Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Another generation of Krusciki

One of my most vivid memories of my childhood Christmases is eating my Grandma Minota's Krusciki (pronounced kroos-chickee), a traditional Polish pastry. I never had the pleasure of making it with my grandmother -- only the pleasure of eating the fruits of her labors! -- but last year one of my aunts shared the recipe with me. Today my mom and I -- amidst lots of laughs and taste-testings -- made a batch, and it's delicious. It was nice to have this 'connection' with my grandma...it's been a lot of Christmases since we ate hers (she passed away in the fall of 1997), but we felt honored to be carrying on this family tradition in our branch of the family. Below are some pictures of the Krusciki (there are no pictures of my mom and me because we were still in our pjs!!!)...
The dough ready to go into the fryer (these ones are kinda ugly, but they're the last ones, so they're made out of the leftover scraps of dough!!!) In the fryer Getting their powdered sugar dusting Finished and put in the big speckled pot just like Grandma's used to be...and when they were done, David came in to try them and dumped powdered sugar all down the front of himself...and so another tradition of my childhood comes full-circle!

1 comment:

NJ Rainy said...

Marsel,

Thanks for bringing back a memory for me :) I also never learned to make them and my grandmother died before anyone could write down the recipe. I do have her pierogi recipes though :)

Is there any chance you'd share the recipe with me ? If so, would you send it to leeloraine@comcast.netI'd really be grateful.

Thank You,
Loraine