Christmas 2018

I hope you all have had a lovely, cosy and merry Christmas this year. I usually spend my Christmases in a very proof family circle, I mean only a few persons at the table ( including my dog and the kitty Claire- Genevieve). ( As some of you might remember from the last year, she was sleeping all the time... and the same this year). My dog received a lot of presents, but her favourite are the rope toy, as well this huge stick from turkey's meet.

We have small, artficial Christmas tree at home. It must stand on the table, because while it was standing on the coffee table ( and my dog and the kitty were in the age of one year only...) well, I had found the tree in the bathroom one morning, laying next to my kitty litter box . ( ???) And now please find Claire - Genevieve on this picture!

We started with barszcz, Borstch - it is a betroot soup, and our bortsch is done by my mother. As she is originally from Cracow and my grandparents also were from Cracow, this is sour and vegan bortsch with dried mushrooms flavour added. Here in Warsaw more popular is Ukrainian borstch with pork.

Those dumplings we call uszka, it must be filled with dried mushrooms stuff. Below you see our baked carp. Here in Poland a carp for Christmas is a must. I know a few ways to prepare Christmas carp. It can be baked in beer or fried but this year is simply baked with the hazelnuts on top.

I have this plate from The Holy Land from my neighbour, who gave me it some time ago. She bought this plate in the 70's in Israel. I adore white Toblerone chocolate I must admit.

Here you see baked dumplings pierogi , it is a dish with more Eastern roots, I mean from Ukraine and Belarus. The dumplings are yeasty and filled with cooked cabbage and dried mushrooms. Also great with borstch!

This is pork with dried plums, which is my dog's favourite dish. For the New Year dinner I will bake duck and peach tart. I think she will love the duck too. If it comes to the kitty Claire- Genevieve is very hard to predict her taste... She is very greedy.

And the delicious hazelnuts cookies, very buttery. I baked it with clarified butter and bio flour. I have  used bio flour for the dumplings too.

I think Claire - Genevieve wants to post her own post about Christmas season soon. We wish you happy New Year 2019! And silent New Year's Eve... Here is hitherto silent because rain is falling. Only rain could save us. In general is warm, I mean around 7C and I feel like in the end of March.