I didn’t see a thread for this. Every year, the Polish comes out in my wife and we prepare somewhat traditional meals from her childhood. We are both non-religious, so it’s more along the lines of a Thanksgiving type of day.
Breakfast: hard-boiled eggs, fried ham steak, horseradish, coffee, and a piece of baba (a sweet coffee cake stuffed with walnuts and cinnamon).
Dinner: Lamb chops with garlic and rosemary, roasted asparagus, and boiled red potatoes. More baba.
Any traditions for you?
My Gramma’s dandelion salad. I’ve had it every Easter of my life, and wasn’t about to stop the tradition once I moved too far away to go back home, so now I make it myself.
Take about two grocery bags of dandelion greens (pick them before they start blossoming), wash thoroughly, and chop into bite-sized pieces. Add 4 hard-boiled eggs, 1 1/2 diced boiled potatoes, 1 chopped onion. For the dressing, cook up 1.5 pounds chopped bacon, then add 6 oz apple cider vinegar and 1/2 cup sugar. Pour the dressing over the salad, stir, and serve immediately.
Chronos, that sounds delicious. Too bad the only dandelions that grow in my area are heavily coated in pesticide in the hope that they’ll disappear. 
Chefguy, is baba like babka? The grocery stores in my area have been selling it since the snowbirds came down for the season, and I’m curious as it looks pretty tasty. However, I haven’t gotten one yet.
We don’t really do Easter at our house, but my in-laws do a plain oven roasted ham with horseradish sauce (it’s this pink stuff they get), Pascha bread (challah for Orthodox Russians-- I prefer challah, as the source they get theirs from makes it too tough), and a lot of sides that match what they serve on Thanksgiving (green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, etc.). My parents always did lamb of some sort if we didn’t do ham; however, we did it a little different-- honey-maple glaze, pineapple rings, sometimes decorative cherry tomatoes put in the pineapple rings. On the side, we served candied potatoes, pickled red cabbage, gravy, and some sort of fruit jam-- usually strawberry or raspberry. If we did lamb, it was usually a big leg or an unfrenched rack of lamb.
This year, I decided to try my hand at dyeing eggs with homemade vegetable dyes. We’ll see how they come out tomorrow, as I’ve put them in the fridge in their jars to soak up as much color as they can. I may be thawing the lamb chops that I got the other day so that we can have lamb and potatoes for dinner. Yum!
My Italian family always has what we call “Easter Pizza.” It’s not pizza in the ordinary sense, though. It is two thin layers of crust (usually in a large deep cookie sheet) stuffed with ricotta, mozzarella, sliced hard-boiled eggs, and crumbled Italian sausage. Sort of a large-scale calzone, which is cut into slices and eaten warm or cold.
We’re going to someone else’s house for Easter dinner, so I cooked our own Easter dinner tonight.
Leg of Lamb, boneless, butterflied, spread with mustard and a salt mixture I whipped up in the food processor with salt, garlic, rosemary and black pepper. Rolled & tied and rubbed with more of the salt mixture.
Roasted spring-dug parsnips
Snow peas
Looking forward to ham and deviled eggs tomorrow!
I got some ham from the store today, and potatos, and flour, and milk. I haven’t made scalloped potatos and ham for years. We’ll see.
Wiki says they’re the same. Recipes I see online use yeast as a leavening agent, so it’s more of a cake. This batter is made with baking powder and baking soda, and either buttermilk or sour cream. Half the batter goes into a bundt pan, then the walnut/cinnamon/sugar mixture, then the other half of the batter. This is a recipe from an old Polish neighbor of theirs in Buffalo, who called it “baba”.
Chinese food. We’re not Jewish, but we have developed a tradition of eating Chinese on Christmas and Easter. Beats cooking any day.
I have been instructed to bring rolls and “my” orange coffee cake. The dough for the rolls is rising in the refrigerator. I have no idea what else is being served.
I have some really nice strip steaks and I plan to grill them for Easter Dinner
Hmmmm…we don’t have any ham in the house, other than some lunchmeat, but that does sound good. I might make it later this week.
We cook a ham, and that’s a pretty new tradition, now that we don’t go to my grandparents house and let my late grandmother cook for us. Sunday is always our big meal day, but it’s even bigger on Easter, almost like a miniature Thanksgiving.
In 1983 I made croissants from scratch for the first time. I made them the day before Easter, for the family meal the next day.
Saturday night my dad had a heart attack. The family gathered in the waiting rooms, and at 2:00AM I noticed everyone was sitting around numb, in a state of shock. So I went home, got the croissants, butter, jelly, napkins and paper plates, and brought them to the hospital.
People like food, it makes them feel good, and eating brought people out of their state of stupefaction.
My dad recovered and in fact is still with us. And ever since I make croissants for Easter dinner.
OMG that lamb sounds good. Can I have your leftovers?
We got some lamb chops, asparagus, and baked potatoes. I have crab legs in the freezer I think I’ll fix also. Today we made Easter Bread. Its a recipe my Gram always made with anise seed, it is delicious, but I don’t know anyone else who makes it that way. Early tomorrow morning I’ll make rigot pies, like a cheesecake made with ricotta cheese. If I make them early they never last till Easter.
Today we had pork loin with roasted potatoes, and assorted veggies with apple crisp for dessert. That was the big family dinner, no turkey this year.
Tomorrow I’m doing ham, scalloped potatoes, lazy cabbage rolls and this new recipe for an acorn squash stuffed with apples that I’ve been wanting to try. Or maybe something less ambitious, depending how I feel. It is just us tomorrow.
I’m living in China, but we ordered pizza.
We don’t have any strict traditional meals.
This year I’m making some goodies on the smoker (WSM):
I soaked a corned beef flat and a point to reduce the salt, then rubbed with mustard, pepper, coriander and some sugar. These are smoking now and I hope it’s pastrami in a couple hours to take to my folks place.
I made a large batch of ground pork and chuck meatloaf. Smoked them last night.
I made ‘gyros’ with ground lamb. Packed into loaf pans and smoked last night. It seems like lamb just goes with Easter.
Just me & the dogs & cats. I am fixing a nice Kentucky Legend ham baked in apple juice, potato salad and corn pudding. Enough that I’ll be eating it most of the week, with no complaints!
No traditions for Easter meals, no, unless I’ve just started one. For the first time in my life, I bought a spiral-sliced ham for Easter dinner. I don’t remember my mother ever getting one either, or her mother. We had that had a macaroni & cheese and green beans, and coconut cake for dessert.
The ham is great. I got it on sale for barely more than $1 a pound. It’s delicious, came pre-cooked, and we’ll eat on it for a long time.