The Good Friday Baking Extravaganza

As I may have noted before, I have sucker written across my forehead and frequently find  myself volunteering to do all sorts of fun stuff on my days off from work.   Often this fun stuff includes cooking or baking obscene amounts of food.  Yesterday was one of those days.

I have Good Friday off from work every year and I somehow always spend it helping my family do a ridiculous amount of cooking.   The tasks always involve making the Easter babka (22 loaves this year… yes, 22!).

We also make something I like to refer to as Heart Attack Bread – more commonly known as Easter Pie or PizzaGaina .  I don’t eat it… I don’t think anyone should.  I tried it once as a kid and I didn’t like it.  As an adult, I have no desire to try it again, because I know what goes into it and I fear it will kill someone some day.  What goes into it, you might ask?  Oh dear…

Well, you start by rolling out some dough… and then you top it with a layer of hard boiled eggs… and then a layer of ham… and then a layer of Farmer’s Cheese… and then a layer of pepperoni… and then a layer of mozzarella…then we poke holes in the layers… and we pour in a mixture of eggs and parmesan cheese (yeah, more eggs and cheese – of course)…and then another layer of dough and you seal it up and brush it with some more egg.  And then bake it for forever (perhaps to kill  the  beast!).  Sigh…

We also made pierogi this year (some potato and cheese and some others with potato and cabbage) and my Aunt Annie made a couple of cheese cakes for tomorrow’s festivities…  Oh, and my dad came with us this year to help my Uncle Roland make the horseradish with beets which is the preferred condiment that we’ll be eating tomorrow with our very Polish Easter meal  which will consist ham, kielbasa, hard boiled eggs, the babka, the Heart Attack bread, probably a few other items and like a dozen desserts.  I know, this is why we’re fat.

I’m actually currently trying to figure out what dessert I’ll be  making to add to the items listed above… because, clearly, we need more food.

Have a Happy Easter, folks!