I Still Call It Easter Break Hodgepodge

Time again to answer Joyce’s questions for Wedneday Hodgepodge.

1. We’re in to a season students call ‘spring break’. Did you/your family travel over spring breaks when you were growing up? Tell us something about a ‘spring break’ you remember (from childhood or adulthood, either one).

Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s we always had Easter break. I forget when it was changed to Spring break. I’m not sure if we had the full week leading up to Easter off or starting on Good Friday for a full week. My family did not travel over Easter holidays. My mother was too busy baking Kulich (Russian Easter Bread) and making Seernaya Paska and sewing Easter dresses to go off galavanting. 🙂 We would fast on Good Friday and then attend a Good Friday evening service and when the service was over we would break our fast together with a meal at church. On Easter Sunday we would all dress up in our Easter finery and celebrate Jesus Christ’s Resurrection and come home to a luncheon of Lamb with colored Easter eggs and of course the delicious Russian Easter Bread for dessert.

In 1997 I had an epic road trip during our kids’ ‘Spring Break’ to Southern California. Dear was working but our two sons and daughter, our oldest son’s girlfriend (whom he married in 2001) and our middle son’s best friend, joined me as we traveled down I-5 with stops in Yuba City (at Dear’s mom’s condo) and then to our destination in Yorba Linda at my Mom and Pop’s home. Our oldest son was accepted to Westmont College in Montecito (Santa Barbara) and would be attending there come August so we made a trip there on one of our days. We had beach days, cousin days, a Disneyland day and Baba and Dzeda days before we headed home stopping in Clovis (at my cousin’s home), and Yuba city to have one more visit with Gommy (Dear’s mom). That stop and visit on April 18th/19th was the last time we would have with Gommy as she died on May 6th of that year, unexpectedly. Collages at the end of this post are from this epic road trip to Southern California. The photo at the top of the post was from this road trip, too.

3. March 7th is National Cereal Day…are you a fan? What’s your favorite? If not cereal what’s your favorite breakfast? Your typical breakfast?

I do enjoy breakfast cereals like Raisin Bran, Frosted Mini Wheats and Granola. My favorite breakfast is our family traditional meal of Swedish Pancakes and little smokies because we are all sitting around the table enjoying that breakfast together. If we eat breakfast at a restaurant I enjoy Eggs Benedict.

A typical breakfast would be high fiber cereal with blueberries or toast with avocado.

4. Break ground, break of dawn, break down, break the bank, break one’s stride, break the ice, break a law, break a habit, break bread…choose one of the idioms listed and tell us how it applies to your life currently.

I’m in the throws of trying to break the habit of going up on the scale after I’ve gone down on the scale. So far so good. The up and down and up again has been a yearly habit so it would be nice to break that cycle this year and stay on the low end.

5. Where do you go to connect with friends and family? What do you like to do most when you’re home alone?

Because of our moves later in life I’m disconnected from my longer established friendships. We’ve been in our current country location for 4 years and we are establishing new friends. We go to church to connect with friends. We connect with family and friends in our home or in their homes. I’m thankful for friends and family that come visit and stay overnight. Also thankful for trips to see friends and family.

I’m a list maker so when I’m at home alone I like to tick off my list. I like to have at least one day a week where my calendar has nothing on it and I can wile away the morning in my jammies and robe.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

March is my birthday month and this part of our state is not ideal for travel on my birthday, usually. We are re-thinking a night away and postponing that to the beginning of May, Lord willing. We’ll check the weather and try to get down to Spokane for a nicer meal than we would get in Colville on my birthday but time will tell. We also want to get to Spokane to see ‘Jesus Revolution’ while it is still in theaters. Growing up in Southern California we had experience with the Jesus People at Calvary Chapel (the original one) and want to see how it’s been portrayed in this film. Have any of you seen the movie?

April 12th we traveled in a rented van from Bothell to Yorba Linda. We made a rest stop to kick the soccer ball around. If I remember correctly we stopped in Yuba City for an overnight (or maybe that was an overnight on the way home) before we made it to Yorba Linda. Cousins came to visit us at Baba and Dzeda’s house on the 13th. On the 14th we headed to the Huntington Beach where our rented van broke down. I worked on getting that remedied while the kids enjoyed the beach.

