Swieta po polsku

AKA Christmas the Polish way. Since I spent my holidays in the wonderful snow storms and below zero temperatures ( in Fahrenheit!) of North Dakota, I felt it was necessary to bring a bit of the Motherland to the table. So I started cookin'.

One of my favorite meals has always been a vegetable salad or salatka jarzynowa (try pronouncing that!), which is present on every table during either Christmas or Easter, or any big event for that matter. Not being a big fan of meat, I always appreciated the gentle flavors of veggies in a delicate sauce.

Vegetable Salad

6 carrots

6 potatoes

2 parsley roots (they look like white carrots and amazingly stores in Midwest carry them)

1 celery root (I couldn't find one. You can either skip it or substitute it with celery stalks)

6 pickles

3 hard boiled eggs

2 apples (I use Granny Smith)

1 can of corn

1 can of peas

Boil the peeled root vegetables until jut about right. They cannot be too soft - you don't want the salad too mushy. Cool in the fridge. Cut veggies, apples and eggs into a small dice. Add the canned vegetables. 

Now the sauce is the tricky part. You'll find that a lot of Polish recipes don't use the exact measurements, as if every Polak was born a perfect cook... Since the quantity of the sauce depends on your personal preference, I will just tell you in general: you will need 1 part of coarse mustard, 2 parts of mayo (I use light), salt and pepper, garlic, lemon juice. Gently stir the  sauce into the veggies and voila!

Bigos

Polish hunter stew (pronounced beegos) is a traditional Polish and Easter European in general prepared in winter. The recipe is pretty simple and the taste is comforting; perhaps that is the reason why it's been a staple on Polish tables since the 14th century. It is not a pretty dish - as a matter of fact, the name of it means "big mess"...
You will need:

1 fresh cabbage, julienned 

1 lb sauerkraut 

1 cup pitted prunes

1 onion, chopped

Half a bottle of red wine of your liking, I used Cabernet Sauvignon last time.

Half a jar of dark and tart jam, I used a Swedish currant jam. I find that a lot of American jams have a higher sugar content than their European counterparts, so I would search for something pretty tart, if you can.  

Kielbasa, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 lb cubed meat of your choice, cooked (I never add any other meat besides kielbasa but a lot of people do)

Fresh and dry mushrooms

Salt, pepper, bay leaf

Boil the julienned cabbage in some water until reduced to about a half, then add the sauerkraut. On low heat simmer for about 1.5 - 2 hours, slowly adding other ingredients. You may periodically add water if you feel like the dish will burn. Some serve it as a thick soup, some as a dry stew - it is your choice how much fluid you use. I also keep adding the wine (not to my glass, but to the dish) throughout the cooking process. There really isn't an exact order, in which ingredients need to be added. 

In the meantime, sauté the chopped onion, fresh mushrooms and kielbasa and add to the bigos. Adhere to instructions of the dry mushrooms (usually they need to be immersed in water for some time), then add to bigos. 

The longer you cook this dish the better - you really shouldn't cook it right before serving, it actually is t the best served the next day. Smacznego!

Apres ski

Finally Jeff convinced me to try cross country skiing, which is quite the change for a gal who skied in the Alps every winter during her childhood (and really wants you to know this!). It wasn't too bad. Kinda fun actually.
After our December skiing outing we did not get fresh snow until just recently and since we're so busy house remodeling we actually haven't had a chance to go again.
A friend of mine recommended David's Tea company out of Canada and the name of the tea he liked just sparked the old memories of skiing in the Alps (I am making sure you know this about me), Apres Ski. And I have to tell you, it is amazing. With large pieces of fig (and I love figs!), orange and cinnamon it will warm you up any given cold winter evening at home. And I have to tell you that one of the traditions I miss about living in Europe is the tea drinking, and no, not only the British do it. Any time you're visiting somebody, even for just a few minutes, it is expected that they will welcome you with a cup of tea or coffee and perhaps some cookies. Actually, it's always been a mystery to me how all those people have cookies for the guests in their house, mine just get eaten right away, so please, don't expect this kind of welcome from me. But if you hurry and visit me I might just have a steaming cup of Apres Ski for you.

Chi Town

What's a Polish girl to do when she misses her native cuisine? Why, go to the second largest Polish community outside of Warsaw, Poland and get herself some pierogi, of course!
P.S. Note how I spelled "pierogi". There is no "s" at the end. It is because the word "pierogi" already is plural. Now, you learned something new today and you can show how clever you are at your next social gathering.

