Easter is a time to gather together with friends and/or family. While some start the day in church, many others will enjoy a libation while celebrating. The holiday is behind Mardi Gras, Christmas, Black Friday and St. Patrick’s day as a drinking holiday. But why not add a little something boozy and colorful to the day’s agenda. All of these pairs well with eggs and candy. Here are some fun and easy Easter cocktails!
Lent is a40 day season commonly practiced by giving up something beloved (drinking, chocolate, social media) as a sign of faith and sacrifice. This cocktail was created by at the 5 Point Cafe in Seattle, Washington. Mixologist Sean Dunlap wanted something festive, fun and smooth. Regular patron Dan Luczkiewicz said the only thing wrong with this drink it is delicious and you want another! Cafe owner David Meinert agrees and it will be featured at the famed dive bar during the holiday.
Ingredients
2 oz tequila perhaps a blanco
4 oz pineapple juice
Splash of cranberry
Create
Add add to a highball glass
Pour in tequila and pineapple juice
And a splash of cranberry juice for color
Stir and enjoy!
The Peep-a-lious
Peeps are iconic to Easter since the Just Born company premiered the colorful confection in the 1950s. Why not combine a classic with vodka and make it even more enjoyable. Consider reviving a childhood tradition but instead of dying eggs, you color champagne.
Ingredients
Create
Put ice in a highball glass
Combine first three ingredients in a glass and stir
Garnish the side of the glass with a blue peep
Colorful Mimosas
The favorite drinks of brunches, mornings and early day drinking. Festive, fun and flavorful – mimosas. Consider reviving a childhood tradition but instead of dying eggs, you color champagne.
Ingredients
Chilled champagne or prosecco
Juices – consider Ruby Red Grapefruit, Mango, or Guava
Easter celebrates spring, but the weather doesn’t always contribute to the fun atmosphere. Here is a simple cocktail at anytime of day. It is fun and can bring back a sense of childlike wonder with the big marshmallow!
Ingredients
Granulated sugar
Unsweetened cocoa powder
Milk
Vanilla extract
1-1.5 oz. of Baileys, Frangelico, Grand Marnier, Kahlua, Whiskey
1 big marshmallow
Create
Whisk the sugar and cocoa powder together in a small saucepan
Add the milk and whisk the mixture over medium-low to medium heat until the sugar and cocoa are dissolved and the hot chocolate is heated through
pour into a mug
Add shot of alcohol
Top with the big marshmallow!
May these spring cocktails put you in a blooming good mood.
Chowhound is a weekly column about what’s trending in Detroit food culture. Tips: [email protected].
Watching that wild Christmas episode of Hulu’s The Bear reminded me a little of what Lent could be like for my Polish Catholic clan when I was a kid. Forty days of semi-dedicated fasting, psycho-flagellation, and a steady subsistence diet of God-awful salmon patties turned the three women who raised me into growling, prowling animals just looking for a fight. By the time they holed up together in our kitchen to make scratch kielbasa and pierogi for the entire family’s Easter Sunday dinner at our house, Momma Bear, Grandma Bear, and Auntie Bear were really snarling and showing their teeth.
“I thought you gave up those damn cigarettes until Sunday,” I remember my Aunt Helen calling out my mother for walking back into the house reeking of Lucky Strikes after a way-too-long trip to the alley to “take out the garbage.”
“It’s Thursday night,” Mom clapped back, crediting herself fully for time served.
“Every day’s Thursday for you, Ginka.” Ironically, my aunt always used my mother’s Polish-affectionate nickname.
“And what did you give up, Helen?”
“Two bedrooms, remember?” Aunt Helen’s constant reminder to my mother that she and I were boarders in her house tended to have a last-word effect on their ever-flaring exchanges. Then Grandma would intervene with some admonishment in Polish while pointing to me, piping two of her rival daughters down, and redirecting all that negative energy into grinding pork or rolling out dough, though rarely managing to separate them.
“I’ll grind. You hold the casings, Ginka.”
