Happy Easter!


Wow, it’s Easter already!  This year is flying by.  Glad I’m prepared for today though.  As I said before, major (and some minor) holidays are Polish eating holidays.  I love that.  Rich’s family has a lot of traditions and I’ve incorporated them into how we celebrate things. 

I started off with brunch today.  We had Zurek soup.  For though who don’t know what that is, you begin by boiling your Polish sausage for about an hour.  This gives you a good base for the soup.  We cheat and used the Zur in a jar.  We’ve found a couple of good brands that give us a good flavor.  Zur is fermented rye flour that adds a sourdough type of flavor to the soup.  You mix in the Zur and some horseradish for kick.  Good stuff.  Zurek soup takes its name from the fermented rye and it’s called Zurek as a reference.  Kind of like Pole and -ish.  Polish and  Zurek.

So when you make up your soup bowlm, you cut up a boiled egg, break up a slice of rye bread, add some sausage, and then pour Zur over the top of it.  For the harder souls, they add extra horseradish because it just needs more kick for them.  The rest of the menu was pieriogo, deviled eggs, and sausage.   This should hold us over until this evening when the lamb is done. 

This year, Rick actually had Zurek soup!  I was very surprised.  He has never eaten it.  As a kid, he tried it and like the flavor.  He informed me that he ate it last year.  I missed that someone.  Oh well, he actually ate it, except for the egg yolks.  We didn’t do King egg this year.

King egg was an interesting tradition in the Zurek family.  No one else I know who is Polish knew about this.  Everyone takes an egg and then you have someone start by using the bottom of their egg to crack the top of the next person’s egg.  Then you flip them over and try it again.  The egg that doesn’t break is King egg.  If you survive the entire the line, you are winner.  Of course, the adults always swapped eggs with the kids if theirs wins.  I think that was so they could get soup before it was gone.  The kids always loved playing to be King egg.  I guess mine has grown up too much.  We all just want soup now.

Then we had the annual Biting of the Ears.  Rick and Rich both get chocolate bunnies.  They bit off the ears and then spend the rest of the week getting through the bunny.  I think one year we actually did the cartoon version where one bunny is missing ears and the other one is missing a butt.  This year, Rick got a Reese’s bunny.  He said it tasted just like a Reese’s cup.  Rich only likes dark chocolate.  But they both have to be solid.  No hollow bunnies allowed her. 

 So finish the rest of my blog:

It turned out to be a very nice day.  Rich went off to fish in the river and Rick went to ride his bike.  Later, Rick and I did some yard work.  The riding tractor is broken, so we are trying to keep up the lawn with the push mower.  That’s a lot of work.  A lot of my plants are coming up.  My transplanted peonies are actually going to make it!  I was surprised.  But what a nice surprise.

Rich put the lamb on the grill to cook.  It smelled really good out on the deck this afternoon.  We made our way through the leg of lamb at dinner and then Sascha got the bone afterwards to gnaw on.  Rich had to chase her around the yard to get the bone back.  She growled some, but she did give it up in the end without biting anyone. 

All in all, it was a great day.  Good food, sunshine, and family time.  Hope you had a good Easter.

Rick has a vicious attack on the poor bunny.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rick was channeling Ozzie with this bunny.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Poor bunny has no ears!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rick's bunny has no ears either!