I found my Mom's Cook Book

I found my Mom's cook book that contained many of her hand written recipes and recipes that were handed down from her Mom and others.

Breads

Cakes

Cookies

Deserts

Pickles

Pierogi

Polish Potato Pancakes

Paczki

Poultry

Soups and Vegetables

E-mail Comments

Buttermilk Parkerhouse Rolls

Irish Soda Bread

Banana Cake

Cheese Cake

Cherry Cheese Cakes

Crazy Cakes

Marble Cake

Pound Cake

Thrifty Pound Cake (Mom must have had some time at the bank typewriter)

Short Pineapple Cake

Snowflake Cake

Russian Cake

Cookies

Gumdrop Cookies

Paczki is pronounced like my Mom wrote it on the card below.

Mom put a vanilla icing on her ponczkis, that she made from powered sugar and caned milk.

Apple Muffins

Chocolate Icing

Easy Fruit Cheesecakes

Chocolate Candy

Cream Puffs

Sour Cream Pie

Frozen Cheese Tarts

Oriental Chicken Salad

The above recipe was in Mom's book, but it was not her handwriting. If you know who it is, let me know.

Mom had this labeled as a pierogi, but it is really a dumpling. Our good friend Agi sent the following clarification:

You know that I loved your Mom as if she were my own Grandma but being that I am 100% Polish & consider myself to be a Polish food connoisseur (of sorts), I feel it's my duty to tell you that Grandma got some bad info...this recipe does not describe a pierog (singular form -- pierogi is plural)...this recipe describes a type of "dumpling" (which is too often & incorrectly used by non-Slovaks as another word for pierogi)...dumplings do not have fillings & are often made with cheese mixed into the dough (as found in recipe, below) or mashed potatoes (which my family uses)...these "finger dumplings" are what we call, "kluski" -- one of the most delicious staple foods ever to be made & the perfect complimentary partner to "kapusta" - sauerkraut, which must be SOUR, NOT sweet ...as far as I know, pierogis always have a filling (most common: blueberries, plum, cheese, kapusta, potato & onion)...the dough is kneaded, rolled out & cut out into circles using a glass...insert spoonful of filling on one side of the circle, fold over the other side & pinch the two sides together, tightly, from one end to the other to ensure the pierog stays closed when dropped into the boiling pot of water...pierogis are a ton of work & getting the consistency of the dough just so is a work of art...use too much flour or stale flour, the dough will harden & you'll have trouble pinching the sides closed...won't stay closed during the boiling process, either...using water that's too warm will make the dough very sticky & impossible to work with...will end up sticking to your rolling pin...roll your dough out too thin & the pierogis will rip open while boiling...pain in the butt to make but everyone loves 'em once you get the hang of it.

Anyone who thinks Mrs. T's pierogis from the frozen section at Jewel are great have NO idea what real pierogi taste like!

Smacznego! (equivalent to Bon appetit!)

xoxo,

Agi :)

Salmon Loaf

My Mom made the best Chicken Dumpling soup, but there was no written record of it, so when my cousin Debbie Kern mentioned that my Mom taught her how to make it for her ailing Dad, she sent me the following recipe:

One whole chicken, cut up
One bag frozen mixed vegetables
2 stalks chopped celery
1/2 cup barley (optional)
dash salt and pepper

In a large stock pot, place chicken and add water until water is a few
inches above chicken. Add chopped celery and salt and pepper. Cook
chicken until tender (about 2 hours) and it's best when it starts to fall
off the bone. (If it gets "foamy" at the top, remove the foam with a
slotted spoon.) Remove the chicken from the soup so that it can be deboned
and add back the meat without the skin into the broth. Add in the bag of
frozen mixed vegetables and the barley if so desired. Cook until
vegetables and barley are done. You would add dumplings at this time.

If you want to add dumplings to the soup:

1 egg
1/2 cup flour
milk to moisten
dash salt

Mix ingredients together to form a moist ball. Pull the dough in 2"
pieces. Drop pieces into soup and they are done when they float to the
top. You may have to add more flour if your dough is too mushy. You want
the dough to be moist, but not runny.