“Something you’re good at,” Mom snarked, making sister seethe again, and leaving Grandma trying to keep things quiet with her pleading, leveling look.
“Hold those damn casings out straight!” Aunt Helen snapped viciously at any break or bubble in the long, loud, link-making ordeal.
Watching Jamie Lee Curtis in The Bear play nearly that exact same persona to a T triggered my unhappy household-made PTSD to a point I could pretty much taste again. To this day, I more than contentedly and routinely make many dishes my family made: pierogi, city chicken, borscht, stuffed cabbage, kapusta. But fresh kielbasa? No thanks. I take no pleasure in the process, having had my fill of all that noise.
And just now as I’m writing this, I see the reality of the residual scarring written into Chef Carmy’s psyche in The Bear. Mine has also manifested as an obsession to cook for everyone in my world. Talk about revelation and catharsis. It suddenly occurs to me that the entire time I’ve spent at the stove, whether making my living or just trying to make good things for friends and family to enjoy, I’ve been trying to make things right that went so wrong in my boyhood home so long ago. Holy crap, Chowhound readers: is there a therapist in the house willing to take smoked mushroom enchiladas, green chile stew, and jicama salad as payment for a session or two? If so, I can offer you those three dishes (or whatever) as down payment, then when we’re done, I’ll treat you to renditions of the same Polish Easter dinner staples I’ve reworked over the years. It’ll be as therapeutic for me as it might prove tasty to you: curried smoked salmon cakes with charred red onion and lime-dill crema, chipotle-honey and clove-roasted ham, poblano-cotija pierogi fried empanada-style, and crisp-skinned New Mexican sausage just in case my anti-fresh-made kielbasa aversion isn’t cured by Lent’s end.
“So, how’s dinner everyone?” Aunt Helen would fish for compliments around our Easter dinner table, as always. “Bobby, did you try my kielbasa yet? It’s delicious.” She’d try to make nice while noticing I hadn’t.
“I’ll have some more ham, please,” was my standard response in silent protest. Then I’d see my grandmother look toward me with a wink in her wise old eye, breaking the language barrier between us and letting me know she understood exactly all I wasn’t saying.
She got me completely, God bless her heart and soul. And I guess I’ve finally gotten a whole lot more from what’s at the center of The Bear. It’s something universally true that Chef Carmy and all of us cut our teeth on to some manageable degree or otherwise: real family dysfunction. It’s hard to swallow when it happens, and something that takes time to even begin to digest let alone leave behind and flush out of our systems.
In hindsight, I’ve had three bears to deal with. Two could be so hot-tempered or cold-blooded toward each other. One was always just right when I needed her. That’s probably as close to a Goldilocks family experience as most anyone comes.
On the bright side, no one at our house ever drove a car through the living room while we all sat lobbing soft insults and accusations (but no silverware) back and forth at each other across the dinner table. As I explained in a previous column over the holidays, Aunt Helen hated having to drive even short distances.
Applauding a great place in Allen Park: Nothing but a big, loud bravo from me for Gus & Us Grill, which friends just introduced me to last week. From the outside, the restaurant appeared pretty mom-and-pop typical for a minute, until I noticed the number of cars packing the parking lot late on a cold, dreary Tuesday morning. It’s no wonder. From soup to nuts (food and service), everything I sampled was way better than what I expected to be treated to. Hand-battered fried mushrooms ($7.29) and zucchini slivered like breadsticks (same price) were crispy, piping hot, and fresh. My friend’s two stuffed bell peppers ($13.99, I think) were a generous portion, beautifully homemade, and emblematic of a long list of hearty daily features ranging from American to ethnic homespun, that complimented a comprehensive, Coney-meets-family steakhouse menu. Service paced our three-course luncheon perfectly, sociably, and professionally. This place is a peach, and serves bargain-priced beer, wine, and cocktails to boot.
Gus & Us Grill is located at 17445 Hamilton Ave., Allen Park; 313-359-2700.
