What's a typical Easter dinner where you're from?

My family had a baked ham with pineapple rings, maraschino cherries, etc.

Macaroni salad made with some of the colored boiled eggs.

And some other third thing: raw broccoli salad, cole slaw, etc.

None of it was good, but we kids were encouraged to help so that was fun.

Seafood and salad followed by lots of chocolate.

Baked ham with potatoes and asparagus. When I was younger, my grandmother made lamb and rabbit, as well.

Roast beast.

Grandma went and shot herself some possom for stew.

Her recipe

Ham, new potatoes, green peas, etc.

It was always turkey for some reason when I was growing up.

Canned sweet potatoe (I think Bruce’s?) with tri-color marshmallows.

Chickpea and spinach stew with pine nuts, raisins, prawns and cuttlefish.

Stewed cod with hard-boiled eggs.

Profiteroles and a mona - a traditional Catalan Easter cake that has many variations. My favourite is covered in crème brûlée and roasted, sliced almonds, and adorned with chocolate figurines.

I've lived in the UK most of my adult life and the only things I like out of the traditional Christmas cuisine, are chocolate eggs and Simnel cake.

An entire roasted lamb on a spit.

But I'm a vegetarian......

Usually ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans. Some times it would be lamb, with mint jelly and pan browned potatoes. w were quite secular, but always had baskets and plenty of chocolate. To this day, though I can't eat hard boiled eggs, although I liked coloring them.

[quote] Chickpea and spinach stew with pine nuts, raisins, prawns and cuttlefish.

Wow, this is an interesting dish.

Do you know the background/origin of it, and perhaps even a recipe.

I've never heard of anything like this before.

What are cuttlefish?

Cuttlefish, or cuttles, are marine molluscs of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone, which is used for control of buoyancy.

Cuttlefish have large, W-shaped pupils, eight arms, and two tentacles furnished with denticulated suckers, with which they secure their prey. They generally range in size from 15 to 25 cm (6 to 10 in), with the largest species, the giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama), reaching 50 cm (20 in) in mantle length and over 10.5 kg (23 lb) in mass.

Jesus Christ!

I haven't celebrated Easter since I was a kid and forced. We had lamb.

[quote] Canned sweet potatoe

Okay, Dan Quayle.

Creamed Possum on toast, acorn squash mashed with raccoon sauce, rhubarb stalks marinated in pickle juice, deviled goose eggs, Velveeta cream pea mash with Pokeberry pie.

Lechon, pancit, paella, kaldereta

Lamb

Garlic Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

Asparagus Risotto

Peas

Glazed Carrots

Purple Cabbage Salad

Siracha Biscuits

Apple Lime Pie with Homemade Vanilla Custard

We usually have pasta with roast meat or pot roast of some kind. Some sort of appetizer like empanadas or bruschetta . A homemade desser usually flan or budin de pan (bread pudding) with whipped cream and dulce de leche. Then we have a "Rosca de pascua", a sort of easter bread wreath with coffee. Simple but delicious.

R22 here

Also we have Easter lunch not dinner

Yes, typically ham, but for the last fee years I've been making stuffed peppers with sides of course and desserts. This year I'll make the same, although I'd like to make stuffed cabbage instead.

Spring lamb, of course, since I was raised Greek Orthodox. Lamb prepared with lemon and garlic, roasted on a bed of potatoes and onions, carrots and usually asparagus or string beans. Rice pudding for dessert.

And this year, Orthodox Easter is a week later than “American” Easter since Greeks still go by the Julian calendar rather then the Gregorian.

Entrails ceviche served with steamed asparagus and a poached egg.

Lamb, unsurprisingly.

Ham, potato salad.

Ham, mashed potatoes with salty gravy made from the ham drippings, asparagus, and egg salad. And sweet, yeasty rolls.

Then enough chocolate to cause an upset stomach

Kinda liking this cake and the phrasing - when I'm high, I will draw all men to me!

Oysters Rockefeller with absinthe, bacon and breadcrumbs

Lamb chop with white asparagus tips and Seville marmalade

Artichoke mousse in a minted pea aspic shell

Avalon Jubilee

You can do so many things at Easter which is nice. A lot of people do lamb and asparagus. We did roast beef, ham and chicken salad and other salads when I was a child. Now my generation of the family is in charge and we do variation of the same but more potluck. The hostess does a does ham, chicken salad, roasted veggies, deviled eggs, and each family brings whatever. It's all established in the weeks leading up to Easter. I will bring a cold beet, feta, walnut salad that I am picking up from a greek specialty grocery. And some insane looking chocolate dessert that friends recommended. We're older now and my siblings and I are looser with more booze and doors open and people smoking a joint on a walk outside. Digging be back living in Virginia.

