what I do #2: EASTER IN AUSTRIA

I should start this post saying I love easter. I really do. I'm not a massive fan of christmas but I love easter. saying that I don't like boiled eggs (unless they're still a little gooey) or egg hunts, I was rubbish at it as a child and I feel sorry for my mum because she always found the perfect places to hide things. I hope she might want to do it for my children one day and they'll appreciate it more than I did.
so I don't love everything about easter and I am not into the whole church-y part either but I just like to see it as celebrating spring and I love spring, it's my favourite of all seasons (well there's only really four to choose from but still) because it's just the best of everything (usually, unless it's as cold as this year).
so for me easter means flowers, family and food. a lot of food. 

here in austria we are quite specific when it comes to the food we have for easter. it's the same every year and that for pretty much three days in a row. I know this might sound a bit strange to some, but I grew up that way and it just doesn't get boring because it's incredibly delicious and you basically eat with different people every time.

so let me introduce you to the main components of the austrian easter meal.

we have hard boiled eggs in various colours, this year I had red and blue ones (find out more about them here) then there's the smoked and cooked ham which we eat cold and buy raw and smoked and then cook ourselves. to go with this there's the horseradish to give it a bit of spicy-ess (I'm not usually a spicy kind of person, but I do love horseradish). and to balance it out there's easter bread, a lovely sweet loaf. a yeast dough with a bit of sugar and raisins if you like them. we also get easter pinzen which are very similar to hot cross buns, this year we didn't have any because of the hot cross buns I made.

the pictures I took aren't the best I know, but we were all hungry. I hope it gives you a little general impression of what the easter meal is like here in austria. I really enjoy our easter "jause" as it's called and I look forward to it every year, which means next year I'll either have to come home for easter or make everything myself. I have to admit though I was quite glad when I got myself a bowl of pasta last night, it's lovely but I couldn't eat it for more than three days.

we do also have chocolate eggs and things of course, but I woudn't really count that as a traditional meal. you can still win some austrian easter treats in my giveaway (here).

if you've done a post about your easter meal, please link it in the comment, I'd love to read it. hope you had a lovely bank holiday weekend everyone.

Magdalena.