EASTER: If you make it, they will come.

photo Julie B Montgomery

Traditionally, in my family, Easter is a really big deal, sometimes as big as Christmas. What a wonderful thing it is to truly celebrate in the birth of spring. My Russian heritage brings to the table the infamous Pascha (pos-ka):  a special cheesecake molded in a flowerpot, decorated with fresh flowers and eggs and only made on Easter. 

On Saturday while making the Pascha, I realized I had no idea who, if anybody, would be joining me for breakfast the next day. My four year old, Henri was camping with his Papa, and the usual suspects were out of town. I told myself, "If you make it, they will come". As fate would have it, my good friend Caroline spontaneously decided to get a change of scenery, and drove up to visit me on the ranch. We woke up Sunday morning, decorated the Pascha with flowers from the garden, and colored a few hard boiled brown eggs with my son's nontoxic markers. Look what we made... and then ate. Yum! 

Pascha Recipe:

serves 6

2 pounds ricotta

2 pounds cream cheese

1 cup almond flour

1 vanilla bean

1 pinch of salt

sugar or maple syrup to taste

1/2 cup yellow raisins

1/2 tsp cardamon (optional)

love

Melt the cheeses in a pot on low making sure to stir often. Once melted, add flour, love, salt, rind of lemon and sugar/maple syrup to taste (about 3/4 cup). I like it a little bit sweet, but not too sweet. Add raisins. Traditionally you add a few eggs, but it's already pretty rich. I also like to add 1/2 tsp ground cardamon, but that is definitely not traditional.

Line a mold, a clean flower pot is traditionally used for the cylindrical shape, or you can used a sieve for a half round. Line the mold with cheese cloth or a clean tea towel. Pour in the warm ingredients from the pot. Let cool. Fold the excess material on top and place a heavy plate on top to press it down. Refrigerate overnight. 

Turn upside down onto a large serving plate and peel off the cloth. Decorate with flowers. For the top I used flowers I know are nontoxic like lavender, nasturtium, and sour grass. Enjoy.