I hate Easter so much. I won't participate with my family Easter or my partner's family gathering. Yet I love Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Boiled eggs, and their likewise deceased and roasted moms.

La Blaque Cock with Creme de Yung Boi

Pioneer woman meal needs more color. I don’t like meals that are all the same color.

I'm honestly so old I don't remember what we had for Easter dinner when I was a child, but if i had to guess I'd say lamb with mint jelly. For the last several years I've made sauteed scallops (NYT Cooking, Sam Sifton recipe) for the main course for Easter, and that's what I'm doing this year. Side dishes will be roasted asparagus and scalloped potatoes. I ordered See's Scotchmallow eggs for dessert.

[quote] Oysters Rockefeller with absinthe, bacon and breadcrumbs

Where does one find real absinthe, and does it go with oysters and bacon??

And for the people who mention deviled eggs, why is that? Even the Pioneer Woman has deviled eggs on her plate.

Where does that tradition come from? It's weird seeing deviled eggs on the plate.

Leg of lamb, lasagna and sometimes baked salmon, we liked lots of food options since we are a big family. We got lazy as we got older now we go out for dim sum.

Prunes and Cod.

Crown of lamb with frilly manchettes in pastel colors.

R40 Magic of the holidays...

When people say "Lamb with Lemon and Rosemary," do you mean that you marinate the lamb with lemon and rosemary, or do you squeeze the lemon on afterwards, like you do with fish?

I've actually never had lamb before, so I wouldn't know.

The only meat my fam will serve on Easter is ham

I'm making a ham, scalloped potatoes, roasted asparagus, creamed corn, deviled eggs, rolls and carrot cat. FAT WHORES REJOICE!

R24 Does your family mind paying a fee to eat with you?

R19 is Granny Clampett.

I never liked roasted ham, I like the cold cut, but not as a roast meat. I like other pork cuts to, but not ham.

[quote] I'm honestly so old I don't remember what we had for Easter dinner when I was a child ... I ordered See's Scotchmallow eggs for dessert.

I can't remember much, either. Just ham and maybe potato salad.

I love Scotchmallows.

We have baked ham with potatoes au gratin or mac & cheese, green beans and an ambrosia salad because my southern grandma insists. For dessert it's carrot cake and a fruit pie of some kind.

Deep dish Pizza

R25, isn’t Orthodox Easter like a month later this year, not a week?

Bucket of chicken.

[quote]I'm making a ham, scalloped potatoes, roasted asparagus, creamed corn, deviled eggs, rolls and carrot cat.

My condolences to the unlucky feline.

R54 not enough green in that menu. YOu need another green vegetable to counter the creamed corn.

There's asparagus and carrot cat, enough to counter the creamed corn.

[quote]Where does that tradition come from?

You make deviled eggs to use up some of the hard-boiled eggs the kids dyed and hid.

It should be ham, to celebrate and recognize the freeing of Christians from religious dietary restrictions. (Gluttony remains a sin though, so fatties shouldn’t get any ideas.)

I used to make a lemon cake roll for Easter but that was when I was young and energetic. Now I just feel like I've been cooking for too many years, so fuck it.

It’s brunch, not dinner. Croissants, deviled eggs, miniature tapas, petit fours, chocolate.

R52: Yes, you are right, Orthodox Easter is Sunday, May 5 this year.

Which is ridiculous. The Julian calendar strikes again..

A couple of scotches , some cheese and crackers beforehand (port salut, cheddar, and goat cheese)

Small baked ham, mashed potatoes, Brussel sprouts, salad, French red wine

Lidia's ricotta chocolate chip cookies, maybe some pistachio/almond ice cream, and espresso

I went shopping for Easter dinner yesterday, and I was so excited to get cooking, that I made the whole meal earlier today.

Basted the ham with honey and baked for two hours.

While the ham was baking, I made Olivier Potato Salad with onions, peas, and carrots, and lots of mayonnaise.

I also mashed five pounds of russets, with cream, sour cream and butter.

I blanched the asparagus, and sauteed it in butter.

For a salad, I made an onion, tomato and cucumber salad tossed in a sweet and sour vinaigrette.

And finally, I made a quick risotto with mushrooms.

However, I did buy the pie.

Sunday dinner is ready!

In the South, we typically have carrot cake, hummingbird cake, or coconut cake for Easter. I don't think they make coconut or hummingbird cakes in the North.

Some kind of lemon dessert sounds good, esp. lemon meringue pie.

Or ... a variety of macaron cookies.

