Wordless Wednesday: Food

Some random photos of dishes I've prepared the past few days.

Na razie...

or, Smacznego...




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A Gyro in Wroclaw

Spring Has Sprung


I Am Raising Two Future Foodies: 15 Tips For Raising Adventurous Eaters

Kanapki 101

In Poland, sandwiches are called Kanapki (pronounced Kah-Nahp-key) and are similar to Canapes.  The sandwiches tend to be open faced, on good bread and with various toppings.

Here is just one example of a kanapka I've made for the kids.

Pumpernickel bread, mayonnaise, hard boiled egg, diced red bell pepper, curly parsley, salt and pepper.

Kanapki use up whatever ingredients a cook might have in her kitchen. 



Here are some suggestions:

Rye bread, farmers cheese, thin slices of radish, diced green onion, pepper, paprika

White country bread, butter, morski cheese, slices of bell pepper, dots of ketchup

Rye bread, slice of ham, lettuce, slices of polish dill pickle, dot of horseradish mustard

Rey bread, slices of gypsy kielbasa, pickled tomato slices, slices of yellow cheese, dots of mayonnaise

Country bread, cottage cheese, chopped curly parsley, hard boiled egg, green onion



Kanapki are very easy to make and can cost as much and take as much effort as you like.  They make an excellent idea for a platter at a party.  My cousins and I have always spent a few short minutes in the kitchen quickly and effortlessly whipping up some kanapki to pass around for all to nibble on.

I hope you try this for your Easter table or next gathering.  Or, do as I do at lunch time, present them to your children as fancy Polish tea party sandwiches, pinkies out of course.

Na razie...



Related Posts:

Polish Potato Salad or Sałatka Warzywna (Vegetable Salad)

A Gyro in Wroclaw

Home Made Cheese

Pierniczki or Polish Gingerbread Cookies, Not Torunski Version

I love Pierniczki (pronounced Pee-er-neetsh-key).  I personally enjoy them with no icing and a cup of coffee.


Because we made this batch of Pierniczki yesterday late afternoon, we will probably be putting the frosting on Thursday in time for Wigilia-if they last that long. 


The Bezy have been made twice thus far and, while I lack concrete evidence, I suspect the Krasnoludki ate them all.  Nobody else is confessing to it. 


A small explanation, these are not actually gingerbread cookies, as there is no ginger in them.  This is a different version of the traditional Torun Gingerbread cookies.  I will share that recipe another time.


Ingredients:

3-3 1/2 cups Flour (I used 1 part whole wheat to 3 parts unbleached)
1/2 cup Honey
1 teaspoon Orange Zest (Optional)
1 tablespoon Cinnamon, ground
1/2 tablespoon Cloves, ground
1 teaspoon Nutmeg, ground
7 tablespoons Butter
2 Eggs
1 cup Powdered Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda, diluted in 3 tablespoons Water


Sift Flour.  While sifting, add in the spices to incorporate.

My Babcia's Flour Sifter...

Melt honey in small saucepan.  Mix with orange zest. 

Mix with Flour/Spice mixture.

Add Butter.  Allow to cool.

Add eggs and sugar.

Add diluted baking soda and mix well.

On a lightly floured surface, knead dough until it has the same consistancy as pasta dough*.  Roll to about 5 mm thickness (2/5" thickness).

Cut into shapes, such as circles, stars, Christmas trees, Sw. Mikolaj, church bells, etc.

At this point, if you want to hang them later on your Christmas tree, use a straw to cut a hole about 1/2"-1" from edge in the shape.  You can later string ribbon through these to hang them.

Place on greased cookie sheets, leaving about 1" space between the cookies.

Bake 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just begin to brown.

Allow to cool completely.



Remember:  Gingerbread men and women and any other creatures made from this dough are very likely to run away if you turn your back on them while they are cooling.  Have a child stand guard and keep an eye on them as they cool.  And you clean up the mess from cooking or prepare the icing.  Of course, the child will be very excited and at some point, turn to see what else is going on and a cookie will likely walk away.

Before icing, you can see the bits of Orange Zest in the cookies...

 

Store in airtight container.

Ice right before serving.

Smacznego!



Notes: 

* If you have never made pasta dough, the dough should be somewhat elastic and not too sticky or runny that you cannot roll it out and shape it.

The thinner the cookies, the better.  I had my 6 year old help roll the dough and cut the shapes.

You could also make this recipe without Butter and with 1 cup of Honey instead of 1/2 a cup.

Stuffed Porkchops, One Way

By now, I'm sure you are aware that we Poles love to stuff our foods.  Stuffed cabbage, stuffed peppers, stuffed chicken breasts, stuffed rolls, we even like to stuff under the skin when roasting a chicken.