On the 15th we drove to Santa Barbara (Montecito) and visited Debbee (cousin/niece) and to check out the campus that Josh would be attending.

On the 16th we had more cousin time playing card games.

On the 17th we had a Disneyland day with my sister and a cousin Melissa.

On the 18th we hit the road with stops planned in Clovis to visit cousins and then in Yuba City to see Gommy again.

Nadia’s Kulich and Seernaya Paska

What many of you call Paska we call Kulich. This is my mom’s Russian Easter Bread Recipe that I quartered because the amount she would make is quite daunting for me. We have cut it in half in years past. Now what you need to know about my mom and recipes is that she ends up tweaking them from year to year so this recipe is for her Kulich from 2001. I have a 2009 and 2012 recipe, too. This one was easier to quarter. Here’s the link to the original. My dear mom passed away from this earth in September of 2013 so I cherish her tweaked recipes.

Ingredients:

2 packets rapid rise yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/4 cup lukewarm milk
1 teaspoon sugar

4 egg yolks
1 egg
1-1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup half and half
1/2 ounce apricot brandy
1-1/2 teaspoons powdered vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
Zest of half a lemon
About 2-1/2 pounds of flour, sifted (about 7 cups)
Vegetable oil to coat the rising dough

6 to 7 one pound or two pound cans for baking. You can use loaf pans or large muffin tins if you don’t have the cans to bake them in.

Add yeast to the lukewarm water and milk and sugar in a stainless steel bowl. Make sure the liquids are lukewarm. Let this mixture dissolve and sit.

Beat the egg yolks and egg together.
Cream the butter and sugar in the large bowl of a stand-up mixer.
Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture slowly mixing to combine and then beat to incorporate well.
Mix the half and half with the whipping cream and heat until lukewarm, not hot, and slowly incorporate into the creamed mixture.
Mix in the vanilla and brandy.
Add the yeast mixture and the salt and beat with a mixer.
Continue beating and add the lemon zest.
Continue beating and add the sifted flour about a cup at a time.
Once you cannot beat the dough any longer using the mixer, put the dough on a floured surface and start incorporating the remaining flour by kneading the dough.
The dough should be kneaded very well, approximately 10 minutes.
You should knead the dough until you can cut it with a knife and it is smooth without any holes.
Place the dough in a stainless steel bowl. Take some oil and pour a little on the dough and spread it all over the dough. Make sure to turn the dough so it is coated evenly.
Cover with plastic wrap right on the dough and a dish towel on top of that.
Place in a warm place away from drafts to rise. (My sister usually puts it into the oven that has been warmed slightly.

It is now time to prepare the coffee cans (1 lb. and 2 lb. cans are the best) Cut circles the size of the bottom of the cans out of wax paper. You will need four circles per can. Make sure the cans are well greased. Put the 4 circles in the bottom of the cans.

Use a empty and clean coffee can like the ones above. If there is a label make sure to take it off. If the can has a lip at the top you’ll need to use a can opener to cut the lip off the can. I hope these pictures will make the process easier to understand.

Cut sheets of wax paper long enough to line the sides of the can and tall enough to be 2″ above the rim of the can. Use Crisco to seal the ends of the paper.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and turn it over.
Let it rise a second time until it doubles in size. Punch it down again.
Now the dough is ready to put into the prepared cans.
You will take a portion of dough about 1/3 the size of the can. Knead it and form it into a smooth ball that you can easily drop into the can.

Let the dough rise again inside the can until it is at least double in size.

Bake in a 350 degree oven until golden brown on top.(approximately 30 minutes or more depending on your oven.)

Let them cool slightly in the cans. Remove them from the cans and then cool completely standing up. Some people cool them on their sides turning them often to keep their shape. We found this time that they cool just fine and keep their shape standing up so we didn’t bother with that step!

