Our Easter feast includes a “Stuff-Off”

Our Sunday stuff-off – from left, Jon’s, Vanessa’s and my own entries.

Food culture has invaded our Easter celebrations with all the birds roasted for our Sunday feast being filled with stuffings in our family’s stuff-off. The table is set with the best china, Josephine has picked flowers for the table setting, the potatoes are crispy and the three birds, the duck, the turkey and the chicken, have all been carved. Their stuffings have been removed and carefully placed in three white bowls sitting on alfoil sheets which bear the initials of each entry. Now I can divulge that son-in-law Jon’s was based on Marron in the true French winter tradition, daughter-in-law Vanessa’s was an onion, prunes and walnut mix and mine was the simplest stuffing from the great chef Escoffier’s cookbook – 2000 recipes for the French housewife. Mine filled the turkey’s cavity and dare I boast was moist and flavoursome, being made of breadcrumbs, onions, bcon rashers and eight sage leaves. I added a tinge of lemon by rubbing the carcase with half a lemon. Everyone voted and after much argy bargy about loyalties, Vanessa won most votes and I am proud to say my grand-son Angus voted with me for mine. A collective decision voted that mine was second and John’s a heavier stuffing was a bit drier. It was all so much fun and involved the whole family in a study of taste and texture. All the birds tasted delicious, the duck being devoured within five minutes on the table.

” Your stuffing is better than the last one of apricots and macadamias,” Vanessa tells me. “It was too sweet, but this time the apple brings some sweetness and moistness, too.” And she adds:”What amazes me is how different they all taste and the variety of ingredients we used.”

This is not to say that we did not neglect to observe the religious significance of Easter Sunday as Christ’s Resurrection Day, the true meaning of Easter. So, we had a prayer and Grace for our meal laid out before us. Tyson raised his glass to wish each other a Happy Easter.

Josephine creates a floral centrepiece

“Bon appetite!” I say to begin the feast and everyone knows that it carries an unspoken remembrance of husband Olivier who would always say the important “Bon Appetite”.

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