Easter Brunch Going Nontraditional

In our family, we have two distinct nationalities that we observe.  My first husband was Polish and one of our boys married a girl of Polish descent.  Last year it is her turn to have Easter Dinner for her side of the family and we are invited.  For dinner she will be serving ham, kielbassa, mashed potatoes, corn and rice.

Ham and Kielbassa on serving tray

 I didn't hear her say she was having potato salad or horseradish but that is what we normally had with our ham on Easter.  The traditional part being the ham.

This year my daughter hosted and she had it all, ham, potato salad and the works.

My second husband was Italian and from the time the children were early teens we observed the traditional Italian brunch in our house.  My husband made the trips to the Italian store to buy the ricotta cheese, shredded mozzarella, capicola, genoa salami, Italian sausage and pepperoni.  I don't know if the tradition was more about the fritta or the trip to the Italian store.  All I know is that my husband didn't miss this shopping spree.

Frittata

Before we had the Labriola's Italian store in Aspinwall, he would make a trip to the Strip District to get all of the goodies for Easter Brunch with the addition of what the children called toe cheese.  Toe cheese was a ball of provolone and it smelled awful as it was being cut into pieces and enjoyed by my husband with a glass of vino.

This year will be no different, we are having traditional Fritta for Easter Brunch at my house with a twist.  I'm serving pancakes for my grandchildren who are not so fond of the egg dish.

Easter Braided Bread

For years, I baked Easter Bread on Good Friday and placed the traditional colored eggs into each twisted loaf.  This year I turned things around and I made something different.  Holy Saturday, I baked three loaves of Pepperoni Bread.  Now this is something new to me because I have only eaten Pepperoni Bread that my daughter made in recent years.  I made sure she was on hand to show me the way to make it.  It's not made with whole slices of pepperoni like I thought but cut up pieces mixed with the shredded mozzarella cheese.

Pepperoni Bread

My bread tray will have a very nontraditional look.  There will be Hawaiian Rolls, Jenny Lee round cinnamon bread and my homemade pepperoni bread.  I have had a craving for the Jenny Lee round cinnamon bread so I bought a couple of loaves when I saw it in the bakery section of our Giant Eagle.

I guess you might say, I'm going with the flow.  I'm trying to keep up the traditional brunch but I've started making it more to my style.  In years past, I baked homemade bread every Saturday and Easter Bread for the holiday.  This year, I bought my dough and let it raise before I made my pepperoni bread.  I'm a product of my age, I need to take short cuts in order to keep up with my advancing years.

All I can say is Happy Easter and I hope you enjoyed your holiday.