Easter, Redux

I am in the kitchen, having dyed 12 extra eggs for the braided Easter bread tomorrow (2 loaves...this is a mildly sweet bread, braided before its second rising, with dyed hard-boiled eggs placed at intervals in the braid; this is all left to rise, and then is baked...the bread itself is delicious and was a huge part of my very early childhood).  It is a very, very old type of thing to bake for Easter, not just in Italian traditions.  The hard-boiled eggs are typically deep red, though I am making one of the loaves with multicolored eggs in the usual Easter-egg-dye colors, just for fun.

The other loaf will have deep red eggs, a symbol of fertility that goes back to the Roman era.  I had only brown eggs left after Thistle and I dyed eggs, so I had to use brown eggs in a deep red dye.  They came out an amazing color of very deep rose; the underlying brown made it an even richer color.  I realized that red was probably the only color that would really "take" back in the distant past because I surmise that most eggs were probably brown then.  If all this turns out okay, I will photograph the bread.  It feels appropriate to make bread on Easter.  There is a touch of hope in this holiday for me, after all--a very deep connection with the women in my family, who taught me many of these cooking traditions.

Anyways, it is time for bed, but not before I show off Thistle's Easter basket.  Thistle, by the way, had an amazing time with egg dyeing and tomorrow we will have a grand Easter egg hunt in the meadow below the house.  I gave Thistle a very small amount of candy (a white chocolate lamb and a chocolate bunny), a cute Minnie Mouse stuffed toy (in a pink glitter outfit) which she has been admiring for weeks in the local Rite-Aid, and a very special book that is a companion volume to a book which was her mother's when she was small (the one Thistle is getting for Easter is called My Good Morning Book and the one she has now is called My Good Night Book.  Both are rare books now; I was lucky to find the "good morning" book for a reasonable price).  I always had a cellophane-wrapped basket with bows, and so I keep the tradition up.  I suspect my mother really loved Easter because we had the most gorgeous dinners and Easter baskets.  It is a huge holiday in Italian culture and is very close to my heart as a connection with my family past and present.

Anyways, Happy Easter to all my faithful readers who celebrate this holida!  I appreciate all of you and your visits to my little pocket of the universe.  And yes, I feel a little happier about Easter tonight.  Dyeing eggs with a four-year-old can do that to a person. :)