We definitely have coconut cakes in the North. I regularly had them for birthdays. My brother didn't like coconut, anything with coconut was a rarity. With some effort you also can find hummingbird cakes.

Coconut cake does sound good. My mom made one and it was my dad's favorite cake, I think.

PEN0R

Italian Easters are the best.

R52. Yes, Orthodox Easter is May 5, 2024.

Shumpils, shmohksh...

Easta. Dinna. 🍗 🍝 🥖 🥗

Coconut cakes used to be very popular for Orthodox Easter, often in shape of a lamb.

Gin and regret.

We had Easter dinner early this year. Ham, asparagus salad, hash brown casserole, and deviled eggs that looked much better than the pioneer woman’s”s.

In my family it's anything the host/hostess feels like. Tonight my sister in law is cooking a ham. She's Canandian and her food is bland as hell. Very little seasoning or spices. It's always just lacking flavor and "something". Her ham is very 1950s with pineapples and cherries stuck to it. Potatoes are from a tub.

It will be serviceable but uninspired. I'm a much better cook but they have the big house for entertaining.

A lollipop lamb chop is now $10: $39.91 for a package of four weighing a bit over a pound bought this morning. So a pricey centerpiece for the meal. I also got jumbo shrimp for shrimp cocktails, mint jelly, French rolls, asparagus hollandaise, bleu cheese potato pancakes, a green salad, and strawberries marinated in kirsch with whipped cream for dessert. More food than I've had at one time since Christmas. Leftovers through Tuesday or Wednesday.

Why are the holidays about eating? OK, maybe not Veteran's Day, but most of them.

When I was little, my Italian Grandmother and my mother and her sisters all made this huge meal for the large extended family. Cheese Ravioli with meat sauce, roasted sweet and white potatoes, roasted turkey with a rice and cheese stuffing, tosses salad and salad. Dessert was cannoli and Italian cookies. After Grandma died and my mother and her sisters took turns, we started Americanizing with Ham, scalloped potatoes green beans. Dessert was still Cannoli and Italian cookies.

[quote]Just ham and maybe potato salad.

I think you're confusing Easter with the 4th of July.

I never heard about ham being a 4th of July dish.

Lunchmeat ham is okay for 4th of July.

R80 I've never heard of potato salad being an Easter dish.

To me ham with potato salad, is a summer dish.

I can recall family gatherings on July 4th with a ham. With some cold sides, it's easier than a bbq.

[quote] Why are the holidays about eating? OK, maybe not Veteran's Day, but most of them.

I think that this is the last big "eating holiday," until Thanksgiving.

Really, it's only Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and Easter where people have large dinner parties.

The other holidays during the year are mainly just picnic types of meals, like Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day.

r25, agapi mou, Greek Easter is on May 5th this year, which is more than (not *then*) a week from Fake Easter, which you call "American Easter". Note that millions of non-American Xtians will also celebrate Fake Easter tomorrow.

We always had exactly what you wrote: "Spring lamb, of course, since I was raised Greek Orthodox. Lamb prepared with lemon and garlic, roasted on a bed of potatoes and onions, carrots and usually asparagus or string beans. Rice pudding for dessert". This is not what all Greeks eat at Easter and yet is weirdly identical to my family's Easter meals. Am wondering if your relatives are from the Cyclades, California, or if this is a simple, Americanized version? We also had that twisty bread with dyes red eggs and orange cookies. And maybe a dozen other types of cookies and some other side dishes that I can't remember. My mom and grandmother (YiaYia) would be cooking for several days in a trance, strung out of coffee laced with shots of something, speaking Greek with heavy New Jersey accents while cooking in our earthtone 1960s Northern California kitchen. None of us were religious. But if you didn't eat traditional foods on certain days, you'd become unpopular, and then die suddenly from multiple diseases.

Today I'm making braised lamb shanks because they are cheap and virtually fail-proof. I don't really like lamb or meat in general -- except for the bacon in BLTs. My partner likes lamb, but hates rice pudding. I will truly miss him when he's gone after he soon catches spinadifida and untreatable cancer of the gonads.

[Why are the holidays about eating?]

It keeps family members from having to talk to each other too long.

Lots of blanched corn. I freeze sweet corn every summer from my garden. Then for the next year, I just go to my freezer and pull out a bag of this delicious side dish and serve with holiday dinners. My, what a crowd pleaser.

I grew up in the deep South and my mother wasn't what you would call a sophisticated cook. For Easter, she typically made a ham, potato salad, either lima or green beans, either brown-n-serve rolls or Pillsbury roll ups if feeling fancy along with deviled eggs and a green salad consisting of iceberg lettuce, anemic tomatoes and Mazola corn oil as the dressing. All this was served with Coca-cola and dessert was either strawberry shortcake made with Cool Whip and those little dessert shells or a Pepperidge Farm coconut cake.