For dinner last night, I decided the thick cut pork chops I had were begging to be stuffed. 

The review by my father was "Good idea!  Like stuffed peppers.  Next time, we put some green peppers chopped in it maybe."  My husband thought it was delicious.  My toddler gobbled it all up but my elementary school aged daughter hates tomatoes and didn't enjoy it.  Sadly for her, I will continue to feed her dishes with tomatoes in it.  Because I am raising two future foodies.



Ingredients:

3 thick cut Pork chops
1 to 1 1/2 cups cooked Rice
2 Carrots, peeled, finely chopped *
5 dried Polish mushrooms, crumbled
1 Egg
1 tablespoon, Parsley
1 teaspoon, Marjoram
Salt and Pepper, to taste
1 can Tomato Sauce


Slice a pocket into each pork chop, using the bone as a guide to the back so that you don't cut all the way through.

Mix together the rice, carrots, mushrooms, egg, parsley, marjoram, salt and pepper.

Stuff into the pork chop and pour the remainder around the outside area of the pork chops in the baking pan.

Pour the tomato sauce on top of everything.

Bake covered with aluminum foil on 350 degrees until pork inside temperature is about 170-175.  About 45 minutes to an hour.

Finished baking...

Served with a roll of Whole Wheat Cottage Cheese bread, which I baked earlier that day...

Smacznego!



* Because I sneak vegetables in my family constantly.

Other Posts:  Rice Keugel

Polish Tomato Soup Made by My Tato

If you liked this recipe, consider making a donation:

I Am Raising Two Future Foodies

After putting my toddler to bed couple of nights ago, I went and snuggled with my older daughter for a bit.  We don't do this every night but I like to sneak little moments with each child alone so that we can have real conversations.  Like this one.

"Mommy, when I grow up I want to travel all over the world and try their foods.  I want to go to Canada, and Austria, oh, and France! (grabs my face with both her hands and looks in my eyes) Mommy, I am definitely going to go to Poland so I can try every single one of their foods.  (turns head back toward the ceiling) And Russia would be fun!  Maybe China, too.  Wouldn't that be fun?"


I kissed her cheek and told her that it sounded like a lot of fun.

She giggled and said "But I'm not eating Sea Cucumber.  That's the poopy hole of the ocean."  Thank you, Andrew Zimmern.



Some tips for raising adventurous eaters:

1.  Start while you are pregnant.  According to a new study (one of many on this subject), babies start tasting the foods their mother eats while still in the womb.

2.  If at all possible, breastfeed.  And eat a varied diet with lots of fresh vegetables, spices and flavorful healthy foods.  Just because you don't like a food doesn't mean you can't eat a bit of it once in a great while to expose baby to it.  Baby can taste what you eat in your breast milk, after all.

3.  Don't forget the spices.  When introducing baby to solids, remember that spices can be used to give vegetables and fruits a more complex flavor once it is safe to do so.

4.  Keep exposing baby to new foods throughout their life.  Taste buds keep changing as children grow.  We have a rule in our house, you have to take two bites of every new food.  If you don't like it after, you don't have to eat it, but you do have to try it.

5.  Give your child more credit.  They might love more foods than you realize.  Or more foods than you like. 

6.  Never say in front of a child that you don't like a food.  Never.  This was our problem with our first daughter since my husband a couple of times made comments about not liking vegetables and so did a few other friends and family.  Those couple of small meaningless comments led to a battle for over a year where my older daughter did not want to eat any vegetables and of course became constipated and more irritable.

7.  Travel with your child.  It doesn't matter where to.  To another town, another country.  And don't allow them to eat their "comfort foods" while there.  I told my older daughter there were no french fries or macaroni and cheese in Poland while we were there.  She ate other foods and loved it.  The same when we have traveled to West Virginia, Delaware, Georgia, and even moved to Illinois from Maryland. 


8.  Take a cultural theme and build a meal around it.  We have had Swiss, South African, Tunisian, Russian, Mexican, British tea parties, and other themed dinners.  While eating the foods from these countries, we talk about the country and it's culture.  You can make this more fun by making a culinary "passport" which your child can put a stamp in for each country you "visit" together.


9.  Try a restaurant that is outside your norm.  Check out a local Indian restaurant, a Peruvian restaurant or even an authentic Italian restaurant and order something that you don't normally think of when you think of Italian food.


10.  Have a "cultural" potluck with other families and assign each person a different country or ingredient.


11.  To me, this is the biggest tip to remember.  Show your children where their foods come from.  Go to a farm weekly if possible and learn firsthand where foods come from, perhaps even have them pick their own foods.  Go to local food distributor plants or manufacturers and tour their plant, if possible.  Think dairy farms, ice cream manufacturers, candy factories, bakeries, local butchers, a plant where pickles and other canned foods are made, etc.


