's Motd Sunday March 23, 2008 - Easter Salutations

[Guest guest]

EASTER SALUTATIONS

Sunday, 23 March 2008

Happy Easter to all of you! Oh, how I love Easter. No...make that I just adore Easter! In the French Quarter, back home in New Orleans, Easter is as big a holiday as Christmas. I mean it! You should have seen how much my parents put into the holiday!

About a week before Easter, my parents would rush around to candy stores all over downtown New Orleans to buy Easter candy for our baskets. One Easter, I actually spied on them! I saw them go into a -Stover candy store, stood back then watched them come out and cross the street to the DH Holmes department store on Canal Street. They had a fabulous candy counter in that store. Then they'd run to Woolworth's and Maison Blanche. After they were done, they'd gather up all of their packages of sweets and head home with the sweet loot!While my brother Lenny and I slept, my parents would assemble these really massive Easter baskets for us and they always featured a large chocolate bunny in the middle. Surrounding the bunny would be every kind of Easter candy imaginable! Jelly beans, coconut-creme eggs, pecan-rolled eggs and an assortment of various-sized hollow chocolate bunnies. Oh, those baskets were spectacular! I love to look through my family scrapbooks on holidays. There's this one picture of my brother, Lenny and I, at ages 5 and 6 with our Easter baskets. Honestly, those baskets were twice as big as we were!

After we opened our baskets, Lenny and I would attend Easter services at St. Louis Cathedral. My father made us matching suits and ties to wear and we looked pretty cute in our Easter finery. After Mass, we'd walk over to Cafe du Monde to have some chocolate milk and beignet donuts.After we got home, my parents would take us to the French Quarter's Easter parade which went down Royal Street. And oh, what a parade it would be! Down Royal Street would proceed these horse-drawn carriages and in each of them would be a few beautifully dressed women wearing these Easter hats you could only describe as breathtaking! After the parade was over, our family would walk over to Arnaud's restaurant where they would always have their special Easter menu. It was sort of like a "Dr. Doolittle" menu to me. They'd always start off with turtle soup. (I always passed on that one!) Then came this incredible oyster pattie. It came in a croissant-like pastry shell, filled with chopped oysters, garlic, and spices. It was followed by a salad that contained fresh shrimp and crawfish tails mixed in. (So good!) Time for the main dinner, a rack of lamb, potatoes au gratin and spinach souffle. To end the meal, dessert would include bananas foster or cherry jubilee.After that meal fit for royalty, later that evening, I would pick out a few special treats from my basket and eat until I fell asleep. (Gee, I wonder how I got fat?)

I'm sure you've gotten the picture by now. Easter was a real sweets marathon at our house. Today, it's hard to believe I used to eat that much food in one day. And, actually, I'm feeling a little heartburn just making that confession to you about how I used to eat!Now, if you are a religious soul, you know that today we celebrate the Lord rising up to Heaven. But I don't think he wants your weight to rise up with him. So please be careful with your eating on this glorious Easter Sunday.Do you still get an Easter basket?

Love,