easter rides again.

Last year we went home for Easter, so this is only our second year celebrating the holiday in New Zealand.  In many ways it feels like our first Easter, we are still figuring out what traditions to make for ourselves.  Seth doesn’t have many traditions of his own, but mine are extremely important to me.  They are what make a holiday worth celebrating. 

Our first Easter here was one of discovery as we learned Kiwis do the holiday a bit differently than Americans.  This year we were prepared with an imported PAS egg kit and a copy of The Ten Commandments!   These two things are probably the strongest Easter tradition I have, you must dye eggs whilst watching The Ten Commandments or it simply isn’t the holiday.  We actually learned that since Kiwi eggs are brown the PAS dye doesn’t take nearly as well as our food colouring hack from 2014.  Eventually we tired of dull colours and added food colouring into the PAS kit, which was fairly successful.  

We also tried something new, Seth finally took a three-day weekend!  Yet he managed to still cram 47.5 work hours into the week.  We took advantage of his time off and attended the Seatoun Procession on Good Friday.  The churches here are excellent at joining together for special events, even though they may be different denominations.  The procession began at a Catholic church, then wound it’s way through Seatoun to the Anglican Church, the beach, a former Presbyterian church, then back to the Catholic church for morning tea.  Along the way passages were read, hymns were sung, in both English and Maori, and the streets were filled with a roving band of worshipers.  It was pretty cool.

On Easter Sunday we began the day with an Easter egg hunt around the house.  From the lack of PAS kits I knew egg dying wasn’t popular with Kiwis, but this year I discovered from my students that most households do egg hunts for chocolate eggs.  We went the traditional route with our dyed hard-boiled eggs.  

Breakfast was followed by church, as is common on Easter Sunday the place was packed.  Our church offers a traditional service for the adults with Easter crafts for the kids.  This year we were presented with a small stone with a verse of the Bible reading on it, after the sermon we were encouraged to write about a heavy stone in our lives and invited to throw it into the ocean with the vicar after service.

During morning tea adults were presented with a small paper basket to participate in an Easter egg hunt.  During the service children had place the eggs throughout the garden for us to find!  It was a lovely twist on tradition.

Now, onto the food!

Menu

Breakfast

• Cinnamon Scrolls with Maple Icing
• Sausage
• Hard Boiled Eggs
• For yellow yolks using an ice bath really appeared to help.  However, adding vinegar to the water to make the shells easier to peels didn’t seem to make a difference.

Lunch

• Tea Sandwiches
• Cheese spread with cucumbers on white bread, then cut into triangles.  They must be triangles or they simply aren't tea sandwiches!

Dinner

• Lamb Steak Bacon Thing
• Cheesy Rice
• Salad
• Hot Cross Buns with cinnamon honey butter 

The best tip I can give those of you who are preparing Easter dinner, when cooking lamb in a crockpot, don’t accidentally flip off the power outlet as you are heading out the door for church.  Instead of coming home to the smell of cooking lamb, we came home to despair and disappointment.  I always turn off the stove when I finish cooking, unfortunately the crockpot was plugged into an outlet on the side of the stove.  Turn off the stove and you turn off the crockpot. 

Seth saved the day with an interesting bacon wrapped steak thing with added spices.  He was really feeling the need to wrap meat in more meat.  An odd thing for a vegetarian.  

We also had some disappointment with the hot cross buns when we discovered that they require a lot of prep time if you are not using instant yeast.  In the future we will prepare these on Good Friday so we’re not stuck in a kitchen all day on Easter.

Cinnamon Scrolls with Maple Icing

Dough

2 c self-rising flour

pinch salt

1/2 c butter (chopped)

2/3 c milk

Filling

1/2 c butter (softened)

4 Tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp white sugar

Icing

1/2 package cream cheese (softened)

1/2 c icing sugar

1/4 tsp maple flavouring

Pro-tip: Make the dough the night before for quicker prep in the morning. 

1. Mix flour and salt into large bowl, then add chopped butter using your fingers
2. When the butter is mixed throughout, add the milk and mix lightly until a soft dough forms
3. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth and uniform throughout
4. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a rectangle approximately 5mm thick
5. Prepare the filling by mixing together the softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and white sugar.  Then spread evenly over the dough.
6. Roll up the dough from the longest side and cut into thick pieces using a knife
7. Place the rolls onto a baking sheet, cut side up.  Cook until golden brown.
8. Create the icing by mixing together cream cheese, icing sugar, and maple flavouring.  Spread over cinnamon scroll shortly after removing from the oven and eat warm. 

Cheesy Rice

1/4 c butter

1/3 c basmati rice

2 Tbsp onion (chopped)

4 button mushrooms (chopped)

1 c vegetable broth

1 c shredded tasty cheese (or cheddar)

1. Melt butter in a saucepan, then add rice, onion, and mushrooms.  Cook 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently.
2. Add vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
3. Once a boil is reached, cover and simmer on low heat until liquid is absorbed and rice is fluffy. (Approximately 20 minutes)
4. Allow rice to cool then toss in cheese.  
5. Place mixture into an oven safe dish and cook until lightly browned on top.