Tuna Salad is easy to make and wonderful to make a sandwich or enjoy on crackers. We love it creamy and with boiled eggs.
If you love tuna recipes, you may also love this tuna macaroni salad. It’s easy to make and a great side dish!
❤️WHY WE LOVE THIS RECIPE
We love this tuna salad because it’s so easy to make and it’s so easy to enjoy! Sometimes, you just don’t feel like cooking, and you can make this up on a Sunday and have lunch in no time. We love to make a sandwich or have it on ritz crackers.
🍴KEY INGREDIENTS
Tuna in water
Celery
Onion
Sweet pickle relish or chopped pickles
Mayonnaise
Boiled Eggs
Pepper
Salt
Smoked paprika (optional)
SWAPS
You can add spices you enjoy, like garlic, chives, etc. You can also use sweet or dill relish or pickles. We have also added liquid smoke too.
🍽️HOW TO MAKE
Nothing can be easier, the longest part of the process is boiling the eggs.
COOKING STEPS
Step 1 Boil your eggs and chop.
Step 2 Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Chill for several hours or can serve at room temperature. Makes great sandwiches.
Serve on bread or crackers and enjoy!
⭐TIP
We love to make this with Duke’s mayonnaise. You can use whatever you like or even Miracle Whip. This is also wonderful stuffed in a tomato during the summer or on a bed of lettuce.
🥣RECIPE SUGGESTIONS
If you love this tuna salad you may also love these delicious recipes. All are great on bread or crackers too.
Best Chicken Salad – This is a very versatile recipe and has wonderful reviews. It’s a favorite for a reason. Save time and use rotisserie chicken!
Old-Fashioned Bologna Salad – This one is a classic for a reason. Budget-friendly, delicious, and wonderful on Ritz Crackers.
Delicious Egg Salad – This one is great any time of year but we especially love it in the summer. Refreshing cold out of the refrigerator.
❓FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What mayonnaise to you prefer?
We always use Duke’s but you can use what works for you and your family.
This easy tuna salad is wonderful with crackers or on bread. Super easy to make and great for a quick lunch. Made with boiled eggs and has great reviews.
Prep Time 10 minutesmins
Cook Time 0 minutesmins
Total Time 10 minutesmins
Course sandwich
Cuisine American, southern
2(5 ounccans tuna in waterdrained
1/4cupceleryfinely chopped
1/4onionfinely chopped
2tablespoonssweet pickle relish or chopped pickles
Click here to make your Lenten Fish Fry reservations.
Roses Run Country Club –
When: Every Friday starting Feb. 16 from 4-9 p.m.
Where: 2636 North River Road, Stow
This year’s signature dishes include seafood mac and cheese for $15.99, crab rangoon dip served with wonton chips for $9.99 and beer-battered fish dinner served with hushpuppies and coleslaw for $13.99.
St. Albert the Great Church – Dine in and take out
When: Every Friday from Feb. 16 – March 22 from 4-7 p.m.
Where: 6667 Wallings Road, North Royalton
All proceeds will benefit The Justice and Compassion Ministries, including the Feeding the Hungry ministry. Food available will include perch, beer-battered cod, cabbage and noodles and three flavors of pierogis.
When: Every Friday from Feb. 16 – March 22 from 4-7 p.m.
Where: 5720 State Road, Parma
Click here for more about the St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Ukrainian Village.
St. Ladislas Catholic Church – Dine in and take out
When: Feb. 23, March 8 and March 22 from 5-7 p.m.
Where: 2345 Bassett Road, Westlake
Menu choices include fried or baked cod dinners, glazed orange baked salmon dinner, fried shrimp, pirogies, mac & cheese, clam chowder, tomato bisque soup, all the sides you expect plus coffee, tea and soft drinks.
There will be free dessert with a canned goods donation for the food pantry!
*Have a Fish Fry you’d like to add to our list? Send the name of the organization, the address, information about the event, and a link to your website to tips@fox8.com. Please include “Fish Fry 2024” in your email subject line.