To go with this bread my mom always makes a wonderful sweet cheese topping that is formed in a mold in different shapes. For my mom’s Sernaya Paska (cheese spread) recipe click here. I’m adding the recipe here.

Seernaya Paska

Ingredients:

18 – hard boiled eggs /
3 pounds Farmers cheese /a dry curd cheese like a dry cottage cheese can be substituted.
1 pint whipping cream /
3 cubes unsalted butter (12 oz.) /
3 cups sugar /

Press the Farmers cheese through a sieve. (This is the hardest part of the recipe) If you find a very small curd cheese you won’t have to do this to the cheese. I usually use a wooden spoon and press it through a wire strainer a little at a time. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. (You will not be using the whites).

Press the egg yolks through the sieve. Cream the sugar and butter together. Beat in the egg yolks. Beat in the cheese. Add whipping cream and mix well. You will place the mixture into a strainer lined with about 3 layers of cheesecloth. You will need enough cheesecloth to wrap up and over the top of the cheese. Place the cheese mixture into the cheese cloth lined strainer. Bring the ends of the cheese cloth up and tie the ends on top of the cheese in a knot. Place the sieve into a larger bowl suspended with enough room for the cheese to drain without sitting in the drained liquid. Place a plate on top of the cheese an place a heavy rock, brick, or other weight on top of the plate. Refrigerate over night.

So far no one in my family has one of these so ours looks like a dome because of the sieve we use to drain it in like in the photo at the top of the post. You could use a flower pot and get more of a domed effect. I’ll have to make it this year and take some photos of the paska in a nicer shape. Here’s an older wooden version of a mold.

This recipe is enough to feed an army. If you don’t have to feed an army here’s a scaled down version :0)

If you just want a normal amount, cut the recipe in thirds. (6 cooked egg yolks, 1-lb. cheese, 2/3 cup whipping cream, 1 cube butter and 1 cup sugar. Enjoy!

Farmers Cheese or Hoop Cheese can be hard to find. There are Russian delis that sell a dry curd cottage type cheese that will work. If you can find a dry cottage cheese at the grocers that will work too.

We like to serve the kulich with the spread and strawberries.

This blast from the past was probably our first Easter in Washington State, 1989.

I’m not sure if I’ll be trying this Kulich/Paska recipe quartered at the end of this week. I’ll let you know if I do and how many coffee can shaped loaves it makes. We got seven loaves out of this recipe although we shorted some of the cans.

Are you preparing for Easter?

Labors of Love

L is the letter for the day and my bandwith is low, low, low so I can’t upload any new photos right now. I’ll have to look to my archives and decide on a subject for the letter L. I chose my Labors of Love post from 2016.

I love Easter and all that it holds and all that it means. I like the idea of new Life, a resurrected Life. The greatest Love that was demonstrated on Good Friday and the Life that was resurrected on Easter Sunday.

Here are photos of our Easter weekend labors of love and celebrations 2016.

This was the end result of our labors on Easter Saturday 2016. Top left an Russian Easter sweet cheese spread called Seernaya Paska. The X and the B stand for Christ is Risen. On the right is the finished and frosted Russian Easter Bread called Kulich or Paska surrounded by Russian shrink wrapped eggs. The sign in Russian on the bottom left says Christ is Risen so you see where the X and B comes from. Now I’ll show you some of the process of getting here.

First you gather your labor force. This is my sister Lana who arrived early so that we could get the Russian Easter Bread (Kulich/Paska) started.

The rest of the laborers arrived and donned their aprons and head scarves.

At one point in the process of mixing the dough I thought I made a big boo boo so we prayed over the dough and Lana and I laid hands on the KitchenAid. I didn’t want to start over again. All turned out well…

Lana showing how her slippers match her apron.

The other photos in the collage are of kneading the dough and shrink wrapping the boiled eggs. While the dough was rising we enjoyed lunch together. Home made tamales and beans with guacamole, chips, and Dan and Jamie’s home made salsa.

After lunch it was time to prepare the cans and to punch down the dough after it’s first rise. The Peter Rabbit bunting was completed by Katie and hung by Laura and Katie. Josh and Laura gifted me the bunting kit for my birthday last week.

