Preparations

Looking for a way to naturally dye your eggs, still?
http://greekfood.about.com/od/greekcookingtips/ht/redeggs.htm

My dad was given a beautiful jeweled cross recently. I love my parents.
Last Sunday we celebrated the Lord's entry into Jerusalem and took home palms and pussywillows from church. This week, we are preparing by reading the gospels that lead up to the Passion of Christ and the Lamentations and then shout "Christ is Risen!" on Pascha.

This is a photo I took of my Pascha basket last year....I'm sure it will look much the same this year. I made lemon cheese last night and will use that to make cheese pascha.

I actually used 1/2 gallon of raw milk, juice from 3 lemons to make mine, minor differences from the recipe in the above link.

Cheese-pascha

3 lbs farmer's cheese (instead I used the homemade lemon cheese)

1/2 lb salted butter (softened)
1/2 c. raisins (I didn't put any in my cheese-pascha, just decorated it with them after)

1/4 lb finely chopped almonds (didn't use them this year)

1 3/4 cups sugar
3 egg yolks (I made macaroons with the left over egg whites)

1 whole egg

1 cup cream
1 tsp vanilla extract (scraped the seeds from the center of a vanilla bean instead)

Cream together butter, sugar and eggs. Combine with cheese (adding nuts and raisins, if desired) and cream. Cook in large pot over medium head until mixture bubbles, stirring occassionally (about 1/2 hour). When cool, add vanilla, place mixture in mould lined with cheese cloth. Refridgerate and allow to drain, unmould and decorate! Spread on top of kulich (see previous post for my mom's recipe that I use) and enjoy!!!