food

Holy Week and Easter

Lent went by especially quickly this year, and Holy Week was no exception…it was a complete blur!

On Palm Sunday, Ladybug turned my palm into a cross as she always does:

On Monday, we baked hot cross buns:

Tuesday, Chickadee and I visited the Tulip Trail at Eckert’s with the hope of cutting our own tulips for our Easter table…that didn’t work out, but it was still a beautiful experience!

On Wednesday, I made one of our favorite Lenten dinners, fish tacos:

Thursday found us at church for the first service the Holy Triduum:

Before Church on Friday we made this year’s Paschal Candle, and Bunny and I did some pre-Easter baking:

On Holy Saturday I prepped some salads and our mini donut tray for the year…I found a record 18 different kinds!

The Great Vigil of Easter is still my favorite church service of the entire year (even when we have to start indoors because rain made the church garden too mucky)!

After church, we stoped at Wendy’s for fries and a Frosty for everyone:

Easter morning was a bit chilly, but clear and beautiful!

The church looked glorious, as always:

And we got a nice family photo after the service thanks to our field worker from the seminary:

Easter is the one day a year we have a big, fancy breakfast…I even put a little extra effort into setting the table, using some pretty plates I found at Aldi a few years ago that are just the perfect color palette for the day:

We had a pretty traditional meal…biscuits with a choice of sausage gravy or Pflaumenmus (plum butter), scrambled eggs, sausage patties, brie (also good with the plum butter!), fruit salad, pomegranate and orange juices, and did I mention mini donuts?

We had a fun afternoon watching the first two Big, Fat, Greek Wedding movies, and then it was time to reset the table for dinner:

We went Italian for Easter dinner, featuring Peposo (beef cooked with garlic and peppercorns in red wine), lemon-parmesan risotto, braised radicchio with a balsamic glaze, breaded baked artichokes, antipasto salad, and Colomba di Pasqua (a sweet Italian Easter bread) with more Pflaumenmus.

And for dessert, panna cotta with a blueberry-lemon sauce and fresh berries:

This was a great, although busy, Holy Week and Easter! Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Opening Day Eve

Happy Opening Day Eve!

The Cardinals home opener at Busch Stadium is tomorrow, but we decided to have our traditional ballpark dinner a day early. We started with nachos:

The main course was hot dogs and brats, with lots of toppings…my favorite is still the Chicago dog!

We had the same dessert as last year…a homemade cookie cake with Schnucks Cardinals ice cream on the side:

Hopefully this will be a good season!

St. Patrick’s Day, Observed

Happy (early) St. Patrick’s Day!

We decided to celebrate today because it was the best day this week for a family feast. We started by setting the leprechaun trap…at this point, I can only assume that “Lucky” is taunting us!

Of course there were Lucky Charms:

And I made myself my favorite green drink this afternoon…the lavender matcha!

I love baking soda bread:

And we had our traditional corned beef dinner with all the fixin’s:

For dessert I made Guinness mousse to go with the Guinness cake Bunny baked:

This is truly one of my favorite dinners of the whole year!

A Trio of St. Louis Favorites for 3/14

Two days ago we celebrated Chicago on 3/12, and now it’s St. Louis’ turn…in honor of the original telephone area code for the metro area, we observed 314 Day!

We had a few St. Louis favorites…(frozen) Imo’s pizza for dinner, with the St. Louis classic, Fitz’s root beer:

And a homemade lemon gooey butter cake for dessert:

The celebratory season is far from over…tomorrow we’re having an early St. Patrick’s Day, and then the two March birthdays in our house within a week!

Chicago-Style Pizza and Portillo’s Cake for 3/12

Happy 312 Day, a day to celebrate the great city of Chicago based on the city’s (and my) original telephone area code. I made our favorite Chicago-style pizza for dinner, and Bunny made a Portillo’s-inspired chocolate cake for dessert…it was a most delicious day!

Bolognese and Cannoli Cake for MAR10 Day

For the last few years, we’ve really looked forward to celebrating MAR10 Day on March 10th. I usually make something Italian in honor of everyone’s favorite plumber…this year, it was bolognese, with a cannoli cake for dessert. I also found some Mario-themed Bubly water, which was an extra special treat!

I love these whimsical celebrations!

Tasty Tuesday–Vegan Black Bean Burritos

I don’t do a lot of vegetarian/vegan cooking, but I wanted to try something new for our Lenten Friday. I decided to really step outside of my comfort zone and make burritos that are not only vegetarian, but even use plant-based cream cheese, making them vegan as well. I was little worried that they might be a little too unconventional for my family, but they turned out to be a huge hit, and I’ll definitely be making them again! (I may try a version with cheese and maybe even chicken in the future, though!)

