Remember That Party...

we had for St. Thomas Sunday?  It was lots of fun :)  I have no proper excuse for not sharing with you before now.  I blame it on general "busy-ness."

But we had great fun!  I made the cakes the week we got back from CA and froze them (to make them easier to frost).  We had picked up the hams the Sunday before and they were happily thawing in my fridge.

On Saturday (a few weeks ago--St. Thomas Sunday is the week after Easter), I woke fairly early and began to make the Pascha bread.  I made two kinds--one with the traditional eggs and butter and (real) milk, and one "vegan" (@#$%$^ allergies!) so that I could enjoy some as well.  I'm happy to report that, while the vegan bread wasn't quite the same, it was still delicious and I was very happy with it. (I used this recipe (I think I halved or quartered it), because I am also allergic to wheat flour. (and FYI, you can get white spelt flour on amazon.com, order two boxes, free shipping!))

Since I don't have any of the right sized pans to bake upright loaves, I braided my loaves of Pascha.  Next year I want to try to make the loaves more plump and less lanky.  They last a bit longer when stretched out, but I like the look of puffier loaves. I love the braiding, though.  I may never bake upright loaves, even if I do have the right pans. It's just so nice, so soothing to handle the slightly warm, soft, stretchy dough in my fingers. And I love to roll out the tiny strands for the cross on top.  

And this year I found a better way to finish the cross ends, with those little curly-cues (thanks to Kayleen's pictures).  I can't wait to live closer to more Byzantine families, where we can all get together to bake our Easter goodies together.  "It's more friendly with two [dozen]." :)

Vivian helped me with the cakes once the Pascha was done.  She made the lamb cake look fluffier than I've ever seen him, and the chocolate cake was simply perfect. Viv--you're totally hired ;)

As for the rest of the spread, in addition to the cakes I baked earlier in the week, we had mustard-glazed ham (oh yeah--that was good), Greek green beans (courtesy of Frank), chips and salsa, oodles of good cheese and crackers, Mediterranean pasta salad, mini-pasteries, and lots of butter and wine and beer.  All made better, of course, by great friends and fun conversation.

Oh, and we had jelly beans, too. That was awesome :)

So, enjoy the pictures! Would you like to come to our St. Thomas Sunday party next year? :)

St. Thomas Sunday