I didn't care, though, because my only concern was my Easter basket and trading candy with my siblings. I nostalgically miss some of the candy from back then, such as gold bricks and coconut nests. Lol, my mother also made sure we each got a pack of candy cigs in our basket. I can't imagine kids getting those today.

R88 you had me at the Pepperidge Farm Coconut cake.

Canneloni with Bolognese. Pizza Rustica. Asparagus. Herb-crusted pork loin. Cookies and gelato.

I might flash my pussy tomorrow

Roast leg of Lamb with all the trimmings.

We don't all dine like people where we're from.

I'm am a lapsed and agnostic (at best) former Greek Orthodox but I will still gather with family on Greek Easter to celebrate. It's more of a tribal family tradition/situation for me rather than religious.

Pizza, R90???

That sounds fun. Kids must love it.

[quote] I'm am a lapsed and agnostic (at best) former Greek Orthodox but I will still gather with family on Greek Easter to celebrate. It's more of a tribal family tradition/situation for me rather than religious.

I think it's that way for pretty much all of us, R94.

These days, we just do it for the food, and socializing.

I doubt that there are any of us who gather for Easter dinner, for the religious aspect of it.

This year I’m having scalloped potato toes with pork chops on top.

My family never did anything special on Easter. Now, as an adult, neither do I.

Oh dear! We need Greg! Calling for Greg, where are you? We need Easter Sunday recipes, Sweetie!

Growing up different things for Easter dinner, but Easter morning we had fried kielbasa with mustard on cocktail rye bread.

Easter is a religious holiday and except for colored eggs and chocolate bunnies it has largely resisted commercialization. It just doesn't seem as big as Christmas. People go to church. They they have brunch or dinner. Then it's over. Poof! No revels.

R85: They were immigtants from Rhodes and various parts of northern Greece.

The other thing my grandmother made for dessert were her special Easter cookies, koulourakia — a very buttery dough, rather like shortbread, twisted into the shape of a crescent and with a single clove in each one (the Turkish influence, they occupied Greece on and off for years). After baking they were lightly dusted with powdered sugar.

As an American boy I hated Greek desserts — all that honey and no chocolate.

Another Northern California Greek-American here. My non-PC aunt used to refer to the two holidays as "Greek Easter and white people's Easter."

Sticks, maybe some bugs.

R96

Doesn't anyone eat roast Easter Bunny?

[quote] Doesn't anyone eat roast Easter Bunny?

We call it hossenfeffer.

So many Greek people! I'm surprised. I love Greek food.

r106 needs to get to a production of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," stat. (Go to 00:28.)

r107, "Easter" is apparently a triggering word for us Greeks. Even for us partial Greeks. Real Easter is still 5 weeks away and yet I am nervous, anxious, and excited, despite that most of my family are dead. BTW, my braised lamb shanks were an epic fail. Greasy (pun not intended) and gamey.

r25, bingo! My siblings and I mostly hated Greek desserts for the same reason. And rose water and licorice and fennel, or something. And that hairy thing with the spines that looked like a sea urchin but they were cylindrical, rather than spherical. We called it "The Cousin It Dessert". Why couldn't we get chocolate bunnies and Snickers bars like Normal People?

r102, shame on your ancestors, lol. The biggest thing Greeks in the US try to hold onto is pretending to be "White". I have a giant nose, unibrow, and used to have curly black hair until it turned white.

Easter appears to be the new Halloween. I see the kids have buckets for it.

Not Easter baskets, plastic buckets to collect the sugary loot.

We'd have a Easter Egg Hunt for the little cousins at Grandma's house. I helped hide the eggs. No one knew quite what to do on Easter Sunday. Church, family dinner, maybe watch a movie or go for a walk, but it was probably the most boring of all the holidays. And I am no longer a regular church goer.

R101 The correct name for the Greek cookies dusted with a clove and dusted with sugar are kourambeides, not koulourakia.

[quote]"Greek Easter and white people's Easter."

Which is funny because Greeks are caucasian and white means caucasian.

Hasenpfeffer for the entree.

Roast duckling for the roast course.

R38, eggs, deviled or not, have been associated with Easter since the early days of the Church. Eggs and meat were not eaten during the 40 days leading up to Easter (Lent) and Easter Sunday was the first day you could eat them again. The egg also represents birth or in Christ’s case, rebirth and resurrection, and the cracking of the shell represents the breaking open of the tomb. I believe the Greek Orthodox even have a liturgy in which eggs are blesssed and passed out to the congregation.

