The Easter egg hunts are done and the ears are missing off all the chocolate bunnies. Easter for another year is a memory. As has been said more times than enough over the last week, this was a different Easter for most people.
Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, Covid 19, words not part of our vocabulary before 2020 are now permanently etched in our memories. A virus that has turned everyones' world upside down, in a way no one would have been able to predict when we rang in the new year.
In years to come when we look back on 2020 our memories will fall into a couple of very distinct groups. Those whose world was reduced to their home - work, play, everything. There are the essential service group who are still going out for work everyday, and those whose jobs disappeared overnight.
I fall into the essential services group! In many ways, my life has not changed much, I still get up and go to work everyday. I still, like most nights, come home in the evening, make supper, go for a walk, putter around and go to bed. So any given day looks the same, when you look deeper, it is the dance classes, the volunteer work, church, the dentist appointment, the scheduled hair cut, etc that all within a week disappeared off the calendar. Now every weekday is the same as the day before without change.
There were many days when I came home from work having supper, going for a walk and bed is all I can manage and there were lots of day the walk didn't happen. That first two weeks was a blur at work with multiple changes to how we operate occurring literally overnight, layered on top of the heightened anxiety level of almost everyone made one day blend into the next. Orientation to date and location is an important thing to do these days 😀.
Now a month later, it is a bit like a holding pattern. I am fortunate to live in an area of the country where the the number of cases has been low with only a few needing hospitalization. We are holding our breaths that it remains the same but ready in case it doesn't. I work in healthcare, not on the front lines but still an essential services department within the hospital. Things are still changing at a moments notice, while we try to get our heads around how long this could actually last.
This long weekend has been a nice break from work. Four days of not having to do anything or go anywhere is heaven to an introvert. Though, as we are moving into day four I am almost ready for the routine of work again. I know "going to work" and that routine is a luxury that many do not have right now.
The blog is supposed to be about new recipes from cookbooks I already have, but this post is about Easter traditions - my personal traditions. Even though I was spending Easter alone it was important to me to have traditional foods around. Growing up, Easter Sunday Supper was spent one of two ways with all of my mother's sibling's family for a family potluck. These potlucks are a blog in themselves - so I will save it for another day. The other way was with a few extended family members and a meal of Ham and scallop potatoes.
There was never a traditional dessert at our house, Mom liked to try new dessert recipes each year. But I decided to go with something tried and true. I was wanting something light and springy and lemon felt like the right flavour to go with. It was a no brainer - I LOVE lemon curd. When I make it I could sit down and eat the whole bowl right away by myself 💖, but I resisted! The leftover egg whites from the lemon curd went to make the meringue nests. Topped with a few raspberries and viola a lovely end to the meal.
I didn't have an appetizer, but earlier in the day, I had what has become for me an Easter tradition. Maple Oatmeal Scones from Ina Garten. I first made these about 20 years ago and they have become an easter staple for me. Growing up, each Spring my Dad made Maple Syrup and Easter weekend always involved some part of the Maple Syrup production. At the very least there was sap to collect and frequently it needed to be boiled down to make the syrup. In my mind Maple Syrup and Easter weekend are inter twined.
These food traditions helped me to add a little normalcy to the Easter weekend at a time when very little is normal for anyone.
I hope you were able to create some normalcy in your life. I do have cookbooks to write about and depending on what happens over the next few weeks, I hopefully will get back to pulling cookbooks off the shelf and creating menus from recipes I never tried before.
To all of you out there Happy Easter, Stay In and Stay Safe.
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