Christmas Eve Dinner

Happy 2010 everybody! I feel a bit out of the loop because I didn't do a recap or resolution post, but I just have too much back-tracking to catch you guys up first!! I hope you won't mind returning to Christmas with me!

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Johnny is Polish, so his family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. We all head over to his parents' house for a big Polish dinner and then everybody opens their presents.

This year since my parents were in town, they came with us, too! We'd had an ice storm the night before, so my mom and I spent a lot of the morning snapping pictures outside our house and Johnny's parents' house!



The beginning of the meal is always uszka (oo-ska), which means "little-ears." They are homemade dumplings filled with a mushroom mixture, served in borscht (bore-sh), or beet broth. This is Johnny's favorite part of the meal and he had about 3 bowls, plus extra uszka.

Next, everybody grabs their plates and serves themselves family style, which is traditional in Polish cuisine.

I didn't get a picture of everything, but my mom did! Sorry it's a little blurry and dark, she's not a food blogger! ;)

Traditionally, the Christmas Eve dinner is meat-free. Starting in the top right was a breaded white fish (I forget what type), home-made pierogi filled with mushrooms, mixed veggies, a corn casserole thing, kapusta (ka-poo-sta) which is cabbage, pasta, homemade blueberry pierogi, the little eggroll looking things are filled either with mushrooms or kapusta, homemade sweet cheese pierogi, and baked salmon just barely in the pic. In the center is a cold pea and hard boiled egg salad, along with three little deli salads - I think potato, cole slaw, and beet.

Here's a picture of my mom's plate. Trust me when I say we all had seconds and thirds! Johnny and I required an entire 2nd platter of the blueberry perogies ourselves! Those are our favorite and we usually only get them once a year. Everybody was putting their coats on to leave and we were shoveling the last pierogi in our mouths so they wouldn't go to waste!