Irish Coffee on Easter

I stayed in Chicago for Easter this year. One of my good friends, Mary Beth (of Chicago Gourmet; Mayor Daley fame), took pity on this Easter orphan and invited me to share in an Easter dinner with her husband and friends at their home in Norwood Park. Their gorgeous rehabbed, 80 year-old home was the perfect setting for a fantastic Easter meal.  Each place setting had an Easter basket filled with yummy Easter candy. We had the traditional spiral cut ham, asparagus with Parmesan, a delicious mixed greens salad with fresh raspberries, walnuts and raspberry dressing, fabulous warm-from-the-oven rolls, all paired with a delicious Argentina red wine. For dessert we had an out-of-this-world cheesecake served with our choice of toppings: A tequila and almond or raspberry sauce. We also had our choice of regular coffee or an Irish coffee...I chose Irish. It's the house specialty! Great old and new friends, great conversation and amazing food...I was lucky enough to get leftovers...no better way to spend an Easter in Chicago. A big thank you to the Thomas clan of Norwood Park!

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Happy Paska!

Paska is a traditional Easter bread that Fusilli makes every year. It's a lot of work, but we (the people who enjoy eating it, but don't make it) agree that it's worth it. The recipe, passed down by Oma, involves mixing the finished batter with whipped egg whites. This is done by hand, which is quite messy, but fun to watch.

I've been trying to think of an example to illustrate the difficulty of this step, which is questioned each year, but never skipped. Have you ever tried giving a cat a bath? It's not an entirely fair comparison, but the point is – these two things don't want to be together. You just have to roll up your sleeves and use both hands.

Next year we've agreed that a second batch should be made to experiment by making deep fried Paska balls. I can already imagine how incredible these are going to be. Half dipped in icing and sprinkles... oh yeah!

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Easter Egg Hunt!

When I rolled into the 'Loo on Friday morning, I found Monte & Fusilli had been enlisted to help in hiding a HUGE number of "eggs" for the neighborhood egg hunt. How many is a HUGE number? Ummm, 600+ plastic eggs that had been filled with toys, candy and things. That afternoon, over 20 kids showed up to root around the yard, scooping up plastic eggs like wild monkeys.

Here's a pick of one tiny spot that was specially prepared for the younglings who were too small to be climbing around in the bush. Can you guess how many eggs are in this one picture? Click on the image to see a large pic. When you're ready for the answer, continue reading to see a picture showing the location of all the eggs. Enjoy.

There are 19 eggs in this picture.

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