HAM N EGGS ON EASTER OR JAUNDICE [EFR DION]

HAM STEAK, EGGS AND POTATOES

So we go from Jerusalem and the Galilee to a college town in Massachusetts where on Easter Sunday morning there was the obligatory ham steak and eggs breakfast.  Everyone had to have it because according to the chef, none other than EFR Dion, if you did not eat ham and eggs on Easter morning, you would develop jaundice.  Now, I am here to tell you that jaundice or no jaundice, no one was turning down this princely meal.  No one.  Every Easter Sunday morning there was a houseful and everybody had the same thing to eat.  It had not been cooked before hand.  You came in, hugged, shook hands, made your smart @&# remarks, let the host pour you a drink of his special Easter potion, sat down or stood around until you got a plate of the victuals du jour and took your medicine against a case of jaundice.  This ritual was de rigueur at our house and was one that my brother and I actually liked.  It was always fun.  I remember one Easter Sunday when we two were assigned the 11:00 AM Mass at the Immaculate Conception church in Holyoke.  We knew that this would mean that we would miss a great part of the "doin's" at the house.  Needless to say, we were both more than a smidgen unhappy.  I don't know why, but we were worried that there would be nothing left for us by the time we got back home. It was a rough time.  I think it was our cousin who came to pick us up after the Mass, or an uncle, my memory is not serving me very well with the details.  Be that as it may,  I do remember that we were greeted with open arms when we entered the house.  All the guests who were still there congratulated us on doing our duty as assigned.  They also pointed out the fact that there was still plenty of food for us to enjoy and provide us a shield against jaundice.  It was also apparent to us that they all had drunk a bit of EFR Dion's Easter potion and that they were all flying a little bit over the horizon from normal.
My brother and I were too young for the potion and the tradition trailed off before we aged enough to find out what it tasted like.  I seem to remember from what I heard in bits and pieces of conversation that it was very sweet, to coincide with the morning hour, and very "sneaky."  I don't know if this makes sense, but it seems like it contained Muscatel, Vermouth, Brandy and Bitters.  If anyone out there has some memory of the ingredients, please let me know.  It may very well be that the Mix-Meister was tight-lipped about the recipe, thereby leaving no legacy for his progeny to enjoy.
That was Easter the way it was when we were younger.  I don't know what happened to the tradition, as in, why it stopped.  One thing is for sure, it provided some mighty fine memories.
No, I did not forget to talk about the Easter Bunny, etc.  The who?