Food Food Food Food

We had a lovely polish dinner on Sunday, but I feel like I cheated.  Looking through the cookbooks, I remembered many of the recipes by the things my grandparents used to eat.  Herring is big in Poland--I actually ate herring sandwiches when I was little-- beets served in all kinds of ways are popular too. I realize that lots of people love beets, but shudder--I'd rather eat the herring. Probably the most repulsive traditional food--at least to Western pallets was my grandparents beloved golat.  Take pigs feet or some other unacceptable joint and boil them--save the water and chop up the meat, add some spices and return the meat and spices to the water (or a portion of it. Refrigerate until solidified, then dig in.

We chickened out and had a good dinner instead.  First up was a kielbalsa sausage--fried up and eaten with mustard. Then a "Toadstool" which is a hard boiled egg. Slice a bit off the top and bottom so it will stand up--top it with half a tomato so it looks like a toadstool and dot with mayo.  Quite fun.  Next was "nothing soup." Beat egg whites with sugar to make merengues--the soup itself is milk with vanilla and sugar, cook the merengues on top of the soup (that boiled over), the result----vanilla pudding soup.  Moving on---salad with sliced rutabaga (not bad), the the main dish of Pierogi--(stuffed dumpling things that are boiled then fried in butter)--I made two kinds--meat/onion and cheese/potato. Quite good especially when dipped in sour cream. Dessert was a poppy-seed cake.  Word to the casual cook---watch out on these foreign desserts--the cakes tend to turn out simply HUGE. I'm not sure if the general idea is to cook enough for the whole village, but that's about the scale of things.

Air Mattresses

According to one of the children's books currently in our bathroom, the Poles make great air mattressess.  In one demonstration they drove a semi-truck over 30 different kinds and not a single one was damaged.  What would that be like?  To use an air mattress with confidence? Boggles the mind.

Wisconsin

There is actually a place called Poland, Wisconsin right here in the good old USA.  Wikipedia has nothing to say about the little town of Poland, WI other than it's a few miles east of Green Bay.  I'm living a bit far away just now, but somebody ought to drive out there and inject few tourist dollars.

Motto!

My new motto for life is (at least as soon as I learn how to pronouce it):

Jedzcie, pijcie i popuszczajcie pasa!!!  Eat, drink and loosen your belt.

Joke

This just in from Dr. Foster.  A joke so bad I just have to post it.

Q: Who is Alexander Graham Bellski?
A:  The first telephone pole!

Yes, well.  Thanks, I think, Dr. Foster.

Pottery

Thanks to my friend Margarita, who has traveled everywhere.  She tells me Poland is famous for its pottery.  It had it's origins in Silesia--another hurrah for my origins.  The big town for pottery in the area is Boleslawiec. The internet says the pottery is made from a very dense clay which results in a majorly chip resistant product.  It's all hand crafted and painted using the "punch" techniqe, which involves small stamps soaked in paint that builds up the design. As you can imagine there are thousands of stamps.  If you buy the pottery in Poland it is very reasonable.  If you buy it in the US you pay a bunch, although Margarita said she actually found some authentic spoons at Kohls, of all places, for only 3 bucks.

Warmer in Poland!

Okay, I'm living in the midst of a cold snap--a REALLY cold cold snap.  And, because my pre-conception of Poland is that it is a very cold place, I am offended to learn that at this minute it is a balmy 30 degrees in Poland but only 15 degrees here in Ogden!