Simply the best

November 13, 2007:  Mary Stadnyk, my mother, passed quietly away.  She was 95 years old, but had treasured her family, friends, and life to the end.

Mom always loved to laugh: here with grandsons, Nicholas and Lee

Mom would have been so pleased to know that the granddaughter she is cuddling in this picture will soon be holding a tyke of her own.

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Nov 15, 1991:   Mom wrote:  I been crotcheting hats for Diana and slipperettes for Marion.  I will send them for Christmas.  I always give her & Wes mitts. 

In her 90s:  Mom’s hands continued to be busy.

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Mom never stopped enjoying good food . . . especially Ukrainian food.

One time when I had made Thai chicken, Mom asked what was in it.  Then she said, “Why can’t we have some plain Ukrainian cooking?I was surprised because she loved Asian food, but maybe what she needed that day was comfort food.  

Funny, isn’t it, that anyone might think of perogies as plain cooking .  .  . To me, there is nothing plain about something that takes so much work . . .  but Mom could boil up a batch “in jig time” and she loved to make them for her family.

In 1989, she was still making pyrohi for the guys when they were harvesting. 

In 1991, Mom wrote: 

This week I did a lot of work; made a lot of holoptsy.  On Monday I made sauerkraut perohy and potato & cheese ones.  Today I made pyrizhky, double batch.  I gave some to Matt.

 In 1993, Mom wrote:

Wednesday morning I will make sauerkraut perogies as the ones I made – they ate them all.

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When I make perogies, I can’t help smiling as I remember how annoyed Mom got with my squares that I invariably produce in all shapes and sizes.  Mom’s perogies, of course, were beautifully regular and looked as though they’d been stamped out.

   

 Here are my 'anything goes' pyrohi with  another unusual but wonderful filling:

 VARENIKI/PEROGIES with GREEN ONIONS and DILL   (Nachinka z zelenoyi tsibooli)

Based on Mrs. Rudewska’s recipe in Savella Stechishin’s TRADITIONAL UKRAINIAN COOKERY.

4 hard-boiled eggs

12 ounces green onions

3 tbsp butter

fresh dill

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1.       Chop the eggs.

2.        Slice the onions finely.

3.       Chop ½ cup dill finely.

4.       Cook onions in the butter over medium heat (dial 5) for 5 minutes.

5.       Add dill and cook for 1 minute.

6.       Remove from heat.

7.       Stir in salt, pepper, and eggs.

For Perogy dough and method for cooking perogies, see my first blog:

http://eleanorstadnyk.blogspot.ca/2012/06/perogiesvarenikipyrohi.html

 

                                     a cold bath for perogies that are going into the freezer

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Mama, I wish you were here to enjoy these with us.