Serve soup with Kluski noodles unless you are using the dumplings.

Our family uses the Polish way of eating chicken soup by putting ketchup in
it when it's served. Sounds weird but it's amazing! Only works with the
homemade version.

Debbie Kern

Debbie sent the following add on to the above recipe:

I forgot to mention that if the soup is too fatty, after it chills, you can spoon off some of the fat that rose to the top and it'll be less greasy.

I replied:

Thanks, the grease is the best part. We ate a lot of grease. We seldom had gravy, Mom used to say, "Do you want some grease on your potatoes?"

Greg

Czarnina (Polish Duck Soup...with some German annotations)

My sister Pat sent me this site. http://www.soupsong.com/rczarnin.html

This is an interesting recipe, not that I plan on making it anytime soon. Getting the live duck would be difficult. This is the czarnina Aunt Nelly used to make. She brought it over for Thanksgiving as a special treat. I just never knew it was named after the czar's wife. Also I don't remember bits of actual duck floating around in it. I thought it just had the duck's blood in it. Maybe we had the cheap version.

Pat

Tomato Sandwich

Mom used to butter some toast, cover it with tomato slices sprinkle with salt and pepper. It was a fast summer lunch.

Strawberry Rhubarb

My Mom used to can peaches, tomatoes, apples and whatever else was on sale, but she left no written record of her method. I do remember her getting a new pressure cooker and she didn't lock it properly the first time she used it and when it built up pressure, it blew the hot contents on the ceiling and walls. She didn't give up, she read the directions and used it safely for many years.

Mom used canning jars like the one on the right. I found the one on the left in the attic of our old 2 flat on Parkside and Augusta. It has a patent date of November 1858 embossed in the glass.

Frozen Sweet-Dill Pickles

Mom used to make Potato Pancakes on many Fridays. Sometimes Mom let me grate the potatoes and when I would skin my finger on a device pictured below, The pancake batter would be a light pink with my blood. My Mom didn't leave a Potato Pancake Recipe, but the one below looks a lot like the ones she made. We didn't have syrup, so we sprinkled sugar on the pancakes. Mom would be frying them on two pans while we were eating them as fast as she put them out. Mom finally sat down and enjoyed a few after all of us were full. That took about 30 pancakes to fill up our family. Mom would have to multiply the quantities below by 10 or 12 to feed us.

POLISH POTATO PANCAKES

2 c. grated raw potatoes
2 tbsp. flour
2 well beaten eggs
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar

Pour off dark water accumulated on top of grated potatoes. Add the ingredients and beat well. With spoon, drop mixture on hot griddle and spread as thinly as possible. Fry on both sides.

To E-mail the Web master, just click here! greg@lopatka.net

E-mail Comments:

Thanks for sharing...reminded me of growing up in the old neighborhood...especially the tomato sandwiches...my parents are farmers so we ate what was grown in the garden every summer...freshly-picked tomatoes sliced on just-baked rye bread from the corner deli buttered with REAL butter - yum!!

Potato pancakes were a treat on Fridays during lent...we topped ours with sour cream or washed them down with some cultured buttermilk...sometimes, my Dad would fry up leftover mashed potatoes with onions...it was the best meal with a glass of buttermilk & a fried egg on the side...leftover mashed potatoes were never wasted...like I mentioned in the other e-mail, my Mom used them for kluskis.

I must comment on the ketchup thing, though...it's a second generation thing because ketchup is/was virtually non-existent in Poland...Catsup is very Americana...like apple pie & Chevrolets!

Thanks again...I think I'm going to make some potato pancakes this weekend!

Agi

These are awesome – I have some from my grandma and the handwriting looks nearly identical! Would you mind if I posted a credited link on my facebook page?

Paula Masiulewicz

Memories of Adeline

Mom's 95th Birthday Party

Some of my memories

Mom's Homes

Scanned Slides from the 1970s

Aunt Irene's 100th Birthday