Cooking for Sunday

This beautiful Russian doll is all ready for Easter with her baked kulich in one hand and her painted Easter egg in the other. SHE has plenty of time though -- Russian Orthodox Easter isn't until April this year.

I made our kulich/babka last week, but after some marathon shopping today in the rapidly melting snow (read flooded streets), I made a version of Russian Easter paskha to go with the kulich. I found a lot of recipes on the internet -- here's one.
Frankly, it should be called "heart attack special". I made a version with a kilo of tvorog, 3 egg yolks, cream, butter, 2 cups of vanilla sugar, raisins, lemon zest, finely chopped apricots and almonds. As I don't have a church wooden paskha mold, I used a small plastic flower pot as the form, wrapped the inside with cheese cloth, and filled it with the mixture.

It is sitting in the fridge upside down weighted down with two plates to see if the cheese needs to drip any. The recipe, while pared down, made enough for 3 flower pots -- which I didn't have, of course. I'm convinced these recipes were to feed a huge extended family or keep grandma busy in the kitchen for a while!

This link has the best photos of what the process looks like!

We don't have kids at home any more, but I dyed eggs and set the table with family treasures. I still have a bunny cake to make and then do Sunday dinner. I'm hoping for a breather by Monday afternoon -- I have social events both Friday and Saturday!