COTTAGE PUDDING and FIRST HOUSE in CANADA

Family History Continued:  JOHN and ANNE LESCHYSHYN 

At first, John and Anne squatted on government land east of Rossburn, but later they bought that quarter of land.

 Their house probably resembled the one we saw in an outdoor museum in Ukraine.

Mom said the entry to their house was divided, with one side being the pantry.  The other side had a long bench.

 In the main room of the house there were beds, including a Ukrainian bed that was a seat during the day.  At night, the lid was taken off revealing the mattress and covers.   One bed was made up during the day with a white bedspread and a lot of pillows embroidered at the closed end.  When the bed was made up, the embroideries faced the room.  (Anne didn’t like embroidering and didn’t care about the embroidered things.  She left them in the attic when this first house was later turned into a granary.  No one knows what happened to them.)

Behind the homemade table, there was a big bench, about 6 or 8 feet long.  It had arms.  Some people only had benches, but John and Anne also had chairs.

The children sat near the stove to be warm when they were studying or whatever. 

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Mom used to make a dessert she called COTTAGE PUDDING.  It was a white cake swimming in a wonderful, sweet, spicy sauce.

 Any white cake recipe will do, but Mom’s sauce recipe is UNIQUE!  "Hope you have luck," she wrote.

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MARY STADNYK’S COTTAGE PUDDING SAUCE

2 cups white sugar

½ tsp cloves

½ tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp flour (or 1 tbsp cornstarch “or so”)

½ cup cold water

1 cup boiling water

1 tbsp butter

Boil water in a kettle.

Mix sugar, spices, salt, and flour in a saucepan.

Whisk in ½ cup cold water.

Start heating on the stove and gradually whisk in 1 cup of boiling water.

Continue stirring until mixture thickens. 

Add 1 tbsp butter.

Serve hot (or reheated the same day) over plain white cake with vanilla ice cream.  (Diana prefers to serve it with cake and whipped cream.)

*Very Important:  This sauce is very good, but only on the day it is made.