Weekly Feature: Hidden Gems

Today's Hidden Gem: Mom's Easter Traditions (especially the tasty ones!!)

Happy Easter and solemn Passover to you all! I've been fortunate to have been granted the next few days off (thank you, Howard!)....and am going to indulge in a personal Hidden Gem!

In my family, many traditions have been passed along which I have been jotting down feverishly and attempting to store in my 'pass along box' for after I 'pass along.'

I'm hoping someone in my family grabs the bull by the horns and does continue them for many years to come!

Lent (and Advent) are two of the most important times of the year for us. In fact, we follow along each spiritual sequence with our 'little books.' Mom began this tradition when she was still working at the Church. There are Blue Books, Black Books and White Books which consist of six-minute reflections to follow during Lent and Advent. They are extremely interesting in that the first part of each day's reflection focuses on the history for that day or possibly the Saint of that day or a little anecdote while the 2nd part of the reflection gives interesting insight to the day's readings.

The little pick me up that oftentimes makes the difference whether I have a successful day or a downer day.

Easter, spring flowers, and OLP Church fit nicely together. OLP Church is one of THE most beautiful churches in the Diocese. I'm partial! Each year, parishioners purchase flowers to decorate the altar at Christmas and Easter, in honor of a living family member, someone deceased, or just because. My family, again, has a master list of about a dozen folks we remember at the holidays and then after the fact, can bring a few of those plants home. We STILL have a number of poinsettias alive from the Christmas holiday season!! I'd just about given up on one of them and, sure enough, he has sprung back to life. I refuse to let Mom throw him away!

Take that one step further, and my family actually helps our Pastor decorate the church for each major holiday....as well as fill hundreds of plastic Easter eggs with candy to give to each child after all the Masses....and then being a Cantor, I sing all of the Masses. It's an honor, a blessing, and basically a 'no brainer' to be able to give back any way we can.

Now, let's get to the nitty gritty. The simply delicious Easter food. Many of our family recipes, including Easter delights, have been included in 'Our Lady of Peace Cooks' --a cook book put out earlier this year.

We normally cook up Easter fare on Good Friday; however, with Opening Day colliding with Good Friday, we were cooking fools all day Thursday whipping up the annual Easter traditions of Seconice, Easter sweet cheese, Hoska, and Kolacki.

Basically, Seconice is an Easter loaf consisting of eggs, cottage ham and veal, among other secret delicacies. It comes from the Bohemian side of the family.

Easter sweet cheese, again home made from scratch through the generations, is made with eggs, milk, and sugar and is primo if you are a huge cheese and dairy aficionado.

Hoska is home made bread which makes you never want to buy store bought bread again.

And Kolacki, a pastry made from scratch with such fillings as apricot, prune, cherry, nut, poppy seed or the flavor of your choice!

I can not imagine an Easter going by without making the effort and doing everything we've been doing for so many years. That's just me. I guess deep down inside, I'm a sentimental softy. But, don't tell anyone!

After we cook 'til we drop, we gather a sampling basket of Easter dinner/treats and take it to the Holy Saturday annual food blessing. Another tradition in the Catholic, Christian, Italian/Slovak nationality (I'm sure a tradition for many others as well!)....each food choice has a rich history of WHY it's included --usually dating back to Jesus' time.

Items included in our basket: everything we just made, ham, potato, candy, salt, butter, horseradish, wine, a candle, bread, eggs....

A trip to Malley's is a given before Easter for their delectable carmallow eggs and bunny chocolates.....among other things. We can not escape the Malley's grasp for less than 100 dollars!!!

And finally, something I will be doing until I die --coloring a dozen Easter eggs....whether it's the whole family gathered around or just me, by golly, I'm never giving this tradition up! Always trying to concoct some new color by mixing and matching, and you never really do, but think, maybe this is the year!

We hang our homemade Easter wreath, put out our decorations, and enjoy spending quality time with our family and friends.

Not a bad tradition to follow and keep up with if I say so myself!

And that is why I thank you for indulging me about my Easter traditions....hence, 'Mom's Easter Traditions' are this week's Hidden Gem!