After the second rise we punched again and prepared the dough by hand for the cans pinching off enough or almost enough for each can we picked for this time around. Short, medium and tall.

The guys were busy outside in the sunshine solving several world problems.

The finished eggs and kulich on Easter day. I’ll show more from our Easter table in another post.

When the baking was done and the cheese mold was in the refrigerator setting up for our Easter Sunday meal the kids went out to dinner with their aunt and uncle. Dear and I stayed at home and crashed…

All of our kids together enjoying each other and extended family fills us with joy and not having to make dinner for them after a full day in the kitchen was a bonus!

We love and treasure these traditions and hope to carry them on through the years and pass them on to the next generation. I’m happy to report three of our nephews wives took on this labor of love alone in their homes and had very successful outcomes!

Favorites

Today is the letter F and it took a while to settle on a theme or a word starting with F. How about Favorites from Easter’s Past or Flashbacks from Easter Past. These photos were from a cooking class the Mennonite Girls Can Cook taught at Lepp Farm Market in Abbotsford, British Columbia in 2014. The class was for Mennonite Heritage (Russian/Ukrainian) foods we enjoy at Easter especially Paska (Kulich-Russian Easter Bread), Seernaya Paska (Sweet Cheese Spread for the Paska) and other Mennonite foods.

Paska (Kulich) a very traditional Russian/Ukrainian Easter bread that is frosted and sprinkled!

Our daughter Katie traveled with me to Canada for this cooking class and took most of the photos during the class. This will be an Easter where our family does not gather to bake Russian Easter Bread together.

This is what our family’s Easter bread looks like. We bake the bread in old coffee cans we’ve saved from years past.

And here’s a flashback to the fifties, a family photo in our Easter finery. I’m in yellow with my classic Buster Brown haircut!

Back to the present. Today is Tuesday April 7, 2020. Yesterday I started the process to try to make a couple face masks. Pray for me because sewing has gotten me into so much trouble in my past. I was sent to detention in 7th grade because of something I said to my sewing teacher. OYE! My sisters are more talented in the art of sewing than me. My mother was a great seamstress, too. Me…not so much! I hope I can finish a mask today!!

Elastic is so hard to come by these days and look what I found in my sewing bin! A new package of the right kind of elastic for making masks!

I can’t remember why we bought this sewing machine but there it is and here I am hoping the threading is right and the tension is right and the stitching will go without the bobbin thread getting all backed up, etc. etc.

But…look at my delightful fabric that I’ve kept in my sewing bin for over 40 years now! Our firstborn’s room was themed after Peter Rabbit/Beatrix Potter and I bought this fabric thinking I’d sew curtains or something. Now I’ll be able to use it for Covid19 masks!! Who would have fathomed!

Forging Forward full of faith forever founded in Father God the author and finisher of our faith!

Looking forward to fun family and friend fellowship in the future!!

Do you sew? I’m sending my excess elastic to my sister Vera who has received requests for her to sew face masks for them. Eeek but now I have to make sure and finish a mask before I head to the Post office to mail that elastic to her!

Happy Tuesday y’all!

Easter Monday Update

Saturday was a multitasking day at this old house. The girls prepared Russian Easter Bread, our sweet cheese spread, packed boxes, took photos and paintings off the walls. Dear gathered up items we wanted to sell and Josh took over my phone and managed the photos and listings for us and responded to the inquiries and we sold several items, cha ching! We were exhausted at the end of the day but were satisfied with the successful results of working together.

On Easter morning we were texted this collage of Addy’s first experience with bubbles.

We celebrated our risen savior at the 8 am service and it was glorious!

Our peeps gathered at 11:00 am for our Easter meal together. Yummy.

Our phones alerted us to a text coming in and we saw our little Easter bunny from across the mountains who was zonked out after attending Easter service with her parents.

We missed these three at our celebration but are always happy to get photos via text!

Hope you all had a joyful Easter weekend.