12.  Let your children help you cook.  They will be much more likely to eat muffins made with raisins, ground flax seed, and applesauce if they can stir the ingredients together.  Or eat a salad if they helped tear up the leaves.


13.  Put on cooking and travel shows.  Your children might not watch it, but they might glance over and see it or hear it.  Ask me how my daughter knows about people eating Sea Cucumber and Andrew Zimmern (see above).


14.  Don't become a shortorder cook.  If your child won't eat it, you don't have to make them something else.  If they are growing fine and the pediatrician has no concerns about them being underfed, you can leave the plate on the table and offer it again when they say they are hungry later.  My older daughter doesn't eat as much sauerkraut as she would "noodles" (fried cabbage) but I won't make her something else for dinner when I serve sauerkraut.


15.  Keep trying.  If my mother had not kept trying, I would not love half the foods I love.



Nie od razu Kraków zbudowano (Krakow wasn't built all at once).  The same goes for raising a child to be an adventurous eater. 

Na razie...


This article is now syndicated on BlogHer!

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I Let My Kids Say "No!"

Fried Cabbage or Kapusta Smazona

Fasolka po Bretonsku or Breton Beans

Pea and Corn Salad or Sałatka z Groszki i Kukurydzy

I made this dish knowing what the results would be. 

My younger daughter ate all of hers, a second serving, and some of her older sisters, who proclaimed the onions to be "spicy" but ate a large amount once the onions were removed. 

My husband ate all the rest that was made and then requested that I make more.

I secretly felt guilt at feeding them "GMO" foods, but salved my "Mama Guilt" with the knowledge that we rarely eat corn and that at least they were eating their vegetables.

My father looked at it, shook his head and stated that he does not eat corn because "we feed corn to chickens in Poland.  People don't eat corn, except maybe once in while on cob."

I said that I thought this salad was a Polish American adaptation and he nodded, "Yes, I think so.  This is not Polish dish.  What else you make for dinner, Ges (goose in Polish)?" and I produced various containers filled with other Polish salads.  Which I will share recipes to another time.

But, right now, I am sharing the recipe to this dish.

Ingredients:

1 can of sweet Green Peas, drained
1 can of yellow Corn, drained
1/2 sweet Onion, finely chopped
1-2 tablespoons Mayonnaise
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Optional:  (Any of the following in any combination, if you like)
1-2 Eggs, hard boiled, peeled, and diced
Chopped Ham
Chopped mild yellow Cheese



Mix it all together.  Eat.  That simple.

Smacznego!

Polish Strawberry Bread or Chlebek Truskawkowy

I love picking strawberries.  As long as I remember, my mother, brother,and I would go to a local farm and pick strawberries for hours.  We would go home and she would make strawberry compote, jams, breads, and all sorts of other delicious treats with the strawberries we would pick.

My children from only a few months of age would sit in strawberries fields with Mama as I would pick the ruby red jewels from between dusty green leaves, rinse them with a bottle of water I would bring and give them to my children to eat.  The berries would still be warm and sweet from the sun and we would always leave the fields with my children's faces painted red and smiling, sleepy from the sun.

We recently went berry picking for our first time here in the Midwest and I baked a favorite.  Chlebek Truskawkowy or Polish Strawberry Bread.

I baked two loaves and 20 muffins with this recipe (all 20 muffins disappeared in a day and a half).

They can be eaten plain, or with strawberry jam, butter, cream cheese, or my personal favorite, sour cream with a sprinkle of sugar on top.



Ingredients:

1 cup Butter
1 1/2 cups Sugar
5 Eggs
4 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Cinnamon, if you like (Vanilla Extract, Lemon Zest or even a berry Brandy or Rum could be also used for flavor)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 cup Sour Cream
3/4 cup Walnuts, chopped (traditionally, this bread is made with hazelnuts or walnuts or plain)
1 pound of Strawberries, washed, trimmed of their caps


Preheat oven 350 degrees.  Grease and lightly dust with flour two bread pans and muffin tray (or use cupcake liners for muffin tray instead).

Place walnuts in a dry frying pan and roast on the stove for a few minutes to bring out their flavor.

Cream the butter in a mixer.  Add sugar and cream more.  Add eggs, one at a time until well combined.

In a large bowl, combine thoroughly flour, cinnamon (if using a wet flavoring, add into the butter mixture instead), salt, baking powder, baking soda.

Add the flour to the butter mixture, a bit at a time to avoid making a floury mess across your kitchen.

Add sour cream.

The strawberries can either be added gently whole or, can be mashed with a couple of tablespoons of sugar and then added gently in. 

Add the walnuts in gently.

Pour batter into pans and bake for approximately an hour.  Cool on wire rack.

Smacznego!