Easter 2009
Easter and Palm Sunday are two of my favorite holidays.
Now, if you are like me and you prefer to make your own Easter breads, this time of the year looks more like inside view of the time when the Egyptian Pyramids were build. When I say inside view, I mean more of a slave-dragging-all-these-stone-blocks point of view (the Pharaoh’s point of view would be slightly different, I’ll ask my kids to fill you in sometime).
It’s not a leisure time for sure, but I still love it!
I grew up in an apartment building right next to a bakery.
As far as I can remember, this time of the year was just miraculous!
I would get up very early( 6 am), get my bag and prepare to go to school, but as soon as I get out of the door…nothing, not even the fog outside could make me forget what time of the year it is!
The unbelievable aroma of the lemony Easter breads…
Aaaaah…
Just amazing!!!
So, for me the magic of baking Easter breads is not based on the recipe or how good of a cook you are. It’s the flour of love you put in the bread, the emotion you knead in and the joy you sprinkle on top!
I flatter to think of myself as a cook of the soul.
I don’t cook with my hands, but with my heart and my mood always transfers to the food I make.
This is a blessing…and a curse.
Whenever I am distressed…things are just not the same as they are supposed to be.
This year I’ve seen that with my first Easter breads, unfortunately.
The first day ( Thursday before Easter) when we bake Easter breads in Bulgaria I started out in a hurry, I was upset about something and of course my breads didn’t came out the way I wanted them. Not that they are not delicious, they came out good, but that’s just it. They were good, not exceptional.
And I hate ordinary food!
Maybe nobody else would see the difference, but I do and it bugs me.
So I decided to bake new breads again, Saturday before Easter.
These couple of days were very tough on me, I have stuff going on that really bothers me and I just don’t feel the same but I was adamant it wouldn’t show in my breads again!
I started out early, around 8 am.
But as soon as I opened the fridge I knew- I am simply not myself, my heart is not in place and if I don’t fix it, all would be in vain again.
I sat down and I said to myself- I can stop now and leave the average breads for Sunday or I can go on, and do what I know I can- make magic!
” Is that what you want? Are you going to let it win and defeat you and spoil the making of your perfectly magical breads?” I asked myself.
Guess what was the answer!
Now, there is a point in everybody’s life, when you start talking to yourself and asking questions, but when you start getting answers, then it’s a time to slow down a little bit and think about triple L (life, love, laughter), all the good stuff and Winn-Dixie.
So I pulled myself together and I made new breads.
In fact, I resurrected my breads and my soul in the same day. Which was first, I can’t tell but I feel good about it. And the breads were amazing as I hope would be this whole year.
It’s Easter and HOPE is in the air! And a ton of pollen that makes you crazy for that matter, so God bless our souls and the holy Benadril!
Happy Easter all!!!
If you want to check out my Easter breads recipes, try here:
Trio 
Filled Easter bread with walnut, coffee and chocolate filling
Our eggs mostly made by my two little ones!
Flowers from my garden ( yes, the one I did not manage to distroy last year)
