Saturday, April 07, 2007

Easter Weekend

I haven't celebrated Easter in ages. When I was little, we got baskets full of candy, as you do, and we had to find the hidden eggs, as you do. It was a bit of fun, a bit of sugar high, and that was it, really. In the past few years, Easter weekend has passed without me noticing--Easter eggs are so not vegan, and my parents stopped giving us candy, so I often forgot that it even happened.

Then I moved to Australia, and found out that Easter is a big holiday here. Starting just after Christmas, grocery stores and bakeries start selling hot cross buns. I read the ingredients of the Woolworth's bakery buns, and found out that they are vegan! They're ridiculously overpriced, so we wait till Saturday afternoon when they are marked down--$2 for 8 buns. For the past few weeks we've been getting a pack or two a week and taking them to uni for lunches and snacks and things. Yum. In addition to hot cross buns, you get a 4 day weekend. Now, neither Andy nor I believe in Jesus, but as Andy so eloquently put it, "I believe in public holidays!"

So, to embrace the spirit of the season, we're taking it easy this weekend. We went to the beach for Good Friday and I marvelled at all the people getting wasted on their front patios (it's illegal to serve alcohol on Good Friday here). We read a bit, and watched some movies.

This morning I made some pancakes, using this recipe from vegweb. I cut it in half, and found that the batter was WAAAY too runny, so I added another 1/4 c. of flour. Once I got that sorted, the pancake making went beautifully. They are light and fluffy, yet hearty because they are full of oats. They were a perfect vessel for my auntie's homemade maple syrup, which my parents sent over for me. The only thing I might do next time is chop up the oats in the food processor beforehand, or just use quick oats rather than rolled.

I love cooking pancakes.

First, one side browns and the batter on top gets dried out around the edges and bubbly all over.

Then you flip it. When it's done, put it on a plate in the oven (the lowest setting, obvi) to keep warm.

At the end, you've got a stack of hot brown pancakes, just waiting to be smothered in maple syrup. Accompanied by a nice pot of tea, they make the perfect breakfast for a lazy weekend morning.


And, my parents sent a package full of Easter candy that arrived on the doorstep on Wednesday afternoon. Some of it was not vegan (when will they learn?!), but half of it was. In addition to some vegan jelly beans, they sent these cute dark chocolate bunnies. Andy thinks he's going to get one. What a sucker.

Happy Easter/Passover/Sugar High, everyone!

6 comments:

KleoPatra said...

Laughing my bun(ny)s off about the peeps drinkin' and livin' it up on their front patios! HILARIOUS!

i love how Andy put yours (and my) beliefs so succinctly: "I believe in public holidays!"

Touche!

Yer pancakes look stellar! NICE! Fluffy like Baa Baa Ganoush and Mattie. (Thanks for noting the similarity in their paws... that was quite observant! Mat goes in for a grooming on Tuesday, by the way.) But back to the pancakes... more seriously, the maple syrup. i have a serious love connection with maple syrup & vegan pancakes (& vegan waffles), so thank you for showing these lovelies off...

Happy Sugar High indeed. Some of that candy (i know... when will the parents', well meaning as they are, ever LEARN!?!?!) looks pretty good. The bunnies are set up to look quite enamore with one another.

Sweet!

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

ahh, the kissing bunnies is a cute picture of Easter! I'm sitting here this morning wishing I had a nice stack of pancakes warming in the oven - georgous. Way to go, Andy on the switch! Happy Sugar High!! :o)

bazu said...

Happy sugar high to you too! I have to admit, I've been indulging in a little easter candy myself, and I'm not exactly what you'd call a Christian...

Enjoy your long weekend! I had pancakes this morning, too, great minds...

Amey said...

What a fun post!

I'm interested to learn that Easter is such a big to-do in Australia. When I was living in Italy, It was a big deal there too - but that seems a bit more expected.

I love Hot Cross Buns so much. I make them every year for Easter. Mm mm mm! How cool to find a pre-made vegan version.

The pancakes look great, and the bunnies are very sweet indeed.

Incidentally, I love your new word "obvi" - ha ha! :)

urban vegan said...

Happy Easter! Those p-cakes look like just the thing to wake up to, along, of course, with that nice pot of tea.

I also like to wait unitl post-[insert any holiday here] to buy things...I'm not much on tradition, but I am huge on frugality!

Hey--I just got back from Belize and tried scuba [tooka resport course]. It was a bt scary at first but I loved it. Now I want to get mu diver's certification, so thanks so much for writing to me earlier this year with all the encouragement.

veganfreak said...

the way you spent the holiday is the *only* way to spend a holiday! :)

The pancakes look great, too.

BTW, sorry to have fallen out of touch. I got seriously busy with shit here. Hope all is well.