I had an elaborate post written with ideas for duck and some sides…but I’m spending Christmas in Baltimore (not heading home as I normally would) and have decided on take-out cuisine. That said, Greg has some great ideas below!

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

By Greg B:

Well Mike, my family does a really large Christmas Eve dinner, which I guess can be considered a ‘feast’.  However, being from a Polish/Czech background, the traditional Christmas eve supper reflects a more ‘peasant’ atmosphere.  As a kid, I really didn’t love it, but it grows on you over time.  It is definitely something unique that my family does, and after a while, one starts to love it!  We don’t do anything special for Christmas day dinner, the usual turkey, cranberry sauce, etc.  Christmas day breakfast we have a delicious glazed ham we buy, with sides of horseradish and scrambled eggs, but noting overly different or unique.  It’s the Christmas Eve Dinner where this stands out.

We start the dinner with Oplatky, which are basically larger communion style wafers with Christmas scenes printed on them.  Everyone at the table shares this, and breaks a piece off everyone else’s wafer.  You can eat this by itself, but it is 100% tasteless, so fortunately there is honey you are allowed to eat with it.  Everything in this dinner is formulaic, so the order of the foods must all be followed as well.  So, starting with the oplatky, we move to mushroom soup.

This is delicious.  Basically cook 2 carrots (chopped), some parsley, 2 celery stalks (chopped), and 1 medium onion (sliced) in about 4 cups of salted water for 20 minutes, then strain (save this liquid!).  Cook 1 lb mushrooms in 1 cup of water for about 10 minutes, along with another medium, sliced, onion.  Add the vegetable broth, salt and pepper to taste, then 2 tablespoons flour mixed in 1/4 cup of water.  Bring to a gentle boil, remove from heat and add 1/2 cup sour cream, 1 tablespoon dill and some more parsley.  You can add noodles or barley, but we choose to keep it pure vegetable.  This really is one of my favorite mushroom soup recipes!

Following this soup, we pass around individual courses, starting with the head of the family and working from his Right side around the table.  There is typically a small bowl on either side of the table, where we must each put a small portion of our food out ‘for the animals’ as well.  So, after the soup comes Christmas peas.  Basically, these are sweet peas, not prepared in any special way, just not something we typically eat throughout the year.  After this comes the bobalky.

Now, bobalky is cooked in some different ways.  We serve it with sauerkraut, so if you make some bread dough, but don’t let it rise (yes, with yeast and everything), roll it out into either small, 1 inch wide balls or roll a long, 1 inch diameter log of the dough and cut it into 1inch pieces, then bake them at 350F for 5-10 minutes, or until golden brown.  Remove, let cool a bit.  In the meantime, take 1 or 2 onions, sliced, and begin browning them in a saucepan with butter until light brown.  Add 1lb sauerkraut, mix and let heat up again.  Take the baked bread balls, toss them in a colander and lightly run boiling water over them (not much, try to prevent them from becoming soggy).  Shake them more or less dry, then, once the onion and sauerkraut mixture is heated, combine the bread balls and let finish heating for about 5 more minutes, then serve.  It’s great!

After the bobalky comes the sauerkraut with mushrooms.  This recipe is not particularly special, as you should slice 1 container of mushrooms, brown them in butter, then combine again with about 1 lb of saurkraut.  Mix, warm, and serve!  The following course is relatively simple as well.  We pass around a bowl of prunes.  Once again, not much preparation goes into this dish, and it’s not typically a favorite among the younger generations (I used to give A LOT of this dish to the animals).

We typically finish the meal with pierogies.  Over the past few years, I’ve even recruited my siblings in making them, which is relatively simple, and gives you the opportunity to break free from the standard potato and cheese pierogies from Mrs. T (if you’re Polish, you know that name).  The best thing about pierogies is that, if you make the dough, you can fill them with anything you want.  So, to make the dough, mix 3 1/4 cups flour with 1 egg, then enough water to make a smooth, loose dough that you can knead on a floured surface.  Roll this out as thin as you possible can, and cut out 2-3 inch squares.  Then, boil a giant pot of water, fill the squares with whatever filling you like, pinch the ends closed, boil for 5 minutes, strain, and serve!  Usually it is served with a butter and sauteed onion mixture as a topping.  When it comes to fillings, I like to brown onions and mushrooms in butter, and use that for filling.  Others use cheddar and mashed potatoes, sometimes just onions, other times just mushrooms.  If you have ground meat of any form, you can use that too, really, with the magic of pierogies, any food can be made into a buttery, dough-encapsulated meal!

To finish the meal, we normally serve egg nog.  This is something that I’ve been responsible for making ever since I was a kid.  The recipe comes from my grandmother who got it from her mother, so, either it is the invention of an immigrant family in a coal mining town in PA, or it actually comes from the Old World, I dont know.  What I do know is that both Poland/Czech republic can get very cold in winter, as can Pennsylvania, so this recipe has plenty of alcohol to help pass the cold time, just a little bit warmer!  You will need

• 8 eggs, separated
• 3/4 c bourbon whiskey
• 3/4 c cognac
• 2/3 c sugar
• 2 c milk
• 1 qt heavy cream
• 1/8 tsp salt
• nutmeg (fresh ground or store bought is fine)

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until lemon colored and thick.  Gradually blend in the cognac, bourbon, and milk, while mixing.  Chill for 3-4 hours.  Then, just before you’re ready to serve, beat the egg whites and salt until you get those hard to find soft white peaks.  It takes a while, so if you’re doing this by hand, make sure you have a comfortable seat.  Whip the cream until just stiff, then fold in the chilled egg yolk mixture.  Fold in the soft peaked egg whites, chill and sprinkle with nutmeg.

It has been, in recent years, a tradition to cook some form of good meat once the traditional and meatless Christmas Eve Dinner has been completed.  This new tradition ranges from Filet Mignon to Prime Rib to Salmon, all of which are delicious.  However, the more important part of this whole affair is that everyone pitches in to help cook, clean and, of course, eat the food.  This traditional family event is really what Christmas at home should focus on, and I’m glad my family does it right!