Erik and I were racking our brains today, and we realized that neither of us has been home for Easter in 6 or 7 years. In college, it seemed that Easter never fell over spring break. Easter consisted of homework, celebrating with the families of friends who lived in the area, or otherwise less-than-family-centric events.
Since coming to Texas, we've spent Easter in two very different -- yet fun -- ways.
Last year, we called up our friend Laurel to enjoy a trip to New Braunfels, where we visited the infamous Snake Farm. Infamous because if you've ever driven on I-35 in Texas, it's advertised like no one's business. We looked at some incredible snakes, longhorns, peacocks, and monkeys, and then we went into the petting zoo and checked out the 1,500 pound pig, the goats, the rams, and the llama. Although we were impressed, we wanted more, and we followed that trip up with the Texas African Safari. There, I had the chance to feed a zebra, who put his entire head into our car!
After that, we drove back up to Austin, where we met up with a bunch of other classmates and I had my first authentic Indian dinner (besides the naan I purchase from the Whole Foods on occasion, which hardly counts) at the Clay Pit. I got to try many delicious things.
As in any Austin celebration, we ended with a trip to Amy's for some ice cream. All in all, it was a great Easter with some fun people and some new adventures.
This year, we took it way easier. We'd planned a second trip down to the Snake Farm, but because the weather had looked dicey all week for today, we decided to forgo that plan in favor of sleeping in, reading, cleaning, and putting in some more work at the apartment. We finished up all of the trim in the bathroom, as well as some touch ups. All we have left is a little touch up on the trim, and then our painting in the new place will be done, done, done!
After getting home from painting, we cleaned the kitchen top to bottom and made a delicious home made taco dinner. I love making tacos at home, rather than getting them at any of the wonderful Mexican and Tex-Mex places here, simply because I can't find anywhere that makes them the way I prefer them: with ground turkey. I don't eat red meat (there's your random fact for those of you collecting those!), and I don't particularly care for chicken tacos. We made that, indulged in some sugary treats (no peeps, since we only bought one package and those were gone this morning for breakfast), and now we're wrapping up our celebration by cleaning the car and cleaning off the desk and coffee table. I sold both of them for a cool $40, making me a little richer and with fewer items cluttering my life.
I've digressed, but this is to say, Easter is a great holiday if you celebrate. But if you don't, you still make it special in your own way. Our way happens to be with snakes, zebras, paint, and a lot of elbow grease.
My family is completely non-religious, but it's still a bit of a cultural thing so we try to do something special on Easter Sunday usually. When I was a kid my parents would give us an Easter basket that we had to find and do an Easter egg hunt for us in the backyard, and we'd do other traditional Easter-y things as well (except church). Now that I'm an adult, we usually just EAT (more than we usually do), which is basically the best way to celebrate any holiday :D This year we had pork ribs, yum.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you didn't eat red meat, it means you are missing out on Texas barbecue for the most part (of course for you, it's not "missing out" but you get my point).
Also as a sidenote, I have always found that my own homemade tacos trump any tacos I eat at a restaurant, and I just use ground beef and the seasoning mix from HEB.
Clearly I could talk about food for awhile.
I remember Easter meals with the family and that my mom and grandma would hide some eggs around when I was very young. We'd visit my aunt and uncle and grill, usually, since he'd be pulling out the grill for the season about now (well, this year not so much since the weather is still winter-y in Chicago).
ReplyDeleteI don't miss out on Texas BBQ at all! Pulled pork, ribs, and sausage are usually cool. White enough. I never had red meat growing up. This is definitely a post that will be forthcoming because it's hilarious, but in short, I don't miss out on Texas BBQ :)
Agreed on home made tacos. There's just something better about making it yourself. It's not that way about things like queso, of course.