Addy’s First Easter

We celebrated Easter with our Eastern Washington kids on their mountain that they’ve marked with a B. All through the morning texts flew back and forth from Texas, Southern California and Western Washington with our Easter greeting to each other, Christos Voskress! Voistinu Voskress! We always give each other the Easter greeting, Christ is Risen, He is risen indeed in Russian. And we say it back and forth three times.

This year we had brunch with some of Jamie’s family and a friend of the family.

We had an egg casserole that cooked in the slow cooker. I forgot to take a photo of it. Granny’s deviled eggs had some extras in them that made me want more than one or two. We had the traditional Seernaya Paska to spread on our Easter Bread.

The Grannies on Jamie’s side got in some good cuddle time. Dear read the resurrection passage from Matthew 28 and prayed a blessing on our gathering and then we all dug in.

Brian’s birthday was the day before Easter so we sang happy birthday and ate some pie made in his honor.

More cuddle time for Jamie’s mom, Addy’s Granny.

Addy decided sleep was a good thing for Easter.

The sunshine was so welcome. We were all so grateful for the the warmer temperatures. Addy slept a lot on her first Easter. Wish we had Easter Monday here in the U.S. so our son could have one more day at home but it’s off to work today for him after a nice stretch of paternity leave.

I love Easter. Hope yours was filled with joy!

Easter Brunch…

…was a first for us. We always have had Easter lunch or dinner and served lamb. This year our kids from across the mountains joined us for the weekend and had to get on the road earlier on Easter day to head home. We went to an early service and came home and started on brunch. We decided on Biscuits and gravy which was easy to have ready for 10 in a short amount of time. We used our electric skillet to make side eggs for anyone who wanted one or two.

The tablecloth and runner were purchased at HomeGoods.

We used shrink wraps for the eggs that I purchased at a Ukrainian market.

I bought the glasses that are tinted on their base in green and blue from Dollar Tree.

This is Seernaya Paska which is a sweet cheese spread made with cooked egg yolks, butter, cream, and sugar mixed well and then put in a mold with weight on top to force all the extra liquid out of it. This happens overnight in the fridge.

This is one from a couple of years ago that I made using a larger amount and larger mold.

The signs that the bunnies are holding are in Russian and they say Christ is Risen and He is risen indeed.

I used little blue and green egg cups for place cards and let each person take theirs home so each household took home a green cup and an aqua cup. I bought the egg cups from World Market. The napkins were a thrift store purchase a few years back. The pearl napkin rings were a Target clearance purchase from several years ago.

The Russian Easter Bread ready to go with our favorite toppings…

A nice layer of Seernaya Paska (Sweet Cheese Spread) on top of the Kulich/Paska (Russian Easter Bread) and then top it off with lightly sugared fresh strawberries. Delicious! And on the morning after this next picture shows my Easter Monday breakfast…

My next post will be all about the people we enjoyed this meal with.

Here in the Pacific Northwest we are enjoying some glorious sunshiny days! I will have no excuse not to mow the grass. It’s getting a little wild out there with dandelions! I’m feeling better, too, and using less tissues everyday. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

I’m linking up with Laura at Decor to Adore for Thoughts of Home #8.

Labor of Love…

Here are photos of our Easter weekend labors of love and celebrations.

This was the end result of our labors on Easter Saturday. Top left an Russian Easter sweet cheese spread called Seernaya Paska. The X and the B stand for Christ is Risen. On the right is the finished and frosted Russian Easter Bread called Kulich or Paska surrounded by Russian shrink wrapped eggs. The sign in Russian on the bottom left says Christ is Risen so you see where the X and B comes from. Now I’ll show you some of the process of getting here.

First you gather your labor force. This is my sister Lana who arrived early so that we could get the Russian Easter Bread (Kulich/Paska) started.

The rest of the laborers arrived and were donned with their aprons and head scarves.

Lana showing how her slippers match her apron. I am behind in giving a shout out to My Mother’s Apron Strings after I won this Christmas apron giveaway without knowing I even entered the contest. My sister is wearing it on the reverse side since this is Easter and not Christmas. Thank you Susan for sending the apron to me.

