My Lockdown Easter

We've officially been in lockdown for 19 days now, and although speaking about the pandemic and how to become the best possible version of yourself during this lockdown (pressure, much?) is probably the "correct" thing to do, I'd rather like to draw attention to happy things during this time - Easter and food!

My family and I usually spend the long Easter weekend at Splashy Fen festival in Underberg. Regardless of it being an absolute bummer that thee most amazing event of the year was postponed, I was still excited to have an Easter at home with my family, with a home cooked meal and TONS of Easter eggs and hot cross buns. My favourite Easter food (and guilty pleasure) is the Beacon white hen's eggs, however Woolworths's chocolate hot cross buns nearly topped my list this year. If you haven't tried them yet go buy a pack quickly before the Easter period is done in all its food glory!

Holidays like Easter and Christmas in my home are consistently characterised by an extravagant meal paired with fun, and sometimes interesting, drinks. There is always a flexible menu involved for the day, crafted by my mother including all of our suggestions, and a theme for the table decor - this is always under my wing. I love setting tables and thinking of fun ways to make it look festive and colourful. I also try to use things we already have in our home as decor or centerpieces for the table. My ouma owned her own restaurant in the Free State when I was younger, so I learnt to set a table correctly at a tender age! This is probably the cause of my love for table decor, and my general OCD when setting our average, nightly dinner table!

Lockdown Easter 2020 was no different, and I spent a few days thinking about the table setting. My mom decided on doing a brunch and I chose a green, earthy theme for the table. On Easter Sunday, we woke up at 7am to start prepping. We're quite a crowd in our home as both my grandmothers stay with us, so there was A LOT of food to cook and bake.

Banana and dark chocolate chip muffins

Our "menu" included creamy mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, pork sausages, bacon and gorgeous colourfully dyed boiled eggs, which we just had to incorporate into the table decor. We also baked scones, apple and cinnamon muffins, banana and dark chocolate chip muffins and homemade bread rolls - if anyone would like, I'd love to share any of these recipes! I also made homemade lemonade, which is super easy and I always make it for celebrations on hot days like this Easter! My mother also fashioned a cocktail with fresh watermelon juice and Bacardi rum (we had to keep some traditions of Splashy alive this year). We also had fruit cocktail and orange juice.

After the food was prepped, I started with the table. I used a light green table cloth and placed our usual cutlery and utensils, including egg holders. I used champagne and martini glasses for the juices and rum cocktail, because these types of glasses are always festive! I propped up bright green spotted serviettes in the champagne glasses and put a green Beacon marshmallow egg in each martini glass. I used wooden heart coasters to add a more rustic feel.

Homemade lemonade

Also adding to the rustic, earthy theme was the fresh rosemary I cut from our garden and the two paint-peeled bunnies that I also stole from the garden and washed. On either side of the dyed eggs, which I put into a decorative holder as the centerpiece, I placed my succulent plant in a bunny pot (from Woolworths) and a blue-ish jar-type holder that I filled with a kind of grass. Lastly, for some extra colour (and to add edible decor) I put green, blue and purple wrapped chocolate bunnies (from Woolworths) on the side plates and tossed speckled eggs (also from Woolworths) around the table. My dad congregated some behind the bunny to resemble droppings (lol).

The food was glorious as usual and I was so full I actually had to take a nap afterwards. We ended the happy day by doing an Easter egg hunt in our house. This may sound odd seeing that the youngest person in our family is already 17, but it was so much fun trying to find them - and it's even more interesting at this age because my dad was able to hide them in very difficult places!

I hope your Easter was as happy as mine, despite the circumstances. I feel that this is the time to celebrate and truly appreciation the small, somewhat insignificant things in our life, like table settings and homemade buns. This time will go quicker than we expect, so enjoy our temporarily halted world the best you can!

Thanks for reading! Love always.