I’m from the South and we usually would have ham or lamb, depending on which side of the family was hosting that year. Deviled eggs were always present, though honestly I think we had them at every large family meal. Asparagus was usual, since it is in season this time of year, and coconut cake was the usual dessert.

To add: my grandmother made the best coconut cakes. Southern coconut cakes are soggy affairs, iced with a sweetened sour cream and fresh coconut icing. She called it “knuckle cake” because, in the days before frozen, grated fresh coconut was available you had to grate the coconut by hand and there was always a little knuckle in it from trying to grate the coconut by hand.

Braised rabbit ragu over pappardelle.

[quote] The egg also represents birth or in Christ’s case, rebirth and resurrection, and the cracking of the shell represents the breaking open of the tomb.

How odd then, that people would DEVIL them.

That's quite the contrast.

Bakhlava is atrocious. Sickly sweet.

I love baklava.

I had ham and mashed potatoes and asparagus last night.

I don't want to eat it again tonight.

Also the trinity because of the three components of the egg.

R101: Take it up with my grandmother, my whole family called them koulourakia. In America the ones I see with that name have an egg glaze and sesame seeds. They’re good but the texture is different — my grandmother’s cookies were more brittle and crumbly.

When my husband and I took my mother through Greece it was interesting to see the how the same dish was done differently in place to place depending on the regiom some dishes more mediterranean/European, some more middle eastern, depending on the herbs and spices used.

My Dad’s favorite dish his mother made(mine too) was domades avgolemono — white cabbage leaves stuffed with ground lamb (or beef) with cooked rice in an egg-lemon sauce. We didn’t taste anything nearly as good as hers until we got to far northern Greece, which she left when she was 12 ( the meat/rice filling has to have the snap of ground white pepper and the sauce must be both eggy and tangy).

My mother’s mother’s best dish was keftedes — essentially Greek meatballs, made with ground potato or tomato used as a binder instead of egg or bread crumbs, which makes them very tender, and you also use a bit of ground mint — but very little. Again, those were served all over Greece but the only ones that tasted like hers were the ones we had in Rhodes where she had grown up. Use ground dill or oregano instead of mint and the flavor is completely different.

Goat guts & clabber.

[quote]Which is funny because Greeks are caucasian and white means caucasian.

Indians and Pakistanis are Caucasians too.

Not really. Turkish people are though.

Turkish foot candy

Easter dinner would typically be a beef roast & a big glazed ham, along with mac & cheese, broccoli casserole, summer squash casserole, sweet potato souffle, butter beans, rice & gravy, mashed potatoes, and yeast rolls. And gallons of the most delicious home made sweet tea you ever put in your mouth.

My grandparents would typically be there after they had reached an age where entertaining on that scale was hard on them, and my grandfather would always say the same thing, "just look at all that delicious food, there's enough food there for a log rollin'".

That's quite a spread, R128!

It sounds wonderful.

In my family, Easter dinner looked like this:

Pizzagaina

Deviled eggs

Other hors d’oeuvres

+++

Antipasti with cured meats, Italian cheeses, ciliegine mozzarella balls, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, hard cooked eggs, and lettuce.

+++

Escarole Soup with little meatballs

+++

Ravioli

Meatballs, sausage, and braciole

+++

Assorted Desserts including an assortment of Italian cookies

Greg's post reminded me. We also always had a huge platter of deviled eggs.

And Greg, all that fabulous Italian food is making me lightheaded with hunger pangs.

Double Big Macs with 64 oz Cokes

Is pizzagaina similar to timballo?

Pizzagaina does not include pasta.

Pizzagaina is a savory pie filled with meats and cheeses.

Had to make an appearance at my partner's sister brunch: ham, Polish potato salad with pickles, apples, carrots and celery root; potato cheese egg casserole; salad, peanut butter chocolate pie from Costco. We left early and ate little.

How nice to be invited, R135.

Usually lamb or turkey but I was too lazy to prepare either this year. So we had sirloin steak, broccoli, and baby mashed potatoes instead. Totally non-traditional but I dragged out the "Ten Commandments" DVD and played it all day (seemed like it anyway) for the tradition part.

We had a leg of lamb, a gorgeous Greek salad, and those tiny potatoes roasted with rosemary. Carrot cake and Key lime pie for dessert.

Rack of Lamb, twice baked potatoes and Caesar salad.

Now's the time to shop for next Easter or Thanksgiving or Christmas or NYE. The hams are on sale everywhere this week. Lots of great buys.