After the second rise we punched again and prepared the dough by hand for the cans pinching off enough or almost enough for each can we picked for this time around. Short, medium and tall.

The guys were busy outside in the sunshine solving several world problems.

The finished eggs and kulich on Easter day. I’ll show more from our Easter table in another post.

All of our kids together enjoying each other and extended family fills us with joy and not having to make dinner for them after a full day in the kitchen was a bonus!

We love and treasure these traditions and hope to carry them on through the years and pass them on to the next generation.

I’m linking up with Tuesday’s Treasures hosted by Tom the Backroads Traveler and ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and the ABC team for L is for Labors of Love. I noticed several L’s in this post like Life, Love, Lana, Laura, Lunch, and Labor force.

Hope you all had a good Easter Weekend and some of you got the bonus of Easter Monday holiday which is brilliant!

I’m also linking up to Thoughts of Home #8 with Laura at Decor to Adore.

A Glorious Day…

…culminating a wonderful weekend. Easter is my favorite day to celebrate. We had an overload of good things and this post will be full of photos!

On Friday I prepared our traditional sweet cheese spread to enjoy on our Easter bread. With the heavy rock in place to force the excess liquid out of the cheese mold it rests in the refrigerator for our Sunday celebration.

On our way to our Good Friday service on Friday evening we spotted this group of people who were following men bearing a cross. It was such an unexpected thing to see and we were inspired by this act of identifying with Christ.

On Saturday a crew arrived at the house to help with the Kulich, Russian Easter Bread. Katie arrived a little later to help, too, mostly with the Shrink Wrapped Easter eggs.

The dough was ready to go in the cans rise for the final time.

Into the oven they go.

Time to set the table while the bread cools.

I bought crosses made out of nails for each person to take home with them.

On Sunday after a great church service I added the last touches to the table while the lamb shoulder was slow cooking in the oven.

I’ll share our appetizer recipe later in April on the MGCC blog.

Besides the shrink wrap eggs we tried the rice dyeing method, too.

Lamb shoulder with a caper fresh mint sauce, caramelized potatoes with onions and rosemary, cucumber tomato salad.

For dessert, Russian Easter Bread (Kulich/Paska) with Seernaya Paska (Sweet cheese spread) and strawberries.

Our mom would be proud of our efforts this year. She loves a smooth top and no airy holes when you slice it.

After our filling lunch and dessert we decided to take a walk.

After our walk we enjoyed sitting on the deck in the sunshine!

We truly had a full to overflowing good time!

Now what I haven’t shared yet is that on Saturday my computer crashed. Oh my…that’s scary! Thankfully there was a repair system that we were able to access and everything is now backed up and restored. It took several hours to accomplish this but everything is up and running again.

Hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend!

X is for…

So here we are at good ole X in the alphabet. This is a letter for ABC Wednesday that takes a little creativity. Thank you to the ABC team for managing this meme and to Denise Nesbitt the founder.

Did you know that X stands for Christ and Cross and other stuff, too?

At Easter I make a Russian sweet cheese spread called Seernaya Paska that we spread on Russian Easter Bread that is called Paska by a lot of people and Kulich by my Russian relatives. In the Russian alphabet X is the first letter in Christ. We decorate the sweet cheese spread with an X and a B. X for Christ and B for arose/risen. Christ is Risen.

If you are a regular on my blog you know I like to wander around very old cemeteries. There are always a great variety of crosses to photograph. Here are a couple.

Windmills have a natural X visible from the formation of their rotor blades.

This windmill is located at the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada.

This Windmill is located at Roozengaarde Tulip Garden in Mount Vernon Washington State.

That’s it for my offerings on the letter X. I’ll be curious to come around and see what you found for this challenging letter.

Summer has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere. I’m still watching all the World Cup Soccer I can fit in. Our bathroom renovation is progressing. Never a dull moment at this old house. Someone mentioned and I’m in agreement that we don’t seem to have ordinary weeks or days anymore. I’ll have to cling to the verse in the Bible that says…

“This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Seernaya Paska