comment below.

If you don't have any Easter traditions, get together with your family and start some!

Gra, Dilseacht, Cairdeas

Gra, Dilseacht, Cairdeas (graw, deel-shockt, korr-djass) ... Love, Loyalty, Friendship ... are three qualities that the Irish display proudly, and not just in their traditional jewelry. One of the common ways the Irish display these qualities is in the traditional foods they share with others.

Today, I enJOYed baking and reading about traditional Irish Soda Bread and the multiple versions of recipes that have evolved over the years. It may come as a shock to Irish-Americans that their Irish ancestors who left Ireland during the Famine years did not bring a recipe for Irish Soda Bread with them, but may have picked up the "tradition" after migrating to the United States. My Casey family ancestors (http://www.cfainusa.org) left Ireland in the early 1700s before the Potato Famine began in the 1840s.  Beginning in 1845 and lasting for six years, the potato famine killed over a million men, women and children in Ireland and caused another million to flee the country. Irish soda bread became popular in Ireland after the Famine years. If your Irish ancestors had the good sense to leave Ireland for America either before (as my family did) or during the Famine years, they never learned about making soda bread in Ireland. (SOURCE: The History Place, http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/introduction.htm and Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread, http://www.sodabread.us/index.htm) I encourage you to go to the SOURCE sites and read the very interesting history behind this tasty concoction of flour, baking powder, salt, and of course--soda. And if you have Irish ancestry--or even if you don't-- and want to join (it's FREE), check out how to become an official member of the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread. Here's the membership certificate:

Our loaf of Irish Soda Bread didn't last long today, but I did manage to snap some photos of the process and of the finished product before we began slicing away at it. I'll include the complete recipe below the tutorial so you can print your own copy or save it in your recipe file. In honor of my ancestors, I'm calling my version (I tweaked the recipe just slightly), Casey Clan's Irish Soda Bread. The basic soda bread is made with flour, baking soda, salt, and soured milk (or buttermilk). The Irish who enJOYed this bread were poor and could afford the more expensive ingredients, so it began as a very simple recipe. Over the years, it has evolved with additional ingredients. In America and other parts of the world, we tend to forget that this is a basic "quick bread" served with meals and not a "dessert dish."

Also, don't forget the other yummy St. Patrick's Day recipe for Eire Pie, here: http://www.pinchofthissmidgenofthat.blogspot.com/search/label/Eire%20%28AY-reh%29%20Pie

Casey Clan's IRISH SODA BREAD

Let's begin by gathering our ingredients:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees with a rack set in lower third of oven. Use a couple of tablespoons of room temperature butter to coat a 10-inch round cast-iron skillet; set aside. (I thought I took a photo of the prepared skillet, but must have been dreaming... just imagine a skillet completely coated in softened butter... there you go!)
Now, in a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and wheat germ.

The wheat germ (or wheat bran, if you don't have wheat germ), is optional. I think it's just as good without it.

Cube COLD butter before adding it to the mixture.

Add cubed butter, sour cream and egg;

mix, using a pastry blender, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Stir in raisins (optional), buttermilk, and caraway seeds (optional) and mix until a sticky dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and form into a rounded--sort of mounded--- loaf.

Dust the top lightly with flour before transferring to prepared skillet.

Place in prepared skillet.

Using a sharp knife score a large "X" in the center.

Transfer to preheated oven. Bake until loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. If top begins to brown too quickly, loosely cover with a piece of parchment paper-lined aluminum foil. (I didn't have to do this, and it baked perfectly at one hour baking time.) Remove from oven and while still hot, coat the top crust with butter.

Transfer to a wire rack, cookie sheet, or platter to cool.

Slice, slather with Irish Butter (or salted butter) and enJOY!

A Little Bit 'O History

The oldest reference found to date to a published Soda Bread recipe was in County Down, Ireland ( NOV 1836, Farmer's Magazine (London) p.328, referencing Irish newspaper in County Down).

"A correspondent of the Newry Telegraph gives the following receipt for making 'soda bread', stating that 'there is no bread to be had equal to it for invigorating the body, promoting digestion, strengthening the stomach, and improving the state of the bowels.' He says, 'put a pound and a half of good wheaten meal into a large bowl, mix with it two teaspoonfuls of finely-powdered salt, then take a large teaspoonful of super-carbonate of soda, dissolve it in half a teacupful of cold water, and add it to the meal; rub up all intimately together, then pour into the bowl as much very sour buttermilk as will make the whole into soft dough (it should be as soft as could possibly be handled, and the softer the better,) form it into a cake of about an inch thickness, and put it into a flat Dutch oven or frying-pan, with some metallic cover, such as an oven-lid or griddle, apply a moderate heat underneath for twenty minutes, then lay some clear live coals upon the lid, and keep it so for half an hour longer (the under heat being allowed to fall off gradually for the last fifteen minutes,) taking off the cover occasionally to see that it does not burn.'"  (SOURCE: http://www.sodabread.us/index.htm)

Casey Clan's Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 Tablespoons Wheat Germ (or Wheat Bran)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, plus 2 Tablespoons more, softened, to coat skillet

1 (8-ounce) container sour cream

1 large egg

2 cups raisins (optional... some say that raisins were not included in the TRADITIONAL bread)

1 cup buttermilk

Caraway seeds (optional---I didn't use these. Caraway seeds )

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees with a rack set in lower third of oven. Use a couple of tablespoons of room temperature butter to coat a 10-inch round cast-iron skillet; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and wheat germ. Add cubed butter, sour cream and egg; mix, using a pastry blender, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in raisins, buttermilk, and caraway seeds, if using, and mix until a sticky dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and form into a rounded--sort of mounded--- loaf. Place in prepared skillet. Using a sharp knife score a large "X" in the center. Transfer to preheated oven. Bake until loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. If top begins to brown too quickly, loosely cover with a piece of parchment paper-lined aluminum foil. (I didn't have to do this, and it baked perfectly at one hour baking time.) Transfer to a wire rack, cookie sheet, or platter to cool. Slice, slather with Irish Butter (or salted butter) and enJOY!

Rath Dé ort!

(rah jay urt) (The Grace of God be with you!)

(Source: http://irish-sayings.com/cats/irishblessings/)