Showing posts with label family traditions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family traditions. Show all posts

Sunday, April 8, 2012

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.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

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.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Dia de Los Muertos



I've mentioned in previous posts my love of holidays.  Holloween is one of my favorites.  My new favorite holiday is Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which is a Mexican tradition.  The more I learn about this holiday the more I love it.  I think it is a wonderful way to celebrate loved ones that have passed on and to expose children to the idea of death in a positive and celebratory way.  This weekend we happened upon this amazing Dia de Los Muertos exhibit.  It's beauty and elegance is beyond words and the pictures simply don't do it justice.  I'm going to attempt to create a very small Dia de Los Muertos offerenda this year and I hope to gather some beautiful artifacts over the next year that we can use in annual offerendas.  I'd love to hear how others celebrate Dia de Los Muertos, All Saints Day, or similar traditions.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween Ghosts

I know, two blogs in one day after a long dry spell...it's madness.  But I wanted to share my Halloween ghosts.  I'm slightyly obsessed with chocolate covered strawberries so I find a way to incorporate them into any occasion.  Today I made white chocolate covered strawberry ghosts (the inspiration is courtesy of Pinterest).  Yumm!  Happy Halloween!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

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.