American Expat Easter Celebration

Being away from friends and family on holidays can be tough. To combat homesickness and missed family blues, we scheduled a jam-packed weekend of distractions- mainly involving food.

On Thursday, we had tickets to our favorite comedian Jim Gaffigan. This wasn't specifically planned as an Easter diversion, we purchased the tickets months ago, but it was nice that he happened to be in town on Holy Thursday evening. His show was spot-on as we knew it would be. He leaned heavily on the fact that the pubs would be closed on Good Friday, and what would the alcohol-loving Irish do with themselves?

Jim Gaffigan in the Toilets

On Saturday, we had our big Easter meal- as we had plans to attend the Clontarf Festival on Sunday. We prepared scalloped potatoes, lemon-garlic green beans, rosemary and pepper biscuits, and an interesting unsmoked ham. We Yankees always have our ham smoked, so most American hams are already cooked. They only require a glaze and a thorough heat-up before serving. Hams here are usually unsmoked, and are cooked rather like an American pork roast. They taste a bit like a pink pork roast. Good, but different.

Cheesy Sauce

Potatoes Pre-Baking

Biscuits Pre-Baking

Cooked Potatoes

The final product was a great Easter meal for two. The plated photo is a bit messy as we were so eager to tuck in that we forgot to take a photo until we were almost out of green beans and the plates were smeared with cheese and crumbs. Oh well...

Finished Plate

Another American Easter classic is candy. Lots and lots of candy. There is no shortage of Easter candy here in Ireland, but there is something just a bit... depressing about two married adults buying unreasonable amounts of candy with no one else with whom to enjoy it. It was also a bit of a challenge to find some of our favorites. Starburst brand jelly beans are a particular favorite of mine, but I sadly had to settle for Tesco cheapy beans. We did get a chocolate bunny and a Cadbury egg, both American Easter staples.

Chocolate Bunny for Two

The Only Cadbury Candy Americans Ever See

Tesco Cheapy Beans

Coloring hard-boiled eggs is another tradition we skipped this year. Irish families don't usually color eggs at home, and most grocery store eggs have brown shells here anyway. The Germans we have met know all about coloring eggs, and we hope they found some white-shelled eggs to color. I suppose we could have made it work with our brown eggs with some very bold colors of dye and a little extra vinegar.

Saturday night, we mixed up some cinnamon roll dough for breakfast on Sunday. We had big plans and would need a megaload of carbs for energy. The next morning, we rolled it, filled it, cut it, baked it, and frosted it for a truly epic pan on cinnamon rolls. We don't know how popular these are in Ireland or the rest of Europe, but we had been in a considerable cinnamon roll drought. They were like heaven.

Cinnamon Roll Dough

Cinnamon Roll Dough with Filling

Rolling Cinnamon Roll Dough with Filling

Cutting Cinnamon Roll Dough

Arranging Cinnamon Rolls

Finished Rolls

After the cinnamon rolls on Easter Sunday? We spent the rest of the day in Clontarf at the festival.

The day after Easter is a national holiday here in Ireland as a day of rest and recovery from traveling to see family and friends. We spent it recovering from a huge weekend of diversions, distractions, and food.