When we were in the early stages of adoption, I had grand plans to carry on their Ukrainian heritage, to regularly make Ukrainian meals, to celebrate the holidays and customs the boys were familiar with.
Then we got home and the beautiful music came to a screeching halt as I realized the boys had not experienced much of Ukraine at all! In fact, during my time in their country, I sampled more 'Ukrainian cuisine' than they were familiar with.
Holidays? Yeah, right. This made me sad. Searching the web for traditions and foods didn't produce any finds that the boys were familiar with. I grilled them for information about how they spent their holidays asking questions about anything that they could remember in hopes that I could incorporate these things into our lives now. There was nothing. I should have realized this before, how many happy family memories are there going to be for them to draw from, really? I was naive for expecting this.
Then as Easter was approaching, I got all gung-ho again and tried to make paska. The one time I DID make something Ukrainian I made the wrong version (although I had pulled up several pictures to show to the boys prior to making it to be certain it was the right one). It was a lot of work and honestly not that great, so I was content to, once again, let it go. Truthfully, the boys seem hardly interested, so this was an easy decision.
Fast forward to about a month ago. I decided that, as their mother, I should make more of an effort to introduce them to their country, to teach them about where they came from, as best as my American self could. I believe that some day they will want to know more about their country of origin and I don't want them thinking that I kept it from them or don't want them to have an association with it, because I do if they do. And I really hope they do.
For a few nights from 1-4 when I should have been sleeping but couldn't, I took a break from researching CAPD and FASD and looked up some recipes. I decided to start with something easy. Easy to make, easy to introduce the fam to. These little cabbage rolls were my experiment. I chose them because it kind of sounded like yummy meatloaf, which is pretty close to American. I didn't find any one recipe to use, instead I combined a whole bunch and hoped it would work out. It did and we will have these again. I'd love to share the recipe, but I'm not always the greatest about following recipes or about writing down any changes that I make. I also tend to not use measuring devices except for a one cup scoop. I estimate all other quantities, if I must at all, in that puppy. BUT, I did remember to take some pretty pictures:) One helped me make these and we had fun doing it.
End result? Pretty good. It's what I would describe as a comfort food. BoyOne remembered having eaten these when he was younger. In fact, when he saw them, he pointed out the cabbage, and in his best grandma voice said, 'Eat zis, Danichka. It lots of veetameens,' and told us his babushka used to say this to him. hahaha
Best Guess at a Recipe
the meat mixture
1 lb ground turkey
1 lb ground pork
some minced garlic
chopped onion
salt, pepper, onion salt, stuff like that
a couple eggs
Mix it all together. I meant to saute the onions and garlic but totally forgot but it didn't matter.
Cook some brown rice, but not all the way through. I think I did the equivalent of four servings.
Mix meat mixture and rice and throw in some tomato soup or juice or sauce. I can't remember which I used, but I don't think it really matters too much.
Plop a head of cabbage in water. Bring to a boil. One at a time, grab a leaf with your fingers (be careful the water is hot:)) and fill with meat mixture. Place in greased cast iron pot (I have an indoor dutch oven that I used, but anything would probably work), seam side down. Repeat until all cabbage leaves have been used.
Pour crushed or dices tomatoes over the top, along with tomato soup and tomato juice. I actually remember doing this about half way through and then again at the end.
Bake at 400 for 1/2 hour and then 350 for another 1 1/2 hours.
the cabbage
the meat
placing the meat in the leaf. I found a couple resources that talked about how to roll it. It suggested that you roll it like a cone and then stuff the top into itself . It worked out really well.
the bottom is the pointy part of the cone and so nothing is falling out. the top was the wide part which I stuffed into itself after rolling.
the end
p.s. it makes a lot and tastes pretty good as left overs
a couple of the resources I remember: natashaskitchen(dot)com, followingclosely(dot)blogspot(dot)com, and learnpysanky(dot)com
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