Easter Traditions

Growing up Slovenian, family and traditions have always been a huge part of my life. Easter is a special time where we decorate Easter eggs on Good Friday and have the best food for Easter Sunday breakfast. Even though we eat eggs and the meat at other times of the year, it all seems to taste extra good on Easter morning.

Every year on Good Friday, we've colored Easter eggs with my parents. Even since having my own kids, I still take them to my mom and dads to do the egg decorating. (Bonus - my house doesn't get messed up).

Not only do we color eggs, but we also have the same meal every Good Friday. No matter what "diet" I'm on, I always look forward to my Good Friday meal (well worth the cheat). We have romano beans with onions and oil and vinegar, rye bread, and breaded fish and shrimp.

Then, there's my absolute favorite Slovenian dessert. I don't even know what they're called in English but we call them Krapce (crop-sa). They're definitely not the healthiest, but for the one time of year that I have them, it's totally worth eating half a pan.

My mom and grandma make them every year by just eyeballing the ingredients, but this year they took the time to measure everything so I could share the recipe with all of you.

Krapce (makes 2 pans)

Pre-heat the oven to 375 Celcius. Grease two 9x13" glass pans with Crisco or butter.

Crust

• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup Crisco (room temp.)
• 1/4 cup butter (room temp.)
• 3/4 cup milk (as needed)
• 1 egg
• pinch of salt

Mix all above ingredients together in a bowl.

• 2 tsp. yeast
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 4 tbsp. warm water

Combine yeast, sugar and water together and add to the above ingredients. Knead everything together and split into 2 separate doughs. Roll out to fit each pan, making sure each crust comes up the sides of the pan as well .

Filling

• 1 1/2 cups uncooked rice (cooked)
• 600g ricotta cheese
• 500g cottage cheese
• 500ml sour cream
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 tbsp. vanilla sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar

Cook the 1 1/2 cups of rice first. Then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Pour half of the filling into each pan.

Topping

• 4 cups ground walnuts
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbsp. sour cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla

Mix all of the above ingredients together in a bowl. Spread half of the topping on the filling of each pan. Bake for 50 minutes.

Let cool, cut and serve.

Our Easter Sunday breakfast consists of the eggs that we colored, bread, what we call "sunka" (smoked pork neck - and one of the best meats you've ever had), sausage, horseradish and of course, krapce and Easter chocolates.

Do you have any family traditions or special Easter treats that you do every year? If so, I'd love to hear them. Leave me a comment below.

Happy Easter!