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32 “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛЮТИЙ 2011 Food for Thought During this recently passed Christmas season, I found myself sadly reminiscing about the passing of all four of my grandparent s. This was the second family Christmas Eve without even one of my grandparents being in our midst. They were sorely missed. As we progressed through our traditional twelve - course Christmas Eve fare, my thoughts turned specifically to my father’s mother wh o passed away a distant 25 years ago. I was very young when she left us and never had the opportunity to get to know her for the caring woman she was, but I do vividly remember her cooking and baking and how these were an integral part of our Christmas and Easter traditions ! I have warm and wonderful memories of visiting my grandparents on weekends in their New York City apartment either for post - Mass Sunday lunches and for Christmas or Easter. When my two brothers and I, as kids, walked up the stairs that led to Babtsia and Dido’s apartment door, we would take bets what would be for Sunday lunch. Would it be freshly made varenyky? or tasty holubtsi? One thing we knew for sure, however, was that there would always be a delicious, wonderfully fragrant and co mforting bowl of rosil (chicken soup) with home - made “kliusky” (noodles) and a still - warm medivnyk (honey cake.) Once coats were off and hugs and kisses were exchanged, I would hang around the kitchen “pid nohamy” (underfoot), as kids often do. I wanted to “help” Babtsia. She was a good sport and would often give me some menial task to keep me included . . . or maybe just out of her way. And as I observed her cooking, I realized even at that young age, that there was rarely, if ever, a recipe being followed . Everything was “a pinch of this” or “a glass of that.” And in this pinch or glass was Babtsia’s culinary magic. Years later — after Babtsia had passed away but before I truly understood what effort it actually took to cook Ukrainian food — I had the chance t o spend a summer in Ukraine. Babtsia’s youngest sister (16 years her junior) still lived in Western Ukraine and I was to meet her for the very first time. All it took was one look to know that she was my Teta. She was practically a mirror image of my grand mother! And it only took a little longer to realize that although they lived thousands of miles away from each other for most of their lives, they cooked in the same fashion. They learned to cook together and shared that skill with their respective familie s over the years. What they didn’t share, however, was their recipes. On that trip to Ukraine, I asked Teta to write out a few of her treasured recipes so that I could bring them home to my mother but also have them myself when I decided to tackle the chal lenges of varenyky or those especially light and flaky butter cookies. Teta was honored to pass those recipes down to me. My mother and I just recently came across them, filed away in Mama’s recipe folder. And guess what? The ingredients for her recipes we re also measured in “pinches” and “glasses”! With Christmas having come and gone, I am sure that many of us remember their own Babtsia or Teta who cooked the traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve meal. Associated with these dishes, however, is a treasure of family memories. Many of us don’t have those recipes to replicate — perhaps we assumed our grandparents or parents would be with us forever or perhaps we neglected to truly value the significance that a simple recipe would hold for us in the future. With thi s in mind, I would like to suggest, that we, as UNWLA members, should play an important role in passing along such traditions to today’s Ukrainian families. I feel confident that there are many women, whether they be of Ukrainian descent, married to Ukrain ian men, or part of the Ukrainian community, who may not read Ukrainian but who are interested in giving their families the gift of our traditions of which traditional food is an integral part. I feel it is very important, if not critical, that our organiz ation does what it can in this sphere for my generation. My point is that something as simple as a Ukrainian recipe translated into English and published in Our Life could help keep our traditions alive. (What I wouldn’t give to have Babtsia’s Christmas Ev e “pampushky” recipe!) Madam Editor, please consider this addition to the Our Life recipe section and potentially making a marked difference to some of our younger members. Thank you. Renata Zajac UNWLA Auditing Committee Member Branch 95 Member Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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