Easter

Easter Bread

This Easter was filled with many traditions old and new.  We had the annual easter egg dying.  This year we used brown eggs and the colors came out deep jewel colors.  We baked the eggs in easter egg bread, which a tradition that has roots in my Italian heritage. Easter dinner was lemon and herb stuffed salmon (with fresh herbs from our herb garden), potatoes au gratin (sinfully good), and citrus beet salad with fresh lettuce from our garden and parmesan crisps (made to look like rabbit ears). And of course, our family holidays aren't complete with a spread of desserts.  This holiday was no exception. My aunt is an amazing cook and outdid herself with her signature chocolate cake and trifle. I have no words for how amazing her cake is.  The weather was gorgeous so we ate outside. And because I love flowers I indulged and decorated the house with cheery tulips, daises, and ranunculus.

Citrus beet salad

Lemon and herb stuffed salmon

Just because I love flowers. They make me smile inside.

Luck o' the Irish

I'm a holiday junkie but I've never really gone all out for this particular holiday.  That changed this year thanks to our little man.  He made leprechaun traps at school last week and insisted that he set his up outside our front door in hopes of catching a little wee green fellow and raking in some gold.  We were game to join in on the fun and play the part of mischievous little elves.  We set off the trap and left some coins behind.  We also left some leprechaun foot prints around (using green water color paint on surfaces that were easily wipeable).
Food is always at the heart of our holiday celebrations so of course we got creative with our dinner.  If you've read my post from last year, you'll know that we don't really stick to the cultural cuisine of St. Patties' Day.  Rather we tend to incorporate more of the Italian cuisine.  This year we had pasta with pesto sauce "leprechaun logs", sauteed greens "sautéed shamrocks",  fish (no creative name), and a "rainbow of fruit flavors" for desert.  For the rainbow we used fruit from each color of the rainbow (strawberry, orange, pineapple, kiwi, and blueberries) with the exception of violet....the store was out of purple grapes. Marco loved helping to assemble and promptly devour the rainbow.  It was fun to watch him create his own holiday traditions and a great day was had by all.

St. Patrick's Day Pizza?

Shamrock Pizza

Happy belated St. Patty's Day.  This year for St. Patty's Day did we celebrate with green beer and corn beef and cabbage? Nope, we had shamrock pizza.  Let me explain.  We have a few family traditions that we celebrate on various holidays.  One of them is pancake breakfast for pretty much any holiday we can find and excuse to celebrate.  This past Valentine's Day, in addition to heart shaped pancakes for breakfast, we made heart-shaped pizza for our special Valentine's dinner.  This must have stuck in my son's mind because for St. Patty's Day he requested shamrock pizza for dinner.  Not the traditional Irish fare, but since I'm Italian with a small bit of Irish thrown in, I figured that shamrock pizza was a fitting way to celebrate.  I think we've just stumbled across a new family tradition...holiday pizza.

Real Grass Easter Baskets

Today I was at a gardening talk about planting edibles in small spaces and a friend was telling me about how she is growing oat grass for her kids' Easter baskets rather than using the plastic or paper grass.  I thought it was such a lovely idea! I'm going to use wheat grass and then we can harvest it after Easter. You can grow it yourself or just buy it already grown.  If you want to grow it yourself here's how you do it.

1. Buy 1-2 cups of sproutable wheat berries/grain at a health food store.
2. Place the wheat berries in a bowl, cover with water, and soak for 12 hours.
3. Drain and rinse.
4. Add 1-11/2 inches of wet potting soil in a well drained plastic tray, a pot, or directly into your basket.
5. Sprinkle the wheat berries over the soil..
6. Cover with wet paper towel and water.  Cover with a dishtowel and set in a dark plays for 2-3 days. Keep moist.
7. Uncover after 3 days and set in a warm place with indirect sunlight.  Keep moist.

Enjoy!

Valentine's Day and Family Traditions

It's no secret to those that know me that I L-O-V-E Valentine's Day! (I love pretty much every holiday.  Mainly because most holidays center around family, friends, and food...three of my favorite past times.)  Form me Valentine's Day isn't just about flowers and chocolate (although I enjoy both), but it's about taking a day to put down the "To Do list", focus on with your loved ones, and tell them how much they mean to you.  Really, who doesn't like feeling special and hearing your friends and family tell you how much they love you! I don't think anyone, especially kids, can hear it enough.

I was lucky to have amazing parents who somehow managed to carve out enough time between juggling three kids and full-time jobs to make every holiday special for my siblings and me. Through the years my family has developed a slew of holiday traditions that we still uphold.  Now that I have my own family I feel that it is important to make my son feel as loved as I did growing up and feel connected to his myriad of cultures (mainly Italian and Mexican with a bit of German and Irish thrown in) through holiday traditions.  I also want him to learn how to show love and compassion to others. While we try to do both of these things on a daily basis, holidays are great opportunities to put emphasis on them.  They also provide an opportunity to sit down and talk about various topics, customs, and traditions, what they signify, and why they are important.  For example, Dia de los Muertos (a holiday we celebrate in our family) is a great time to teach kids about death in a light-hearted manner and give them a way to remember loved ones who are know longer with us.  So this Valentine's Day I decided to take the day off of work and spend it with my little man.  We spent the day making heart-shaped pancakes, hanging out at the park playing baseball, making a special surprise desert for dad.  Then we spent the evening as a family making heart shaped pizza for a special Valentine's Day dinner.  It was the best Valentine's Day yet!!  I hope yours was equally as wonderful.