Easter Weekend Fun

We had a great time over the Easter Holiday. My Sister and family, plus our parents were able to take a few days to stay with us for the celebrations.

I spent the better portion of Thursday and Friday in the kitchen preparing homemade cheese called Tvorog to go into the traditional Russian Paskha which gets spread over the Easter Cake called Kulich. Here are some photos of my efforts and the state of my kitchen afterwards.
Overall the flavor and texture of the Paskha and Kulich turned out pretty well. I had leftover cheese, so I made that into another Russian recipe called Syrniki or Tvorozhniki. Basically cheese, that gets made into a pancake and fried in butter. It was fairly good, too. Zachary ate a few bites but prefered the applesauce I gave him to go along with it.

I made so much cheese, my mother thought I should go into the cheese making business and get the whole family involved. It was fun, don't get me wrong. I felt like a chemist watching my buttermilk separate into curds and whey. I would do it again, but half the recipe that I made because it called for 3 pounds of cheese. I bought 8 quarts of butter milk, a gallon of whole milk and a pint of kefir to make all of it. And when we sat down to our easter dinner, we had so many other choices, we barely made a dent in all of it. Truth be told, the paska and Kulich would be better enjoyed separate from the Easter meal and served with good tea or coffee. Live and learn right?

As for the rest of the holiday, we did the traditional egg coloring progect, egg hunt and a non-traditional trip to our Zoo. Everything was perfect! Zach loved the Zoo, but was a little frightened by the zoo train whistle. He woke up last night crying about the "horn" so Im sure he was dreaming about it. Here are a few other photos of our fun-filled weekend.

Zachary pretty much just wanted to smash the eggs. His thumb found its way into all but one of the eggs he dyed.

Zachary and my nephew at the Zoo. They got along great!