Season's Eatings

My grandma sent me the sweetest little note this week and five recipes for her homemade Christmas candies. You don't even know how happy that made me feel because she's made these candies every year for as long as I can remember and doesn't so much anymore, and it means a lot to me to be able to make the candy she learned to make from her mom, without candy thermometers or fancy equipment. She is so precious to me and I cherish those recipe cards and the memories - hers as a girl, and mine as a girl - that they represent. This is the first Christmas that I am going to give candy-making a try.

In the spirit of holiday recipe sharing, several of you have asked for some of the recipes for dishes I've mentioned from time to time on the ol' blog. So I'm posting several of them this weekend. There are four soups because nothing is better on a winter evening or for a large gathering because it's hearty, easy to double (or triple...), can be dressed up by serving in a bread bowl...you get the picture.

Some of these recipes are my own finds that have become our family favorites, some are my favorite foods from the mission, and a few are from my mom, who, if she read my blog, would freak out that I'm so generous in sharing them. We come from a long line of excellent cooks and my mom is very proprietary of hers. So don't tell her I shared or she won't give me any more good ones.

One little disclaimer: In my Christmas Meme, I told you all about the Ukrainian dishes I like to make around the holidays. I'm including borscht and plov, but the recipe for varenyky (translation: "little boiled things") is a little difficult because I learned by watching and doing with the babushkas. If I had written instructions for the dough, they would say something like, "Dump some flour on the counter. Crack an egg or two on top. Salt well and toss together with a couple of wide bladed knives or spatulas. Add water until the correct consistency and then roll out really, really thin..." And cooking would be just as I was told: "Drop them in the water and boil until they swim."

Yeah. So if you want to know how to make varenyky, come on over and I'll show you. Or you can visit the freezer section and buy some Mrs. T's pierogies (the Polish word for varenyky which actually means "little baked things") - they're an OK substitute for the real thing. But the potato and onion ones are the only authentic flavor, just so you know.

Bon appetit! I've posted all the recipes separately for your reading and printing convenience.

Pork and Pepper Stew
Code Yellow's Prize-Winning Chili
Mom's Hamburger Soup
Mom's Crab Dip
Plov
Borscht

Oh - P.S. There is a wonderful saying in Russian: "There should be a LOT of a good person." It's what they say to justify chubbiness. You gotta love a culture that still appreciates substance in a body. I've adopted it as my holiday, pregnancy, and just-feel-like-eating-good-stuff motto for life. Feel free to adopt it for your own. But only if you're a good person.