Since we come from a Catholic family, Christmas Eve was traditionally a holiday where one fasted and did not eat meat. “Fasted” is a term that has no place in describing what actually happens on Christmas Eve. Plenty of food was eaten and there were pastries a plenty.
Here is a sampling of the menu:
- Wild Mushroom and Barley Soup – extra sour
- Pierogies (like a polish ravioli) – usually 2 varieties Potato and Cheese and Kraut filled. Served Fried with butter and onions.
- Pickled Herring
- A variety of veggies..usually covered in a crunchy and buttery breadcrumb topping.
- Rolls and Butter
- Angel Wings (My mom’s puff pastry)
- Poppy Seed Cake
- Lots of different kinds of cookies
- A Eucharist that we doused in honey and broke bread with for prosperous wishes for the new year. Our relatives send us a small one from Poland in their cards every year.
We haven’t done a traditional Christmas Eve dinner since the kids were born because now we travel to the in-laws on Christmas Eve so we can spend Christmas day at home. My cousin says this is her favorite part of the holidays and is sad that the tradition has been lost. Unfortunately I can’t please everyone all the time, but wait this gives me an idea. Instead of bringing lasagna over her house next week, I can easily pack up some of these items and re-live Christmas eve once more…and lasagna is vegetarian too so I still can bring that over as well. Brilliant.
Happy Holidays to Everyone. I hope you have a wonderful time with your families this week and it’s stress and drama free.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
My father would LOVE that, especially the pickled herring.
Merry Christmas to you too. Hope your holidays are wonderful!
I would love to try your menu one day!
Christmas was wonderful. I hope yours was stress free as well!
Merry Christmas; I see we share a lot of the same Polish dishes. 🙂 We made poppy seed pasta for the first time this year (i.e. “kluski z makiem”). Turned out awesome!
Oh, I miss pierogies! My great-great mother used to make them on certain occasions such as “I feel like pierogi today.” 🙂 I haven’t had them for a long time…