Growing up in Vermont, March meant very little ( beyond my father's birthday and praying for snow days). The snow was still there, we were lucky if the weather was in the 30's and if it did happen to rise above freezing everyone was happy to wear only a long sleeve shirt or for some a t-shirt. Wyoming was similar. Living at the base of the Tetons meant we usually got our last snow of the season sometimes around June.
But here in the Willamette Valley I started line drying our clothes mostly out doors in February and by the end of March both my babies already have a bit of a tan. The daffodils have come and gone, and we are enjoying tulips now. When I think of all the reasons that I miss Vermont the spring in Oregon makes up for each and every one (now that we have settled a little farther south that is). People tend to think of Portland or the coast (the notably rainy areas) when imagining Oregon, yet moving only about 80 miles south and a bit west of where we were has left us in a part of the state that gets significantly more sun and much less rain.
Spring's arrival has moved us out doors. Projects, activities, meals and pretty much anything we can do we try to do outside. My husband has built a wonderful fence for the front yard, putting a very necessary barrier between the children and the railroad tracks that run near the house, and should be bringing home a shed for the back yard soon as well. With clothes to dry,, a lawn to mow, and in general a yard to make wonderful, we seem to run out of daylight much sooner than energy.
We spent a morning at the coast with friends and let the dogs run all over the beach. Langston loved it and has proved to be a very well-behaved dog now that he has passed his puppy years. Henry on the other hand (our 12 year old grump) stayed true to his nature and barked at anyone who bothered to come anywhere near him, dogs and people alike. Our ambitions might have been a bit high, trying to bbq with four children, three dogs, and only four adults. I think next time flat bread and salad might be a much better option. Cookies would probably improve the general experience as well.
The girls did get to enjoy fruit smoothies on the drive there, and we might have had to bribe Kiki with a doughnut to get her to leave the parking lot and actually venture down onto the beach. The child is terrified of the ocean. I spent the better part of the first half an hour assuring her she didn't need to go anywhere near the water and as long as she stayed where we were on the blanket the water would not come anywhere near her.
With Easter having come and gone looking back I am so happy with how the girls easter bunnies came out, and also that we found a good eastern European deli near by to get Polish kielbasa for Easter morning. There are a few Easter traditions we have decided to carry on from my husband's childhood for our own children Easter breakfast with Kielbasa being one and the Lamb cake maybe the most important.
I am pretty sure I have mentioned the lamb cake before, but in case I am wrong I should probably explain. It's (thankfully) not made from lamb but instead shaped like one, along with cookies, babka, and other sweets, the lamb cake is a traditional polish Easter treat. Neil remembers his mother making the lamb cake every year and the various ways it was decorated (though he always lobbied for raspberry filling and still does), the cake mold though was passed on to his sister.
Our first easter together, I was around 5 months pregnant with Kiki and much like my pregnancy with Mia all I wanted to do was bake (and cook too). He mentioned the tradition of the Lamb cake, and after a little looking around we managed to find a cast iron mold on Amazon. That same year I did more Easter cooking than I probably ever will again, and made far more food than our then small family could possible eat. We were lucky enough to have a few friends over to share the massive amount of food my pregnant self made.
I think one of the things I enjoyed most about the Polish Easter food traditions is that most of the food is made a day or two ahead of time. Leaving Easter morning and most of the day free to enjoy with everyone else, and not just spent in the kitchen. Now we tend to do a bit more of a mix and I do still cook a bit on easter but the ahead-of-time preparation is a nice change if I can manage it. This year I did not even come close. The only preparation was the Lamb cake and buying the Kielbasa. Otherwise I found myself were I normal do, in the kitchen.
Kiki absolutely loved searching for the Easter eggs out in our front yard though we only made about 12 eggs, and even that was a stretch. We ran our of energy late on Saturday evening and I ended up just dying one big batch of all blue eggs. Significantly less time consuming and messy, with Gwen opting to be at her mothers this year I did not feel so bad about the kids missing out on the egg dying experience. Easter morning is really just like any other morning for a one and two year old. There is no anticipation, and really just a bit of shock that they are allowed to eat candy so early in the day (or at all) and a first a bit of confusion as you try to explain that its time to go and find the blue eggs from yesterday. It took Kiki a minute but once she got going she was an egg hunting machine. Since at two holding a basket of a dozen eggs or even half a dozen can be a bit taxing we held the basket while she did the collecting. Which gave us the chance to re-hide her found eggs while she was busy finding more.
With all of that now said I suppose a good thing to share would be the recipe I use for the Lamb cake. As I said when I first made this cake I was rather pregnant with Kiki, and at the time I am sure I poured over recipes till I found this one. I am under the impression that it is a more traditional version, but who knows I could be completely wrong. Oh and at least for our house hold I had to change the milk and butter to our dairy free options but the recipe here will not reflect those changes.
Polish Easter Lamb cake
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup rather warm water
1 1/4 tsp yeast
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
Zest of one lemon
mixed dried fruits and nuts ( we used dried cherries.)
Heat the milk to just before a boil. Turn off heat and stir in sugar, salt, and butter.
Separately dissolve yeast in the 1/4 cup rather warm water. Once completely dissolved add to the milk mixture, next pour in flour and eggs and beat vigorously for 5 minutes. Cover and let rest in a warm place for around an hour and a half.
punch down dough, if using Lamb cake mold grease well and divide batter into each half, if using a regular cake pan grease well and pour in batter. Let rest 45 minutes. In the mean time pre-heat the over to 350. Bake for about 50 minutes. remove from oven and let cool before removing from mold.
You can really use any sort of frosting or simple glaze for this cake. We made just a quick lemon glaze to hold ours together and cover it. Again Neil always champions for the raspberry filling but until the girls are a bit older that will have to wait.
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