Thursday, April 21, 2016

{pretty, happy, funny, real} - Still Easter Edition

{pretty}
So I had great plans of posting all we did during Holy Week and the Octave of Easter. Well, as it didn't happen, I am so grateful for having 50 days to celebrate the Easter Season. This is why my {p, f, h, r} post today has a few look-back photos. 
I tried to make sure to have most of the Easter Day food made at least partially before the Triduum started. This year, I was actually able to accomplish it. I used both my Paul Hollywood and my Great British Bake-Off cookbooks for many of the recipes. The Hot Cross Buns (Great British Bake-Off) which we had on Good Friday were just right. Not too sweet and filling, it was definitely the best recipe I've come across. 
{a bit more pretty}
Easter was also a good friend's birthday, and our Easter Dinner hostess, Cristina, requested a cake to celebrate. The Irish Coffee Cake (Paul Hollywood) was simple, festive and tasted fantastic. I was able to do part of it Saturday morning, so it felt like it took hardly anytime for something that turned out just as I hoped.
{and still pretty}
I had seen this recipe for a Tarte De Soleil on the LMLD blog as Leila shared it with her readers here. It was another recipe that I started early and then through the whole thing together Sunday morning after Mass before we headed out. The best complement was from Lisa, who sat next to me, when she said it was so yummy, she had eaten half of it before she realized it had olives in it, and she doesn't like olives! Do check out the recipe and give it a try. I'm so looking forward to making it again this summer as it's a wonderful dish.

Adoration at St. Mary's Cathedral in Portland
{happy} Josh praying at Holy Rosary
One of my favorite parts of Holy Week and Eastertide was having Joshua home. Brian and I are starting to get used to being empty-nesters, but it felt {happy} to have one of the kids around. Being a seminarian in the Portland Archdiocese, Joshua has the opportunity to serve different Masses up at St. Mary's Cathedral in Portland. He invited me to go with him and a fellow seminarian to the Holy Thursday Mass and then do a seven church pilgrimage before heading home. We officially started out Altars of Repose journey at the Cathedral as soon as Mass was finished then we headed over for meatless pizza before visiting the other churches. Our second stop in Portland was St. Patrick's then we were off to St. Stephen's. Holy Rosary was next followed by St. Rose of Lima. We were going to go the Grotto, but when we arrived the gates were closed. We made it to Christ the King in Milwaukie and finally down to St. Patrick's in Canby. We were able to stay at each of the churches for anywhere between 10-20 minutes while we prayed and reflected. What a joy and how {happy} it was for me to hang out with these young men and journey with them on Maundy Thursday.

 always {happy} to see
my kids praying


Our Easter was also {happy}! Joshua and I went to Easter Vigil Mass up at Mt. Angel and then got up in time to attend Mass at St. Joseph's Sunday morning. We came home and had a yummy Easter breakfast which left me time to get the rest of the goodies ready to take to our annual Easter feast at The Fords. The {pretty} photos above are all from there.




Dingle Pie- {funny} name but good to eat!




So Josh had Spring Break during Easter week, and his one request was lots of baked goods from my two British cookbooks mentioned above. I ended up making all sort of baked goods with {funny} names including Dingle Pie, Chorley Cakes and Devonshire Splits.


{funny} Just {funny}




We also had Syrian food one night. I made Grandpa Aziz' Chicken Rice which is really lamb, onions, spices and rice- no chicken at all. I guess this would be why it fits into the {funny} category although those two in the photo are {funny} too! It was quite a meal as I even made pita from scratch that turned out really tasty.


Yep, it's a {real} one.

The Saturday after Easter found Brian taking Josh fishing as I was having the ladies from our St. Gregory's Pocket over for brunch. Josh hadn't been fishing since he was little, and he had never caught a fish. I had a wonderful brunch, and the guys had a nice time up at St. Louis Ponds. They came back and Josh was so happy because he had caught a nice {real} trout. He ended up taking it back to seminary on Sunday along with the fixing for some pan fried fish and potatoes. He said it was delicious and a {real} great way to start the rest of the semester at school.

I hope you are all still celebrating the Easter season at least a bit. I know we are trying to at least make our Sundays a bit more festive. For more {pretty, happy, funny, real} ideas, head on over to Like Mother, Like Daughter and see what all the bloggers are doing today.




1 comment:

  1. Oh my- all the food looks SO good, and what a beautiful tabernacle!

    ReplyDelete