Growing up, Easter was always about a new dress, hat, colored eggs and a ham or leg of lamb on the table. It wasn’t one of those holidays where food was really memorable for me -- that leg of lamb!

One of my first cooking adventures was cooking some recipes out of Vogue by Jeffrey Steingarten for Easter during a weekend visitation with my father. It was some complex salmon and a lemon based dessert with a raspberry coulis. I made him get me Kirsch liqueur for the coulis which he grumbled about. I think I was 14 at the time. Each trip home from college, that Kirsch still sat on his bar barely touched from that long ago meal. I was rather proud of myself  but I know my father, being Nigerian, just wanted his stew. That’s the type of thing I liked to do as a kid when I visited my father, experiment in the kitchen without my mother supervising me.
  
Easter I find is one of those of holidays that has more solemnity in other countries than it does here in the United States, and where other countries place more emphasis on the food. In Greece, Italy and much of the Fertile Crescent, lamb is an ancient tradition in spring holiday menus, a sacred tradition among Jews at Passover when the sacrificial lamb was offered up as a hope for shelter from harm. Sweet cakes were served by early Anglo-Saxons to honor the goddess of spring. Sweet breads of some kind are still a favorite in many areas at Easter table. I like to borrow from many cultures when I cook, especially for special holidays.  It keeps the table more interesting and opens my guest’s minds. I know most people like the usual and tried and true, but life would be so dull if we ate the same thing all the time. Plus, spring is exciting as it starts to yield some incredible produce. Here are some ideas for a fresh and fantastic Easter brunch:

Hot Cross Buns
Black Eye Pea Salad with Crisp White Asparagus
Spring Wild Sockeye Salmon En Croute
Passion Fruit Pantry Panna Cotta

Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, and Champagne would all go well with this meal. For non-alcoholic drinks try Club Soda sweetened with lemon and sugar, or green tea with mint simple syrup. Enjoy.