Easter Feast ~ Lithuanian Style

I can't believe it. It's not even 10 PM; and I am dog tired. However, I should not be all that surprised. It's been a full day after all ~ busy, but fun.

Sunday started off the usual way. I got up a few hours before church so that I could have time to enjoy my morning paper after all the animals got fed and breakfast was made for us humans. That's my daily morning ritual, no matter what day it is.

I got to church early as usual so that I could enjoy the warm companionship of my fellow parishioners before the service. This was especially important today because of all the cooking that I needed to finish for our family Easter feast at my mother's house.

Having been brought up in a Lithuanian family, we were used to having large spreads during our holiday feasts. Even though this was the first time that my sister, Roma, and I decided to cook the entire Easter feast by ourselves, we wanted to make sure that we kept to our family and cultural tradition by providing a full spread of lots of great food. After all, Lithuanians don't fool around when it comes to feasts!

When my family (husband Neil, daughter Ariana, mother-in-law Carol, and little dog Emi) and I arrived in Providence, the usual happy holiday pandemonium greeted us at my mother's house.

My sister, Roma, was putting the finishing touches on the ham while her husband, Tony, was carving the roast and arranging the pieces on the platter. I was unpacking the cooler full of cooked veggie dishes, while Ariana and her cousin, Michael, were busy bussing full platters to the dining room table.

We totally usurped the kitchen, "forbidding" our mother, Sally, to step foot in it. After all the countless Easter feasts that she had prepared for us, Sally had definitely earned the right to take it easy.

By the time we all sat down to eat, the table was groaning under the weight of all those dishes.

We had a platter full of roast beef, kielbasa, and pineapple-garnished ham. A multitude of veggies dishes circled the meat satellites: Roma's decadent mashed potatoes made with bacon bits and cream cheese along with a bowl of oven-roasted spuds for the calorie conscious, asparagus with butter and lime juice, curly kale with olive oil and crushed red pepper, spaghetti squash with butter and black pepper, Parisienne carrots (that looked like kumquats), a bowl of green and yellow beans, a big bowl of pureed turnips and parsnips, and an even bigger bowl of corn.

Of course, after stuffing ourselves silly, who had room for dessert?!

Roma and I decided to walk off our calories by taking Emi for a walk. We walked through the old neighborhood, remarking on how much things have changed since we lived there.

By the time we got back, it was time for round 2 ~ tea and dessert. Compared to the main meal, dessert was rather a simple affair ~ just baklava, lavendar cookies (made with real lavendar!), and this awesome vanilla cake topped with pudding and fruit slices. Yum!

As all good things, our feast came to an end. We all parted ways agreeing that this was a feast well worth remembering.