Act I:
On the morning of Christmas Eve, we ventured out to church for Christmas Eve Service.
Official Christmas Eve Family Photo
After church, we went out for lunch. I warned everyone not to eat too much, as we were going to be having a feast later when the sun went down.
Act II:
This year we decided to celebrate Wigilia.
Nana asked me to post some of the recipes that I used to make the Wigilia feast. Here goes:
I guess the first thing you should know is that two days before the feast, I made a beet kvas for the borschts. So in order to make this stuff, you gotta plan a little bit. But this one recipe of beet kvas was enough for two kinds of borscht.
Beet Kvas
Ingredients:
6 cups boiling water
3 cooked beets, sliced
1/2 cup vinegar
Directions:
Pour boiling water over beets and add vinegar. Let stand at room temperature for 2 to 4 days. Drain off juice and use as base for soup.
This is a clear borscht with uszka filled with mushroom filling.
Clear Borscht
Ingredients:
1 cup beet kvas
5 cups vegetable broth
2 Tbsp brown sugar
Directions:
Heat ingredients in a saucepan to boiling. Reduce heat. Add dumplings and cook until they float. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.
Uszka
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup water
1 egg
1/8 tsp salt
Directions:
Mix ingredients until a dough is formed. Knead thoroughly. Roll dough very thin on a floured surface. Cut into 2 inch squares. Put a spoonful of filling in the middle of each square. Fold so the corners meet in the middle and press with fingers to seal. Fold in half diagonally to make a triangle. Press to seal. Bring long edges of triangle together and press firmly. Drop into boiling soup and cook until uszka float.
Mushroom Filling
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups chopped mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 egg, beaten
Directions:
Saute mushrooms and onions in butter. Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients. Use in Uszka recipe.
This is another Borscht.
Borscht
Ingredients:
7 medium beets
2 medium potatoes
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/3 cup chopped celery leaves
4 mushrooms
1 clove garlic, chopped
5 cups water
1 1/2 cups Beet Kvas
3 cups beef broth
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
Directions:
Peel and dice beets and potatoes. Combine all ingredients in a 6 quart kettle. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover, cooking until vegetables are tender. Use immersion blender to blend until soup is smooth and creamy. Serve with slices of hard boiled eggs and/or dollops of sour cream.
Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
I prepared this dish a few days in advance, and then I heated it up on Christmas Eve.
Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
Ingredients:
1 whole head of cabbage
Boiling, salted water
1 onion, chopped
2 Tbsp oil
1 lb ground beef
1 lb spicy ground pork sausage
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup chopped parsley
40 oz tomato soup
Directions:
Remove core from cabbage. Place whole head into large kettle of boiling water. Cover and cook 3 minutes. Pull off leaves until they are too tough. Repeat boiling and removing leaves until all large leaves are removed. Chop remaining cabbage.
Saute onion in oil. Add meat, rice, salt, pepper and parsley. Mix and place a heaping Tbsp of mixture on each cabbage leaf. Tuck sides over filling and roll.
Place half of the chopped cabbage on the bottom of a large dutch oven. Fill with layers of cabbage rolls, seam side down. Cover with remaining chopped cabbage. Pour soup over.
(This is when I stopped and put the dutch oven into the refrigerator for a few days.)
Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer 1 1/2 hours.
Warning: If you take the cover off of the dutch oven while it is cooking, the sauce will explode into a very nice mess!
Matching outfits!
We did not eat any of the traditional Wigilia carp dishes, because none of us wanted to. We went with shrimp cocktail instead. We did have the traditional poppy seed muffins and gingerbread, though.
Act III:
It's time to get ready for bed!
Lex is wearing Pikachu Christmas Jammies. It's Poppy's 1st Christmas Eve.
Lex decided to leave a plate of cookies for Santa. He was so certain that Kevin and I were Santa Claus all day long, but he did decide to leave a plate of cookies for Santa anyways. Although, I think the joke was on us, because look at how many cookies he left for us, I mean Santa, to eat!
And then, Santa did come!
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!
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