Hot Cross Buns

Good Easter Morn'! What a beautiful cloudy day it is here! So many Easter days we have snow.....yes the kids have been known to hunt eggs in the snow. And they give you a look like "oh this is loads of fun mom...thanks...."
Unexpectedly Ashley is at my house for Easter since her father went to be with his family yesterday and decided not to return. So I didn't plan an Easter dinner. I guess that is good, we can just enjoy the holiday for it's true meaning...........Jesus is risen! I am however making the traditional Hot Cross Buns. we needed something traditional on this day.
Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One ha' penny, two ha' penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons
One ha' penny,
Two ha' penny,
Hot Cross Buns!
Kind of an English tradition...though even my mom from England didn't make them as far as I can remember. But I enjoy making them for my kids. I did get the following about Hot Cross Buns on the internet:

"Hot crossed buns. "At the feast to Eastre, an ox was sacrificed and the image of his horns carved into ritual bread - which evolved into the twice-scored Easter biscuits we call 'hot cross buns.' In fact, the word 'bun' derives from the Saxon for 'sacred ox,' 'boun.'" Sacred Origins of Profound Things. A cross bun kept from one Good Friday to the next was thought to bring luck, the buns were supposed to serve as a charm against shipwreck, and hanging a bun over the chimneypiece ensured that all bread baked there would be perfect. Another belief was that eating hot cross buns on Good Friday served to protect the home from fire. "
That is really quite awful. I think I will not tell my children about what this tradition really is about. Actually now that I think about it Eric and Justin and studied much about the Saxons and probably knew it all along, wondering why their mother feeds them these hot crossed buns. Further reading about hot cross buns leads to the worship of different gods and goddesses. hmm...I was sure us Christians had our own story about the buns. Oh well.....this one explains a little happier story:

"Bath buns, hot cross buns, spice buns, penny buns, Chelsea buns, currant buns-all these small, soft, plump, sweet, fermented' cakes are English institutions...The most interesting of the recipes is perhaps the simple spiced fruit bun, the original of our Good Friday hot cross bun without the cross. These spice buns first became popular in Tudor days, at the same period as the larger spice loaves or cakes, and were no doubt usually made form the same batch of spcied and butter-enriched fruit dough. For a long time bakers were permitted to offer these breads and buns for sale only on special occasions, as is shown by the following decree, issued in 1592, the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Elizabeth I, by the London Clerk of the Markets: That no bakers, etc, at any time or times hereafter make, utter, or sell by retail, within or without their houses, unto any of the Queen's subject any spice cakes, buns, biscuits, or other spice bread (being bread out of size and not by law allowed) except it be at burials, or on Friday before Easter, or at Christmas, upon pain or forfeiture of all such spiced bread to the poor...If anybody wanted spice bread and buns for a private celebration, then, these delicacies had to be made at home. In the time of James I, further attempts to prevent bakers from making spice breads and buns proved impossible for enforce, and in this matter thhe bakers were allowed their way. Although for difference reasons, the situation now is much as it was in the late seventeenth century, spice buns appearing only at Easter--not, to be sure, on Good Friday when bakeries are closed, but about a fortnight in advance..."---English Bread and Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David

Isaiah Buck will be moved to a rehab facility when he is ready to leave the hospital. He has been having a lot of trouble breathing and I think yesterday or today they were going to give him a tracheaotomy to possibly help with that. And another CAT scan of the chest. He still has not woken from his coma. We pray and pray he will continue to heal and eventually wake up and come back to us. His family is really needing prayer, this has all been so difficult.

Well, I think I will make my house clean and finish those buns! Happy Easter........
I wish a blessed Easter Day for all................