Cook, Eat and Be Marry!

Today I would like to say, "what is going on with people!" They don't eat this, they don't eat that, allergic to this, that and the other!!!  And on top of that we don't cook at home anymore! Have we lost the sense of what makes a house a real home? Have we forgotten how it was when we walked in and all over the home you could smell your mom's or your dad's cooking??? Have we? Or have we lost the pleasure of having that piece of pie or szarlotka that your mother baked on Friday night? Don't we know anymore what brings us pleasure and satisfaction??

Home made sushi with miso soup.

I really have a big problem with that, mainly because very soon our children will not know that it is actually possible to produce a meal at home!! Some years ago I bought some corn for popping and brought it home. A very good friend of mine asked what it was and got simply blown away when I told her that this was my future pop corn. She had absolutely no idea that one could make pop corn at home!! At that time I didn't know that this "not knowing" could go further with the future generations. I am scared and frustrated. I want to bring home cooking to our homes!! It is the stuff life is made off! Home cooking and family meals together! A family that eats together, stays together!! At least once in a while, on weekends! Please show your kids what you were able to experience! Give them that memory of freshly baked pie on weekends or home baked chicken with potatoes and gravy, better yet, fried fish or schnitzel! Let them know that it is totally doable to make french fries at home! Even if it is just a salad! Chop it up in your kitchen with your children!! How else will they know? If you need any recipes give me a shout. I will be more than happy to talk about it!

Japanese fried chicken (karage), home baked bread, strawberry cheesecake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orkxSBs1AU8
Pierogi-making party, Chichibu, Japan 2013

When I was small my mom would make pierogi, kopytka or spaghetti any day of the week. She would produce these amazing dishes out of almost nothing! Nothing processed, all from scratch and highly seasonal! Life was good. She used to make this most amazing fried fish with mashed potatoes, and cabbage and carrot surowka (salad). Or in summers when both of my parents went mushroom picking in forests, she would fry these huge mushrooms that looked and tasted like steaks when fried in egg and breadcrumbs. They were called kania. And it was the best when topped with a dessert of home made vanilla ice cream or kisiel ( thick but still runny starchy fruit dessert. May I mention that it was highly good for your nails and hair, and contained some vitamin C from the fruit!) Who remembers today!!? My father, on the other hand was the expert in frying hamburg steaks, kotlety, served with perfectly smooth mashed potatoes and surowka (cucumbers sliced with onions and sour cream as a dressing). And his pea soup was known in the entire universe! As thick as mud but as good as chocolate! A typical army soup that kept you going and full of energy for hours!  And let's not forget home made wine and spirits that people of that time in Poland made behind tightly closed curtains! This was me as a child. I grew up with this. I intend to give every little bit of that back to my son. I always tell him " Food brings pleasure. Try everything at least once. It will make you happy!" I tell it only to the closest, nicest people that cross my path;)

Homemade paczki (doughnuts), szarlotka (apple pie) on the table after dinner with a special guests from Canada. From the right: mamusia, me, my middle brother, wujek Bogus, and daddy. The good old times at home.

Live a long life and keep cooking my friends! Even if it takes a bottle of wine! That is what life is about! Keep the passion going! Hugs!