Wesolych Swiat ~ Happy Christmas!

[Molly53]

From Nana Lee:
CHRISTMAS IN POLAND


Jak będzie Wigilia, tak będzie caly rok.
"As is wigilia, so is the entire year," a Polish proverb.

Christmas Feast/Food
The traditional Christmas Eve (Wigilia) supper consists of 12 dishes representing the twelve months of the year. No meat is served during the supper, only fish, usually herring, carp or pike. Other traditional dishes appearing on the table include Borscht, "Zupa Ze Swiezych Grzybow" Polish Mushroom Soup or fish soup, sauerkraut with wild mushrooms or peas, Dried Fruit Compote - Polish Kompot and Kutia, a dessert especially popular in eastern Poland.

Boiled or fried Pierogies, Polish dumplings with a wide variety of fillings, are among the most popular Polish dishes. For the Christmas Eve supper, pierogis are usually made with sauerkraut and mushrooms.

Pierogi Recipe
Knead a dough from 14 oz. of flour, a pinch of salt and a whole egg, adding some warm water to soften the dough. Cover the dough with a bowl and let it sit for a few minutes. Divide it into four parts and cover three with the bowl.
Roll the remaining piece out thin and cut out two-inch circles with a glass or cup.
For the sauerkraut filling, take a pound and a half of sauerkraut, boil it for 30 minutes in little water, allowing the water to evaporate.
Mince the cooked sauerkraut.
Chop one big onion finely saute till golden and mix with the sauerkraut.
To complete the filling, take two pounds of mushrooms, slice and cook them with 2-3 spoons of water until it evaporates.
Chop one onion and saute till golden, add mushrooms and season the mixture with salt on pepper before you mince it and mix it with the sauerkraut.
Place a spoonful of the filling in the middle of each circle and fold over pressing the edges firmly so that the pierogis do not open during cooking.
Boil the pierogis in salted water for about 3 minutes (until they surface).
The may be served immediately or chilled and then fried in vegetable oil.(In butter is tastier!)
If served just boiled, you can make a white sauce to dip or "smother".
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Copyright 1996-2009 Polish World



Additional recipes that might appear for the Christmas Eve meal:
Ryba W Sosie Chrzanowym -- Fish in Horseradish Sauce
Bigos
Pickled Herring (Sledzie Polish)
Crocus Restaurant Dill Pickle Soup
Kluski
Chalka -- Polish Egg Bread
Mackowiec



In Polish families, Christmas is a time for friends to pay each other a visit. That means a glass of Christmas cheer, coffee or tea, and sweets, if not a full-blown meal. That's a lot of entertaining, so weeks before Christmas, families get out the cookie tins and start baking traditional Polish cookies or ciasteczka na święta
Grandma's Kolacky Cookies
Polish Rum Balls
Chrusciki- Bow Knots
Mazurek Migdalowy or Orzechowy (Almond or Walnut Mazurka)
Rogaliki (Polish Croissant Cookies With Jam Filling)
Ciastka Makowe (Poppy Seed Crisps)
Zozworki - Ginger Polish Cookies



This is a link on how to celebrate a Polish Christmas Eve. http://www.ehow.com/how_8773_observe-polish-christmas.html

This(below) is a traditional Christmas Crib from Krakow in Poland. These cribs are designed around the architecture of the Wawel Cathedral which dominates the city square of Krakow, where these cribs are brought during the first week of December to a huge Christmas market and competition. The best are kept in the Ethnographic Museum, which sponsors the competition. The rest are sold at the market.



I wasn't there for Christmas but I was there(the square in Krakow is called the Rynek) for a month in the summer back in the '70s. I spent my last day in Poland there and cried from a broken heart that I had to leave. It was so beautiful! Every noon the trumpeter(a real one!) would play a special song from the tower of the church. It's been a long time but I remember that the song and trumpeter were a reminder of some special event in Poland's history.
The land of my ancestry was very hard to leave!

ETA: If you buy fine glass ornaments, look at the package fro where they are made. Most are made in Poland! Check out Pier 1.
Some examples from PolArt(http://www.polandbymail.com/get_item_abz101.htm):

[Lorac]

Wesolych Swiat !