  • 6-8 “Extra Grande Burrito” flour tortillas
  • 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 3 red bell peppers, chopped
  • 1 large jalapeño, minced
  • 5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1/4-1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (or to taste)
  • 3 15 oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 8 oz. plant-based cream cheese
  • 2 bunches cilantro, lightly chopped

Preheat oven to 350.

Sauté onion, red peppers, and jalapeño with salt in large pan in oil until soft. Add garlic, cumin, and cayenne, and cook for another minute. Add black beans and continue cooking until heated through. Stir in cream cheese and allow to melt. Remove pan from heat and toss in cilantro. Fill and fold tortillas, wrap in foil, and place on baking sheet. Cook in preheated oven for 15 minutes.

A Look Back at Milano Cortina 2026

16 days of glory go by very quickly, and the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics have sadly already come to an end. Here’s a quick look back at all of the fun we’ve had!

Of course we had to stop by the Olympic Spectacular outside Francis Olympic Field at Wash U in St. Louis…just last month, (future) Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu visited these same rings!

Chickadee and I made our favorite edible Olympic torches:

And we cooked a ton of (very delicious) Italian food!

  • Biscotti
  • Zuppa Pavese
  • Frullato di Frusta
  • Italian Bread
  • Carbonnade à la Flamande
  • Insalata di Arance e Finocchi
  • Radicchio in Padella
  • Limoncello Spritz
  • Crostata di Ricotta e Visciole
  • Marinara
  • Basil Pesto
  • Ravioli
  • Zeppole di San Giuseppe
  • Italian Grilled Cheese
  • Peposo
  • Creamy Polenta
  • Italian Limonata
  • Sporcamuss
  • Pork Milanese
  • Antipasto Salad
  • Seltz Limone e Sale
  • Panna Cotta with Berries

We also picked up a few Italian treats from the store:

There were crafts:

And a girls’ outing to go ice skating:

We had fun keeping track of the medal count at the end of every day…here’s a final look at our chart:

I love the Olympics, both winter and summer, so much, and I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with myself now that they’re done…but I’m already looking forward to L.A. 2028!

Pfannkuchen for Fasching

It’s Berliner season!

Bunny and I made a trio of varieties this year, starting with a Milano Cortina 2026 fusion flavor that was filled with cannoli filling in honor of the host country of the Olympics:

We also made plum butter Berliner, filled with homemade Pflaumenmus, which was sehr lecker!

And our final variety was filled with our favorite Guinness mousse and topped with a chocolate glaze:

It was a tasty trio!

As long as I was already frying donuts, I also made German Mutzen from the Rhineland, which turned out very much like beignets:

And here’s a bonus look at our Mardi Gras dinner of “Bayou Queen Punch” and “Tiana’s Famous Gumbo” from Entertaining with Disney:

We had a nice day of feasting, and now we’re ready for Lent!

A Day of Italian Dishes for the 2026 Winter Olympics

Happy 2026 Winter Olympics!

I’m so excited about the start of the Winter Games, so of I course I planned a day of Italian food for us to try in honor of Milano Cortina 2026. We started the day with a trio of homemade biscotti to enjoy with our coffee (or hot chocolate, as the case may be)…orange-cranberry, chocolate, and traditional flavored with anise.

For lunch, Chickadee and I enjoyed “Zuppa Pavese,” which is toasted bread swimming in beef broth and topped with an egg and parmesan cheese…super warming and delicious! We also made a light “Frullato di Frusta,” a slightly sweetened fruit smoothie.

I guess maybe I do bake bread? I sliced this Italian bread pretty well, too!

The star of tonight’s Olympics Opening Ceremonies dinner was Carbonnade à la Flamande, a delicious beef stew braised in beer:

I also made two side dishes to go with our Italian Feast…Insalata di Arance e Finocchi, an orange and fennel salad, and Radicchio in Padella, radicchio sautéed in garlic oil and drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

The best special meals include a special drink, and we really enjoyed a non-alcoholic limoncello spritz made with homemade lemon oleo saccharum:

I think this was one of the best Opening Ceremonies dinners I’ve made!

For dessert Chickadee and I baked a Crostata di Ricotta e Visciole, which is a Roman sour cherry and ricotta tart. The filling was very similar to a cannoli filling minus the chocolate chips, and spread over sour cherry jam.

I’m looking forward to immersing myself in winter sports and Italy for the next two weeks!