Slovak Staple: A Little Family History Lesson

I recently wanted to get in touch with my "ethnic" roots, and in doing so, I decided I would make a Buchko family favorite-Haluski....it's a simple dish of homemade spaetzle with cabbage.  I've made it before with egg noodles, it was good but not like my mom use to make it or how it was served at my hometowns' yearly festival, Fort Lignonier Days, celebrating the historic Fort in our town used during the French and Indian war. So this was the first time I made the the noodles (or dumplings) from scratch.  I really had a lot of fun doing this recipe.

The recipe for the spaetzle is very simple: flour, eggs, milk and salt....there are all kinds of variations to this....

 

The dough is a little stickier than pancake batter...

 

You can really see that it has to be very sticky, like above.

 

Most people have a spaetzle maker, but I don't.  So I did it the traditional way by smearing the dough on a cutting board.  This really determines the size of the dumpling, you can tweak it as you go.

 

This is a must, in order to get the dough cut, have a bowl of ice handy.  This is for your knife.  Just dip the knife in and the dough comes right off and falls into the pot of boiling water...

 

Here is the dough partially cut.

 

After you cut the dough, boil for at least 3-5 minutes.  Or until done.

 

Out they come! Be sure to drain excess water...

 

I also dried them further on a paper towel.

 

Oh sooo yummy, but we aren't finished yet....

Now for the cabbage, I use a whole head and an entire stick of butter.  I throw the cabbage in the pan and cook it till tender.  I like my cabbage a little al dente, not too soft.

 

Salt and pepper to taste...

 

Here is a close up of the yummy buttery goodness....just like Fort Days!!



 

I served this with some kielbasa and brown mustard, a very simple easy weekday meal...typical hunky food...

 

Bella loved hers,

So did Lizzie, they both cleaned their plates and Bella asked for more!

 



 

Later, I couldn't pass this up... I took this picture, Lizzie decided she was going to put a babushka on her head!! You know the Lizzard, whe wanted to look like a princess...

 

This look is very "old country", kind of like my great grandma Baba...who did actually come here from Slovakia.  Interestingly, both she and my great grandfather, Julius, came through Ellis Island in New York.  When I was a teenager, we took a class trip to NY City and visited Ellis Island.  They have a museum there and also outside is a wall of Immigrants, thousands of names of the immigrants engraved on a marble wall.  I was able to find my Great Grandfather's name.  I have a picture of it, but I can't remember where it is...it was really neat.  I never knew them, they died before I was born.   I actually didn't even know my grand parents ( this is on my father's side-his father's parents).  They too died before I was born.  It's sad to think of that. Oh well, maybe that is why I'm so interested in the history of my family.  Here are some photos of my great grand parents and my dad's parents on their wedding days..

 

My step-mother, Renee, who is a great lady, decided she would find out a little more about them.  So she put together a scrapbook of all our family history and gave it to each one us; me, my two brothers and my sister for Christmas one year.  Julius Buchko was 15 years Mary Ann (Zdilla) Buchko's senior. (Baba, who wore the babushka, according to my dad.)

 

Here, we have the wedding photo of Paul Joseph Buchko (my dad's dad) and Naona Rose (Granato) Buchko,  Grandpa Buchko was a World War II veteran who served in the 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper, he passed away when he was only 41. My second brother, Nathan, also served with the 82nd and he also jumps out of planes...Naona Rose was only 43 when she passed...I would have loved to have met them. I wonder how Baba and Grandma Buchko made their halushki?

Rose Path...A Stroll Down Memory Lane.

As a little girl I remember when my mother and my Great grandma Granato would take time during the summer and go "fleatiquing",used, yes, as a verb and is a combination of the words flea market (garage sales for you Southerners) and antiquing, and means a time where you travel around the pretty countryside of Western PA to look for antiques. 

Great grandma would spend about two weeks with us.  This was a time of real excitement for Sarah and I because this meant we could sleep on the cot, the cot was fun because it meant that we could sleep outside on the screened in porch if it was nice, so Great grandma could have either Sarah's bed or mine.  Grandma would fry up zucchini and slice garden fresh tomatoes and boil corn on the cob bought from the local vendor on the side of the road...it was so nice!!  I remember during dinner she would pour salt in the palm of her hand and would use that to season her food all the while sipping on her hot coffee...I always thought that that was really weird to drink coffee and eat... but it's funny, sometimes I find myself drinking coffee during meals as well.  Anytime is a good time to drink coffee...Thank you Great grandma for giving me your love of coffee! If you could have known her, she'd tell you all the time that she use to cuss like a Sailor and was real mean before she got saved...interestingly my dad was the one that lead her to the Lord...anyway, this time in our summer was always fun....

In this picture from the top left, my Great Grandpa Albert, Great Aunt Alma Jean, Great Grandma Alma Granato, and my very dashing young father...Daniel Paul

Because of this family history I also like to go fleatiquing...it's normally not garage sales...it's usually the local antique shops (which by the way around the OKC area are priced way too high, in PA I guess antiques are a little less of a rare thing than here in the land of red dirt) and thrift stores in the city.  OKC has the most thrift stores per capita I have ever seen.  And every so often whilst I'm on the hunt I find some real treasures.  Like this weekend  I found an 8 place Knowles 'Rose Path' chine set,  my dad would call the pattern "buhchie" pronounced buhh-chee... because of its rose pattern.  The set has all but one tea/coffee cup...some of the plates could be replaced but still the whole thing went for 13 bucks.  I went online to price certain pieces and found that a casserole goes for about $50.00. 

Sugar and Cream dishes

Rose Pattern on Center of Soup Bowl

Soup Bowl, Dinner, Salad/Roll, Dessert Plates, Fruit Bowl, Tea/Coffee Cup and Saucer

Serving Bowls, Platter

The set is circa 1949...during a time in US history where it was the "in" thing to buy American, a post- war time when the 'greatest generation' was making a life for themselves (my Great Grandma's heyday...)...The manufacturer, Edwin Knowles, a true Amerian Buisnessman, was said to be a world expert on dinnerware production and design...his business started around the late 1800's with his father and they soon became "world renowned" for their pottery. During this time they made many innovations in the production of semi porcelain china.  Interestingly, the company didn't last into the 60's because of "said" high tariffs that made it cheaper for foreign imported dinnerware manufacturers. (Source: http://modish.net/Edwin-M-Knowles-China-Company)  The 60's was a real downer for America...feminism, sexual revolution, humanism, secularism, hippies, rock, socialism...don't get me started...lol

Anyway,  I just find it so neat when I come across something like this.  I now have some real Americana in my collection of dishes.