A Hyper-Competitive Easter Egg Hunt
by Mimi Levin, Tastemaker in Residence
I never grew up with a “traditional Easter meal,” or at least not one that I can remember. Sometimes my family would go to brunch, sometimes we would have dinner at home. Sometimes we wouldn’t do either. One thing I do remember, though, is the annual hunt for the Easter baskets. My family would meet in the living room and my parents would give Vera and me a pep talk: whoever finds the basket first, wins. You would think that my parents would take it easy on two toddlers by putting the baskets in places that were easy to find and/or reach, but NO. Not in the Levin household. Growing up in the Levin household (a hyper-competitive household at that) meant that we were taught that the Easter basket hunt was no easy task. We had to really search for those baskets. I mean, we never knew if the baskets were even in our house! They could be hidden in a neighbor’s home (kidding, but this is how difficult the hunt was).
The next thing we knew, our parents were counting down: 3, 2, 1, go! And then, the competition ensued. Vera and I would sprint from room to room, throwing elbows (in reality I was the only one who did that), knocking over precious belongings. The end result was always the same: I won. Well, sometimes I didn’t win. And if I didn’t, I knew I needed to train harder for next year’s competition. Even in the midst of all of this madness, I had a blast. Anyway, even without this tradition I still love making Easter treats to share with friends and family. Here are a couple of my favorites.