Bonfire at the Easter Egg hunt

April 9, 2007
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To me Easter Holiday is family time full of childhood traditions. The top of the cream is the yearly Easter Bunny Egg hunt in the woods near my parent’s home. It’s also normally the first taste of spring where you really can smell nature awakening and see the early stubborn flowers peeking up from the recent thawed soil in the woods. If listen carefully, you can also hear the first songs from the migrant birds who have returned from southern Europe. Yesterday was no exception and I’ll gladly take you along. Lets start with childish anticipation; will the Easter Bunny be there and lay eggs this year too?

This is a tradition passed from generation to generation in my family. Going out in the forest Sundays at all seasons was a habit, but the first day of Easter was special because we were on this special expedition; has the bunny been there – will I find my egg – what will be inside this year?

The hunt – and the yummy treasure.

For those who haven’t heard about how and why the Easter Bunny laid eggs in the forest, please click to read my post from last year. This year I will invite you to sit in and eat with us at the bonfire with a special Norwegian recipe:

The Pinnebrød dough – Grilling the sausage and the bread

My sister always makes this dough called ‘pinnebrød’ (branch bread) which you can roll around the stick or around the sausage stuck on the branch. The recipe: 250 grams flour, ½ ts salt, ½ ts baking powder, 1 table spoon melted butter or oil, and 1.5 dl melk, make a simple dough of these ingredients and we like to add sunflower seeds for extra flavour. It is fast cooked on the fire and taste just lovely.

It was fairly cold this year, actually close to freezing and with light snow in the air. This didn’t stop us from our yearly adventures of course and most of my regular readers know our saying: There is no such as bad weather, only bad clothes. Besides, the bonfire keeps us warm along with the greatest company and of course storytelling (my sister’s of how the bunny started laying eggs is a must!):

Please click on the pics to see details as there are numerous ways to cook your sausage. This year I made a relatively thick pinnebrød and made it like a hot dog roll. My wife likes to wrap the dough around her hot dog and cook them together; others cook the dough on the stick and slide the hot dog in the hole. Some taste a bit burned of course, also a bit smoked and those who have problems with a bit of dust and ashes on your fingers have a problem – we don’t, but then again the closer to the natural elements, the better we think. By the way some of my readers asked if it was hard to be a vegetarian in Norway, my niece is a vegetarian so we bought some soy hotdogs for her to eat too…so everything is possible you know.

Picking spring flowers

Going home, with the stomach full of sweets (I prefer chocolate and marzipan) and of course home made hot dogs, the anticipation is fulfilled. Then almost out of the forests, I found my niece picking Anemone nemorosa (white flower and proof of spring in Norway). She picked a bouquet for grandma as we all went to my parent’s house for dinner. 10 were people sitting together talking about the lovely day and this great tradition and with the spring flowers as a reminder, decorating the table. The older you get, the more important those quality times are and even the youngster says they wouldn’t miss it next year for anything either:-)

Habits, Spring, Tradition