The Legacy of Heinrich Albert Ursaki and Ottilie (Wolf) Ursaki: A Lovely Metaphor

Thursday, 11 October 2012

A Lovely Metaphor

Here is a pic of Gayla and me (Al Derges) in July 2012 about six weeks after the amputation of my right leg. I received my first prosthesis shortly after this picture was taken.
Just to confuse things, I am standing on one leg. Somewhere, way down the road, someone might say that they thought that old guy was an amputee. You can see that I'm hanging on, pretty tightly, and using my friend, Gayla for support. I love the metaphor that this picture presents as Gayla has been my support, literally, figuratively and emotionally.

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Grandma Ursaki's recipes

I would love for all of you who have Grandma Otillie Ursaki's recipes (doughnuts, nut roll, plum kuchen, etc.) to please share them. Email them to me at mdursaki@gmail.com or to Sandra at sandrauhale@gmail.com and we will post them here. Anyone remember sitting at Grandma's table and dipping fresh, hot doughnuts into little bowls of sugar? Grandma said she did it that way because it wasn't so messy when her little "sugarplums" were eating them. She hated the feeling of sugar crunching under her shoes as she walked across her kitchen floor!

Plum Dumplings and Kraut Perogies

DOUGH:

2 eggs, beaten

1 ½ cups flour

Scant tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ cup mashed potato (baking potatoes work best)

1 teaspoon salt

Beat the eggs, oil, and mashed potato. Combine dry ingredients and add to egg-potato mixture. Mix all together into soft dough. Let rest for at least 1 hour. (It’s best not to double this recipe because it seems to change the “chemistry”. If you need more dough, make two separate batches.)

FOR PLUM DUMPLINGS:

Use Italian prune plums. Dough recipe makes enough for about 20 plums. Wash plums, and dry each with a tea towel. Set them aside on a plate or tray. Line a separate tray or baking sheet with waxed paper and lightly flour the paper. Put about ½ cup flour in a small bowl for flouring your fingers as you work.

Pinch off a walnut sized piece of dough, flatten in the palm of your hand, and wrap around the plum, pinching to seal. Flour your fingers frequently as you work. Don’t worry about getting too much flour on the dumplings, it won’t matter. Set the wrapped plums on your prepared tray.

FOR KRAUT PEROGEES:

6 slices of bacon
1 cup sauerkraut, drained
1 medium onion, diced
1 cup mashed potatoes (about 1 medium potato)

Salt and pepper to taste

Fry bacon until crisp. Remove from pan and drain on paper towel. Crumble bacon and set aside. (My mom and dad snip the bacon with kitchen shears, before cooking.) Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat; add the onion and sauté until transparent. Remove pan from heat and stir in sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, crumbled bacon, and salt and pepper.

Using half of your dough at a time, roll out thinly, and cut into squares. Put a spoonful of filling on each square of dough; fold over and seal, flouring your fingertips as you work. Place perogees on a floured, wax-paper lined tray.

TO COOK PLUM DUMPLINGS OR KRAUT PEROGEES:

Bring a large pot of water to boiling. Don’t crowd - use 2 pots if you are cooking lots of dumplings or perogees. Add dumplings or perogees gently and boil uncovered until they rise to the top, about 5 to 10 minutes. Be careful not to overcook or they will come apart and become watery. If frozen, it will take about 20 minutes.

TO SERVE:

Drain and place in warmed serving bowl. Top with Buttered Croutons: Melt ¼ cup margarine and ¼ cup butter over medium heat. Add a couple of slices of bread, cubed. Cook, stirring occasionally, until bread is nicely browned. Pour over cooked dumplings or perogees.

For Plum Dumplings: We like them sprinkled with plain sugar. My dad also likes a little dollop of sour cream on his dumplings. These may seem like a dessert but in our family, this was our main course – a much anticipated yearly treat during plum season. As kids, we always had contests to see who could eat the most dumplings – you line up the plum pits on the edge of your plate to keep count.

For Kraut Perogees: Sometimes I sauté additional onions to top the perogees. Additional bacon is good too, if you’re feeling really decadent.

Both the plum dumplings and kraut perogees freeze well. Freeze them individually on the baking tray; then when frozen, put them in a zip-lock freezer bag. My mom then puts them back on a floured baking sheet to thaw before cooking.

From Eileen Nicholson and my mom and dad, Alma and Ron Pasker. We hope you enjoy these recipes.

Honey Cookies

3/4 cup butter or marg

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup honey

3 1/2 cups bread flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. each cinnamon and ginger

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 cup buttermilk or sour milk

1/4 cup cold strong coffee

Mix butter and sugar and honey in top of double boiler. Heat and stir until butter is melted and sugar dissolved. Let cool. Sift together dry ingredients and mix with butter mixture, buttermilk and coffee. Chill for several hours. Heat oven and roll dough to 1/3 inch thickness. (No specification of cutting shapes, oven temperature or baking time. I'm sure that for Grandma, this seemed pretty intuitive and not necessary to include!)

Store (cookies) in cold place for (up to) four weeks.

Submitted by Lois Derges VanDerVelden

The Legacy of Heinrich Albert Ursaki and Ottilie (Wolf) Ursaki

Ursaki Family Geneology

Thursday, 11 October 2012

A Lovely Metaphor

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