Catching up on old posts: Easter

April 2010

Final thoughts on Easter celebration
So, 4 months later and I am finally posting some details about the rest of my Ukrainian Easter Celebration! Who knows, maybe it is better that I post them now so that I just include the good interesting stuff that has stayed with me!
In Orthodox tradition, worshipers take their Easter meals to the local Orthodox Church in the middle of the night on Easter day and have the meal blessed by an Orthodox priest. I did not get to witness this first hand but was told about it the next day as I sat down to share the blessed meal with my Ukrainian “family” Irina, Sergei, their son Sasha and his wife Lena and children Vlad and Eva. We all gathered at the home of Sergei’s mother and step father where we were joined by Sergei’s sister Oxsana and her husband and teenaged son and also by Irina’s mother. All in all it was a big bunch and we crowded around a table generously laid with various Ukrainian delights. We basically spent the whole day just sitting and eating together, sometimes wandering out of the room to have a little stroll (and give time to digest) but generally ending back up at the table. I tried lots of new dishes that day including Chicken Kyiv, braised beef tongue (I could still see the taste buds-shiver- I tried one piece because it was offered to me but tried as politely as possible to decline any further offerings of it), various salads, and finally, the special easter traditional bread. It is a bread had a taste similar to Challah bread but is decorated on top with frosting and colored sprinkles. Inside the bread are various dried fruits like apricot and raisin. As is the custom in Ukraine, there was a great deal of toasting throughout the day that included toasts to the health of the family and happiness in the year to come.
I tried as best I could to offer a small piece of our family tradition by trying to make bird-nest cookies from ingredients I found in Artemivsk. Bird-nest cookies are basically rice crispy treats that are formed in the shape of a nest, covered with some green frosting and green dyed coconut flakes with jelly beans pressed in (for the bird eggs). As long as I can remember we have enjoyed these treats at family Easter celebrations. I had quite a time trying to find the ingredients in Artemivsk. Long story short, they didn’t work out so well…looked pretty enough but didn’t taste too good. The marshmallows I found were nothing like marshmallows in the US and did not melt smoothly at all so at the last minute I decided to melt sugar to make a caramel. In place of rice crispies I used the Ukrainian version of corn flakes (which turned out to be really thick and hard, not light and crisp like the flakes I am used to in the US) finally, instead of jelly beans (nowhere to be found!) I had to used colorful sugar-candy coated raisins (looked pretty but tasted awful!). It was a fun and valiant effort but I found myself trying to explain to those I offered them to that I would need a do-over after having traditional ingredients sent to me from the US. Everyone tried to be polite and try them but the best comment offered was “we don’t have anything like this taste in Ukraine” haha! You mean the taste of crunchy burned sugar?!?! Oh well, at least I tried! I fear I am not the best ambassador for American cuisine….after a few more examples of my cooking I fear none of my Ukrainian friends will ever want to try American food again!
After our family meal ended, I was invited to a late meal with some friends of the family that I had met 4 years ago, Lora and Sasha and their children and grandchildren. The grandchildren Danil and Sasha were so much more grown up than I remember them from our first meeting….I showed them pictures I had of our first meeting when Sasha was just a toddler (he is now a rambunctious school boy!). It was fun to see them again, reminisce…, and share more food! I felt like I didn’t need to eat for a week after this day!