Big part of Christmas is making perogies, we make two types, one with prunes and the other with sauerkraut and mushrooms. We also make ravioli with mushrooms and those are for the red borscht. This food is the best from all that I make for Christmas and I always make extra so that we can eat it for few days. I make them ahead of time and freeze it.
I know Christmas is done but I will continue my posts with food just because there is not enough days to show it all, so today another traditional dish that my Mom always made for Christmas. She called it Greek style fish, now if that actually is a Greek style fish I'm not sure but I'm sticking with it. You basically fry all veggies add tomato paste and spices and serve it with the fish, and once again cabbage is the main ingredient.
Cabbage, carrots, parsnip, leeks and celery root.
Add al spice, black pepper and bay leaves.
Last week I found this really easy recipe for gingerbread cake and I had to try it. It is delicious.
All you need is;
- 4 cups of flour
- 2 cups of sugar ( I never put the amount of sugar that is in a recipe, so in this case I put only 1 cup)
- 2 cups of milk
- 3/4 cup of oil
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1tsp baking soda
- 4 tsp cocoa
- 2 eggs
- 4 tbsp of plum marmalade
- gingerbread spices ( this one I buy already made in a little bag, but I am working on making one by myself so when I have it I will post it).
1. Separate eggs and whip the egg whites, mix all the rest ingredients together, fold in the egg whites and bake in 350 F for about 40 minutes. The baking part will very from the pan you use so just keep an eye on it and test it from time to time. I only made it once so I can't tell for sure how long to bake, plus I split the dough into two pans because it looked a lot like for just one pan. I also melted some chocolate and put it on top and I sliced it in half and added a layer of the plum marmalade.
Last week we took a small trip downtown to see some of the Christmas lights and displays. We visited the tree by City Hall which was total disappointment. Across the tree was the Hudson Bay company window display which we visit every year and this year I didn't like it, (it was to mechanical). From there we went to the Distillery district to see all the lights, normally there is also a Christmas Market here but its 2020 so no Market. The tree is beautiful and all the lights are so nice.
Tree by the City Hall:
Hudson Bay windows:
It's gingerbread house time, this year I got 1 bigger house, already assembled were previous years I got small houses and we had to put it together. It was more fun this way without the stress of sticking walls together. There are trees around the house, icicles, snow and frosty on the roof.
Last week I did some deep cleaning in my kitchen, I moved al of my big and weird looking things into the cupboards and the shelf that are visible are now full of jars with all my spices and other things like flour, quinoa, beans and oats. They look now more esthetic and I have easy access to the jars.
Christmas is almost here and so I start making Christmas dishes, I make them ahead and freeze it. Traditional Polish dishes have lots of cabbage and so the first is something called: Bigos. It's nothing more then cabbage, sauerkraut, mushrooms, spices, tomato paste and sausage. You can also add cooked dry mushrooms but I skipped that this time. And since my daughter and I are vegan I added the sausage to only haft of the dish.
Shredded cabbage:
Lots of mushrooms
And after its done I freeze in Ziploc bags.
It's time to make the veggie broth again. I leave two jars in the fridge and freeze the rest.
About a year ago I made my first laundry detergent and been using it all year and it is great. I saved so much money on my laundry. All you need is a box of borax, box of washing soda and two boxes of baking soda, mix it well and store in dry place. I use about a table spoon in each load. A year of laundry detergent cost me under $20.
