Pardulas

Da ste mi prije par mjeseci rekli da neću moći kući kad me bude volja, samo bih vas bila krivo pogledala i nasmijala se. Ne bih vam bila proturječila, jer obično prešutim negodovanje, ma nek’ svako misli što ga je volja, onako demokratski, a ja ću prvom prilikom ponovo kući. Za Uskrs, ako ne prije…

A gle me sada, disciplinirano sam izolirana u srcu žarišta pandemije koja nas je snašla ove lude 2020. godine. I trošim zadnje zalihe brašna na vrlo racionalan način, sve u pola doze, mada su i u normalna vremena moje doze uvijek reducirane, jer za nas dvoje je bolje da kontroliramo apetite. Ne da ne bismo smazali i veće količine hrane, pogotovo ovako izolirani i po cijele dane u blizini kuhinje i smočnice, ali onda bi nam dosadilo mlatiti stalno jedno te isto. No brašno moram štediti i vagati ga na grame, nema ga u dućanu, online shopovi su momentalno ofline, tj. toliko su ljudi navalili na ugljikohidrate da su pošiljke brašna i poštu zablokirale, a proizvođači su brašna do grla u paketima i pošiljkama i onda je lijepo demokratski bio red da se situacija malo zablokira i sredi.

Ali hrčak u meni zna organizirati zalihe i malo po malo, bez pretjerivanja i razbacivanja, brašno po malo trošim i još ga imam u teglama…malo ga imam, ali mora mi ga biti dovoljna.

Pinca – Traditional Croatian Easter “sweet bread” – “Pan dolce” Pasquale dalla tradizione Croata

On the Easter morning we use to have a special breakfast feast with sweet bread, coloured eggs, ham and sping onion. There is a kind of egg-battle before we start to eat. Everyone should choose one egg and hit the egg of another tablemate. The winner is the one that remains with his egg intact. This custom is very interesting to children, but also adults get fully involved in it and there are always a lot of laughter and joy around the table.

The sweet bread go very well together with the ham, but after Easter I also like to eat it for breakfast with a cup of coffee. I find it tasty if lightly toasted and with thin spread of butter on it.

Happy Easter!

Coloured Easter eggs – Uova di Pasqua colorate– Ofarbane Pisanice

What do you say...do you like them?

How to dye Easter eggs – Come colorare le uova di Pasqua – Farbanje Uskršnjih pisanica

When I was a little girl, my mother taught me how to prepare beautiful coloured Easter eggs. This is another traditional Croatian recipe (or folk custom). She learned this art from her mother. I remember my grandmother also painted eggs with the beeswax and special writing tool, but unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to learn it from her. Modern times brought us to very fast way of living and some long makings didn’t survive, even some products disappeared, because old fashioned. But we continued to maintain the tradition at any cost and every year the eggs we made were more beautiful! I always keep few most beautiful eggs in the coffee cups until next year Easter as souvenirs (warning: it might happen that the egg explodes after few months, so handle it carefully).
Another amazing thing is that the colour I’m using is fully natural. I use onion skin to dye Easter eggs. I collect it all year long, because you will need a large quantity of it to get the beautiful dark brown colour. The decoration is made with plants and herbs, you can choose whatever you like, from clover to parsley. I found the print of darnel very charming. No problems if eggs get cracked during cooking and some coloure dye the egg white. You can eat your eggs anyway, as you have not used artificial products!
Take all time you need, handle your eggs gently and decorate them patiently.
Let’s create the art!