The first thing I did in the Polish Town is purchasing a real pickle and eating it right in front of the store. And I didn't even get weird looks.
Next we had lunch at the Red Apple Buffet, or Czerwone Jabluszko (I encourage you to try to pronounce those words. And good luck). I took some photos of our plates for you so that next time you visit you will know a bit about Polish cuisine. The mysterious meat in the middle is liver. One of two things in the world proclaimed by Jeff as uneatable.
This was my favorite plate. Clockwise from the left I present a crepe, bigos (cabbage and sausage hunter stew, a typical Christmas dish), sausage hidden behind a corn salad, potato pancake, apple fritter.
Well, OK, this was my favorite plate, too. All of them were, actually. From the left we have pierogi (I am proud of you remembering that there is no "s" at the end. Good job), some meat sauce, meat dumpling, corn salad again, bean salad (Polish people love their salads), and a sauteed spinach dish.
You may wonder why the pierogi look like a shapeless mass. This is what homemade pierogi look like. I bet you only had them frozen from the store and you didn't know that. Look at the things you learn from me!
The Museum of Science and Industry was pretty interesting due to their many displays, anything from the Dr Seuss room to the Smart Home exhibit full of gadgets and other ways to live green and healthy!
We watched the chicks hatch. I didn't know standing around and looking at an egg for 30 minutes could lure so many people in. There was literally no place to squeeze in and pushing away little children was not a good idea as their protective parents were right behind them. Finally, I found a good spot after a little girl fainted from lack of oxygen created by the large crowd. Just kidding, just kidding!
Jeffrey surer enjoyed the Farm Tech display. He wants to be a farmer now.
The Shedd Aquarium was my favorite. I mean, look at the friends I made.
After all the excitement we decided that deep dish pizza would be a wonderful way to replenish all the calories we lost while walking to the Cheesecake Factory every night for their dessert. Here I am pretending I ate the whole dish. In reality I could only eat one piece of this huuuuuge pizza.

There heeeere!

When you live away from your home country sometimes you search for the little pieces that remind you of it. For me it's usually food. Now, living in North Dakota doesn't exactly present with too many opportunities to get Polish food, and when I crave some Polish flavors I resort to either going on trips to Polish Town in Chicago or Poland, of course. A much better, quicker and cheaper alternative would be ordering food online, and since Fat Tuesday was approaching quickly, and the Polish tradition is to eat doughnuts on this day, I though to myself - what a better dessert to have than some Polish doughnuts, or paczki!
Quickly I got online and ordered from Polana store online, that offers variety of other Polish foods, as well. Polish doughnuts vary from American doughnuts in appearance and the way they're prepared; they are also deep fried, but they're round and don't have the traditional American hole in the middle. Paczki are filled with confiture, or jam and glazed with icing. Traditional paczki are never prepared any other way.
And now, there here. As delicious as I remember. And I'm not sharing!

Polish Sausage

Polish people are crazy about their sausage. They put it in everything or just eat it alone. What a disappointment to only have one kind of polish sausage here in ND: Polska Kielbasa! May I just say that Polska Kielbasa is a group of several kind of sausage, not just one kind of sausage!

I just had to take a photo of a polish sausage display in one of the stores in my hometown of Konin, when I was visiting just this past December. White sausage, kabanos, wiejska kielbasa (country sausage), and my favorite Krakowska (from the city of Krakow). Yum!

Painted Church

When visiting my home town of Konin, Poland this past December my mom and I stopped by one of the old Gothic churches. I love the smell and sound of old Polish churches, it is something that cannot be replicated elsewhere.

There's an interesting piece of history behind this church. The inside walls of the church were painted by a man named Niewiadomski, who assassinated the first president of Poland, Gabriel Narutowicz.

Rice noodles

My mom makes a great tomato soup from scratch, but since my parents eat it so often, sometimes it is fun to put a spin on something so familiar. She adds long rice noodles; they need to be cooked prior to adding them to the soup. Although challenging while dishing the soup, the noodles add a little surprise to the dish.

Favorite thing about Grandpa

My favorite thing about my grandpa is that he owns a Nespresso machine. Just kidding! That's only my second favorite thing! We sit around his huge round table, drink espresso, eat cake and look through old photos. These are truly the best times.

Little Poland

You don't have to go to Chicago to taste all the goodies Poland has to offer. Kramarczuk's store in Minneapolis on Hennepin serves Eastern European dishes for lunch in the restaurant section and the store section offers sausage from all over the world, along with cookies and sweets from my childhood. Unfortunately, I could not buy any sausage as we were staying in a hotel, BUT I did eat a plate filled with stuffed cabbage and sauer kraut and almost asked for seconds!

The stuffed cabbage (or golabki) with tomato sauce and sauer kraut. Yummers!
Guy Fieri knows good food!

Make your own pickles day!

Don't google the holiday, I just made it up to celebrate my pickling skills. Now, these are not your regular vinegar pickles - they are salt water pickles. Just add 2 tablespoons of non-iodized salt to a liter of water and boil. Pour over pickling cucumbers, garlic and fresh dill packed in jars. It takes just couple weeks to marinate and they are ready to eat!

Twarozek and Nalesniki - try pronouncing that!

