Spring has sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where
E. Bunny is
The Easter Bunny is no spring chicken. He - or more likely she - has been around a long time. Eggs, rabbits, chicks and lambs - all symbols of fertility - were part of spring celebrations long before the Christian festival. Even the word, Easter, is derived from the Latin oestre, meaning egg.
This year, in honour of these ancient symbols, I'm breaking with family tradition.
When I was growing up, we spent the significant holidays with family. This meant the extended family of my mother and her sister. At Christmas we drove to Beaconsfield to be with Aunty Yang, Uncle D and my cousins. On Thanksgiving and Easter weekends, they would drive to Toronto to be with us. The holiday meals for all three were similar: turkey, potatoes, two veg and, when my cousin Amanda stopped eating meat, a vegetarian entree. The next day we'd have cold turkey and french fries for lunch.
I've maintained the tradition and, while I might consider cooking a goose for Christmas, turkey will always be a must at Thanksgiving. If I'm going to break the mold anywhere, Easter is it. So, it's lamb, chicks, eggs and rabbit this year.
One of my all time favourite street foods was lamb skewers in Athens. We stopped for a snack and made a meal of them. I'm going to try to recapture the flavour with marinated lamb skewers cooked on the grill. Rosemary chicken should nicely complement that. For eggs we have egg bread (and chocolate eggs of course). We'll have salad instead of steamed veg, but my kids have drawn their line in the sand. There must be mashed potatoes.
No bunnies shall be roasted, broiled or stewed for this meal. Rabbit meat isn't cheap and I've never cooked it before. I don't want a rabbit to die in vain because of my cooking. Besides, there will be plenty of chocolate rabbits. However, if E. Bunny should show up, we'll have a bowl of raw carrots on hand.
