2025, Family, Food, holidays, Kids, Uncategorized

Easter Dinner

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I believe I wrote that we were so busy at church over Easter weekend that we had Easter dinner the weekend before Easter, and we weren’t going to cook Easter weekend. Well, as usual, that was not what happened. I made the header photo, Pizza Rustica, on Good Friday. It is a southern Italian deep dish pie with ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, hot Italian sausage, mortadella, sun dried tomatoes, salami, and seven eggs, encased in a lovely crust. My pie looked just like the header photo. It was absolutely delicious. I highly recommend it.

We are traveling this week (more to come on that). The Grade 12 son of one of my coworkers is going to water the tomato seedlings, bring in the mail, and tend to the cat. He and his mom came on Saturday so we could show him what he needed to do. He intends to go to culinary school, so Husband showed him our cookbook library and I showed him the Pizza Rustica recipe. We loaned him several cookbooks and our pasta maker, since he expressed an interest in making homemade pasta and had used a pasta maker just like ours in school. It is one with a crank handle that is clamped to the counter. Husband calls this part of our “Radical Food Ministry “, getting people to cook from scratch. Husband told him he can borrow any of our cookbooks.

What is your favorite Easter dinner? Who mentored you? Who have you mentored?

24 thoughts on “Easter Dinner”

  1. The pizza rustica looks good. But if I made something like that we’d be eating it every day for a week. There are just the two of us, after all.

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  3. OMG that looks good. We might need the recipe on that one, Renee… and while you’re at it, could you clone yourself and come be our cook?

    I’d like to make my grandma’s Kumla some time, and Easter – why not? since it has ham. It’s a potato dumpling boiled in ham broth… another excuse to have melted butter at the table. The raw potatoes go through the meat grinder… (or I see in one online recipe, shredded) – quite a process, and is not likely to happen at this point.

    Thinking on the mentors..

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      1. Pizza Rustica

        Crust:

        Mix: 2 cups 00 flour (pasta/pizza flour)
        1t salt
        1/2 c very butter
        2T olive oil
        1 large egg, beaten
        4 T of cold water (or more if too dry)

        Mix it all up like you would a pie crust, then chill for one hour.

        Filling:
        16 Oz ricotta
        8 Oz fresh mozzarella
        2 Oz grated parm
        1/2 t salt
        1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes
        4 Oz chopped mortadella
        4 Oz chopped salami
        1 pound cooked Italian sausage, cubed
        7 large eggs, beaten

        Mix together. Roll out 2/3 of the dough very thin so it will fill a buttered and floured 9 inch springform pan with a several inch overhang. Pour in the filling, and smooth. Roll out the remaining dough so that it is slightly wider than the pan. Seal and crimp the edges. Brush with an egg wash of 1 egg beaten with 1 t of water. Put in middle of preheated 450° oven. Immediately turn heat to 350°. Bake for 75 minutes until crust is a beautiful golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes. Remove ring and let cool another 15 minutes before slicing.

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  4. To be a student teacher is to be mentored. One reason young teachers give for quitting is that they aren’t mentored after they are hired.
    I mentored many students in many ways, sometimes as a father figure, sometimes as a counselor, sometimes giving long term individual tutoring in writing skills.
    Clyde

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    1. my daughter is in year 2 of being a high school english teacher. shes getting the hang of it. they hired her after watching her student teach for a couple months her senior year at depaul.
      she loves it
      thank you for mentoring young teachers. i know my daughter would benefit from a mentor but she will find her way
      good to hear from you again clyde

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  6. YA and I do Easter the day before with Alan and Julie up in Anoka. And their whole family. This year was take out from their favorite Mexican restaurant. Easter Sunday itself is not really an occasion that we celebrate; yesterday we mostly did yardwork. My only memorable Easter dinner was when I was five and a couple of bites in was informed that the meat on my plate was lamb. Suffice it to say the lamb never made its way to my stomach. First step on the road to be becoming a vegetarian

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  7. Many times over the years I was a training buddy. What that meant was that I didn’t do all of the training, but I was the go to person for questions and “I don’t remember how to fill out this form” or “who do I call if I need” kinds of deals. But I think of mentoring as something deeper than just training or answering questions. So no mentoring — either me doing it or me getting it.

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  8. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Yesterday was surprising. I went to church where I see all kinds of positive things happening, and it was a great experience. There is a new minister who seems to understand community building, ministry and social action. Very refreshing. THen some friends were here who are travelling home to Northern MN. Finally, another friend and I attended the musical “Waitress” at the Bloomington Center for the ARts. It was great.

    Re: Mentoring. I have supervised and mentored many student social workers. It has been overwhelmingly a good experience. I could have used many more mentors in my life as a young social worker.

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  9. In the construction trades we call mentoring “apprenticeship.” At least that’s the ideal I held. There were no secrets or tricks-of-the-trade, I withheld from guys and gals working under me. The absolute first thing I taught was that I, Wes, doesn’t know it all. I’m still learning and that willingness to learn is the key to proficiency in the flooring trade.
    There’s my spouting off.

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  12. The pizza rustica looks delicious, Renee–thank you for posting the recipe!

    My favorite Easter dinner was the whole ham baked in bread dough that my uncle used to make. Everyone crowded around for a chunk of that crust.

    I had one manager who was a mentor. He’d started his career as teacher so it came naturally to him. I’ve mentored people at work, both as a manager and a coworker. Mentoring is rewarding but it also just makes sense–making for a better workplace with less stress for everyone.

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