The Crabby Cook - by Jessica Harper

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My mother-in-law, Bette, is coming to stay with us Easter weekend. I know, yikes, right?

But while mothers-in-law in general are often the subject of hostile jokes due to their meddlesome and controlling natures, mine happens to be an excellent representative of the species. She is very smart and kind, and, unlike her daughter-in-law, she is seldom crabby.

Bette’s Jewish, but she likes to celebrate everything. Although Passover was the dominant spring holiday in my husband’s childhood, the Easter bunny showed up annually, too. My mother-in-law’s positive outlook has always led her to rejoice in all of life’s notable moments, regardless of any religion associated with them.

Easter and Passover overlap this year, and I plan on making an Easter blunch (which most people call brunch but, when my daughter Nora was three, she made an adjustment to the word, which stuck). I’ll probably make a ham (perfect blunch entrée for a lazy-ass like me) and since Bette will be present, I want to add something to honor Passover, too. We’re going to call April 24th Eastover. (Or maybe Passter. Maybe Nora will decide.)

So, what would you serve? Any thoughts? I need a nice dish that’s Easter-blunchy and a little bit Jewish-ish all at once. Read More

With both kids at college, the holidays just ain’t what they used to be. There was no trick-or-treating last Halloween, no pre-Christmas gingerbread house construction, no homemade valentines, no leprechaun pinching on St. Patrick’s Day, and today, for the first time ever, there’s no Easter egg hunt.

Last year, when Easter fell at a more convenient moment, a few of Elizabeth’s college pals came over for a hunt. Although all three of them were large men who looked  comical carrying the cute Easter baskets necessary for egg gathering, they were more enthusiastic about the hunt than my own kids had been in years. They tore around the yard, competitive as the Green Bay Packers, and then ate the spoils of the hunt until they were just barely pre-nauseous. This made me very happy. Read More

This time of year the marketplace is flooded with images of cute animals—lamby-kins and chickies and duckies and bunnies. We home cooks are expected to come up with an Easter menu that includes a slaughtered, roasted version of one of those little cute-niks, but it’s hard to get your mind around it. Just try going through checkout at Ralph’s with a leg of lamb in your cart while there’s a stuffed, fleecy-white relative of that leg’s former owner staring down at you from atop the cash register.

Ham is less guilt-inducing because the piggy is not regularly featured in the crush of Easter creature-cuteness. Plus it’s called ham, not piggy, so you can mentally disassociate it from the darling, pink animal whose butt it once was. Read More