I grew up Southern Baptist and started every Easter Sunday with sunrise service followed by bacon, eggs, grits, and biscuits in our church fellowship hall. At home, I dressed in frilly dresses designed for a day much warmer than the reality of Eastern North Carolina weather. I dyed eggs, hunted them down, and eventually pitched them like baseballs into the sides of tobacco barns for kicks. We ate a feast of baked ham, warm potato salad, turnip greens, and layer cakes. Easter, like Thanksgiving, was about the food but with a side of Jesus.
I married a Jewish man, so Easter is different now. We still dye eggs—I have a deep disdain for the plastic egg phenomenon—and I treat Easter like spring’s coming out party. The holiday always falls just before greens galore color our farmers’ market, so peas, radishes, and green onions tease the season’s imminent full effect. Instead of baked ham, my centerpiece is lamb, which my dad calls “billy goat” in protest. It’s paired with a punchy asparagus condiment—a veg that before my 20s I had only ever seen in a can.
As different as the holiday is now for my family, some characters from those childhood Easters continue to show up. Deviled eggs—blended, spread on a biscuit, and topped with trout roe—wink at the Easter breakfasts and lunches of my childhood. Suspending turnip roots and their greens in a cheesy mix of bread and caramelized onions makes a dish I hated as a kid more like macaroni and cheese than stewed greens. And banana pudding pie, while not particularly Easterish, is the dessert of choice. It’s something Jews, Christians, and maybe even Jesus can agree on.
Cook chef Howard's full Easter menu:
Eastern Carolina—Style Biscuits
Deviled Eggs on Biscuits with Trout Roe and Dill
Turnip and Kale Gratin
Romaine and Sugar Snap Peas with Pecan Dressing
Roast Leg of Lamb with Potatoes and Asparagus Gremolata
Warm Sesame—Banana Pudding Pie