When asked about my favorite foods I often forget about this one - "twarozek" or farmers cheese. And no, it isn't the yellow farmers cheese in a plastic wrap that you can find in a store. It is so much more than that!
Unfortunately, the grocery stores up here do not carry it. Apparently there aren't enough Polish people around! Thinking I could make couple people convert to natural farmers cheese, I decided to make it myself. Gallon of milk and half a cup of vinegar later, voila, I am now a proud farmers cheese maker! I boiled the milk and added the vinegar, which created slimy curds. You need to make sure that you stir it well so that all the milk fat is creating the curds and the fluid left around the floating soft curds is very watery. Pour the fluid onto a cheese cloth spread on a coriander and squeeze gently to get the watery fluid out. The mass you're left with is the Polish farmer's cheese. Now it wasn't that bad, was it!
Next I made some "nalesniki", or Polish crepes, and filled them with the mixture of the farmers cheese, sugar and raisins.To make the crepes you will need:

•  2 eggs
• 1 cup flour 
• 1 cup milk 

Simply mix the ingredients and fry on an olive oil prepped pan. Polish crepes are thicker than the French ones, but you can make them any way you'd like!
Now, that's the flavor of my childhood!

Grzanki

The favorite meal of my childhood! And so simple to make, too!
Get a piece of good quality bread, I like to use baguettes. I usually put some butter on it for extra flavor, Jeff likes to add some garlic powder. Next, add tomato slices on top of it and at the very end slap some delicious cheese; muenster, some buttery havarti. Bake for a few minutes and broil to get the nice cheesy crunch on top. And voila! A perfect snack or even lunch!

The Leek Technique

My mom cooks with leeks (Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum, Latin) quite often, and I think that it is an under-appreciated vegetable. So when leeks are in season I try to make not only my mom's leek and apple salad, but also a delicious Julia Child's Potage Parmentier, or leek potato soup.

The Leek Salad

• 3 leeks - thinly sliced only the white and the white-greenish part
• 1 apple - grate on the thick part of the grater
• Dressing - 1 teaspoon lemon + 1 tablespoon mayo + 1 tablespoon plain or Greek yogurt + salt and sugar to taste.

Combine the simple ingredients and enjoy! Since leek comes from the onion and garlic vegetable family you may notice that the flavor is quite sharp, but I am sure you can handle it! A wonderful variation would also be adding blue cheese for a salad with real character or Camembert for a milder version.

Potage Parmentier

• 1 lb potatoes - peeled and dices. I don't always peel them; it adds nice coloring.
• 3 cups leeks - thinly sliced the white and white-greenish part
• 2 quarts water - I used some or all chicken stock instead. It adds more flavor.

Simmer vegetables about an hour. What you do next is up to you - mashing it, blending with cream or yogurt, adding chives or parsley. Can't go wrong either way!

Happy First Day of Summer!

Summer - only THE best time of the year!
Anna's Best Summers Ever List:
Lichen, Poland - the cabin, childhood memories, swimming in the lake, getting ice cream, fishing.
Traverse City, MI - bike rides, cherries, beach, running on the Vasa Trail with Jackson, eating fish for virtually every meal.
At the Lake Lichen, Poland.

Fishing.Getting ready for a flight over the Old Mission Peninsula, MI.
NOT a tropical island! This photo was taken while flying around Michigan's coast!One of my favorite photos - on the way to see Lake Michigan's Sand Dunes.

Sleeping Indian, Sleeping Knight

The Sleeping Indian mountain in Wyoming reminded me the Sleeping Knight, or Giewont, in Poland. The old legend says that when Poland is in danger the Knight will wake up and defend it. The old joke is, "so what is he still doing there sleeping?", as Poland has been attacked many times.
Giewont is first, followed by the Sleeping Indian. Similar, aren't they?

The map

During my trip to an antique store with Lacey, I discovered this wonderful map of Europe, printed in Danish, where Poland has different country borders than it has nowadays. Google came in handy when establishing the time line and Poland had similar borders between WWI and WWII. The map looks pretty old and it may have been actually printed also around that time! It is now hanging in the dining room.

Krakow Jewish Cemetery

I don't think cemeteries are creepy at all! I think they hold a very important part of our history and are worth visiting.
When in Crocow, or Krakow, Poland, we went to see the famous Jewish cemetery, which was developed in 1800 but it was destroyed partially during WWII. There are tombs of some very important people, for example the director of the Krakow Orchestra in the 1960's. We could not enter the cemetery, however, as the warning on the gates stated that males needed to wear a hat and J did not have one at the time.
Instead, we went to the famous during the communistic times so called Milk Bars, which are not bars at all, but cheap lunch places, where you can get traditional meals for literally pennies! They are meant to exist for college students and lower class, but I make sure I eat there at least once during my every stay in Poland, as they serve delicious pierogi, kopytka and all kinds of goodies!

Schindler's Factory

While in Krakow, we visited the factory of Oscar Schindler, where thousands of Jewish people survived the war. Schindler employed them in his enamelware factory.

The gate leading to the factory.

Buildings in the factory.

Jeffrey sitting on the staircase that was featured in the famous Spielberg's movie "The Schindler's List".