Easter Day

The Pope stood silent during the Easter blessing at the end of Easter Mass in Rome. Yet, one is confident that his silent prayers are heard and felt nonetheless.

Here the sunny Easter morn was welcome after 3 days of nearly constant rain. Not the sort of rain that pools in the yard or floods the swales along our country roads, but the sort of rain that falls gently and steadily without felling the tender flowers that have begun to spring forth in all quarters. The sort of rain that whispers in the treetops and on the tin roofs of the cheery houses in this little north Florida village.

Today the Clog-wife and I shared a lovely pot-luck Easter meal with several close friends. Rather than post a Sunday Recipe Blog, I'll just mention briefly the foods we contributed to the meal:

Curry and honey-glazed carrots
Fresh pickled beets
Strawberry chantilly cake with pureed strawberries.

The cake recipe was the Pane di Spagne (sponge cake) from Romeo Salta's Pleasures of Italian Cooking. The strawberry chantilly filling was modified from the whipped cream discussion in The Joy of Cooking. I cut the finished cake in half, then cut each half into top and bottom halves to make the levels of a 4-layer cake. I drizzled juice from the pureed strawberries over each cake piece, spread 1/4 inch of strawberry filling between layers, then drizzled more juice over the top of the cake. I froze the filled cake for 8 hours, then placed it in the refrigerator until serving with fresh strawberry puree ladled over individual slices.

The cake was a hit, inasmuch as it was my first elaborate from-scratch cake.