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Angela Varesano 8/15/72 Mary Washko
After her husband came home from work, he'd be cracking coal, working in the garden, fixing fences. In winter he'd shovel snow and take ashes out of the stove. He'd get up at four or five o'clock in the morning and have the paths shoveled. He used to stoke the fire. When he was done, he'd go to bed. This was about 8:30 or 9:00 PM. He'd play with the kids and take them out for about an hour after supper or on idle days. on idle days men picked coal, sometimes taking the kids. They picked berries to sell and mushrooms to eat. These the wife dried and made into soup.
Nothing went to waste. She canned everything from the garden. Fruits preserved were applesauce, peach preserves, grape jelly, balckberry jelly, and huckleberry jam. She'd put up pears, too.
Mushrooms were picked by her husband. Usually these were white toppers and red toppers. She washed them and cut them up in pieces. They were boiled for fifteen to twenty minutes. They were then strained and washed good and chopped or put through a meat grinder. ____Fry chopped onion in butter, add mushrooms, and fry. Add salt and pepper. Beat up two or three eggs and add them to the mushrooms. Mix around in the pan to cook. This is served with bread and coffee for lunch or supper, when there was no work and they were not too hungry.
Bean soup: Get 'soup bean' (marrow beans.) Wash and cook them an hour or more with water filling half of a six-quart pot with about one pound of beans. When they are done, tasting to check, add zaprashka. Zaprashka is made by melting butter. Add flour to form a thick paste. Brown. Add a glass of water. Cook until there are no lumps. Add salt and pepper and some spice like celery or parsley. Add this to the soup. She used to add about two tablespoons of vinegar to give it a sour taste.
For Monday supper, if there was any leftovers from Sunday, they were eaten. On Sunday she usually made enough for another meal and ate the same food for supper as was eaten at the main noonday meal. She made a big meal at noon. This could be beef soup and noodles, stuffed cabbage, or chicken, stewed or stuffed and roasted. She kept chickens and killed them herself. They were killed in the yard, way up the back. She sliced the wind pipe with a sharp knife. Years ago people killed their own pigs and cows. The neighbors used to help kill your cows and pigs. Cows were slaughtered by tying them and hitting them between the horns with a sledge hammer.
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Angela Varesano 8/15/72 Mary Washko
[illustration of life-sized letchka]
Crack egg into a mound of flour. Add water to form dough. Knead till it doesn't stick to your hands and is smooth and silky. Roll it out thin. Let it dry for two hours. When it is dry, cut it up into tiny squares. Boil water which has been salted. Cook for five or six minutes. Drain and wash in cold water so they don't stick. Fill the dish with bean soup. Add these to make it thick.
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Angela Varesano 8/15/72 Mary Washko
For Sunday supper they ate leftovers from dinner, if hungry. It wasn't a big meal. If not hungry, they took cake or pie. On Tuesday and Thursday they ate pork and sauerkraut with mashed potatoes. If on Monday she washed clothes and didn't have too much time, she fried sausage and served this with mashed potatoes. Kilbasa and stewed sauerkraut was another meal served with mashed potateos. Potatoes were served with meat always. New potatoes were boiled whole, with or without jackets. These were from the garden. The skin was pulled off if they weren't young and tender. Browned butter and onions with a bit of dill cut up and sprinkled over the potatoes. The butter and onions were poured over it.
Sliced potatoes: Slice, wash, and drain. Dry on a paper towel. Fry in sliced onions and oil or butter till done, tasting crisp when done. You could slice three carrots in round slices and cook them along with the potatoes. The amount of oil used was enough to cover the bottom of the frying pan. They were turned to cook both sides. Whenthey were about three-fourths done, she'd slice mangoes in long slices and cook them with potatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. This was served on a platter with bread if you wished, especially for the men (husband).
With beef roasts she put in chunks of potatoes and carrots. A big roast was usually for a Sunday meal. Veal cutlets were also made. The roast was prepared by putting washed beef that had been slashed on the surface and haed fresh garlic pieces in the slashen. This was put in a pan. Salt and pepper both sides. Add cut-up onions. Put a good bit of water, about two inches, in and let it simmer. Test the meat. If the water boils out, add more till the meat was done. This takes two hours or so. After it cooked an hour, she'd let the water biol out and brown it. Then when the ater boils out, she adds two eight-ounce glasses of water plus potatoes and carrots. Cook an hour or so. Add water enough to cover the potatoes. There is enough juice to make gravy. Add salt and pepper to season the vegetables. Gravy was made by putting two heeping tablespooins of flour or cornstarch in a cup and adding some water, enough to make a thin paste. Flour varied according to desired about of gravy. For a large group you ended up adding maybe half of a cup. Before it was ready to be served, the vegetables were removed and put on a plate. Add flour to the beef and stir to thicken in the juice.
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Angela Varesano 8/17/72 --6-- / 11
Mary Washko
This recipe was made up by Mary using her own judgement as to the amount of ingredients.
Dumplings:
Beat four eggs with a little salt. Add enough flour to form a stiff batter, not a dough. Have water boiling in a pot. Take some stiff butter in a spoon and spread it on a chopping board, spreading with a spoon. Hold board over a pot and break off with a tablespoon pieces of batter into the boiling water. Cook for five minutes. Raise heat while they are boiling. Drain in colander. Serve with sweet cabbage or caraway seed soup.
Sweet cabbage:
Chop cabbage, salt, and squeeze the water out. Fry it in melted butter that has been browned with chopped onion. Fry until it gets soft and brown.
Caraway seed soup:
Put two quarts of water in a pan. Add caraway seeds, about two tablespoons. Boil till water gets brown from seeds. Drain water into another pan, leaving one tablespoon in the soup. Salt that and pepper to taste adding parsley and a bit of celery. Make zaprashka. Add to water and cool five minutes.
Banana fritters:
Sift together one cup of flour and two teaspoons of baking powder. Add one tablespoon of sugar, a half teaspoon of salt, one egg well-beaten, a half cup of sweet milk. Mix and add three ripe bananas, mashed fine and a teaspoon of lemon. Mix all together, and it will be a thick batter.
Drop tablespoons into deep, hot fat. Fry golden brown on both sides. Drain and serve with syrup or sauce or just plain. This can also be made with creamed corn, using a pint can. She used to make them when the children were small; she made up the recipe.
Sausage with tomato sauce:
Fry your sausage till done and brown on both sides. Take a pint of tomatoes and beat well. Drain the grease from the sausage and put the tomatoes in with the sausage adding about a half glass of water. Let boil till tomatoes are boiled apart and then season with salt and pepper.
When done, thicken the tomatoes with one tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in a little cold water. Stir while it boils for about five minutes. This gravy is good with bread or poured over mashed potatoes. Fresh ("mangoes") (peppers) can also be added. This she made up herself. It stretched the food since the gravy was eaten with bread and mashed potatoes.