The Legacy of Heinrich Albert Ursaki and Ottilie (Wolf) Ursaki: Stitched together with love

Thursday, 30 May 2013

Stitched together with love

In May of 2010 I had the great pleasure of traveling to Regina for Lynne and Brian Selinger's son's wedding. While there, I was able to visit with several cousins who I hadn't seen in many years. I loved my time there . . . every minute of it. I wrote up the experience in my personal blog at sandraandbrent.blogspot.com. I'm pretty sure I took photos of everyone who was there so if you were in town, you're probably in my blog!

One of the great highlights of my trip was to spend time with Allan Derges (Auntie Helen's son) and his wife Gayla. They invited Lois (Al's sister) and her husband Sid and I out to their beautiful place in Deer Valley for dinner. Their back yard flows into a golf course in a gorgeous valley. The dinner was yummy (especially the mango, avocado salad!) and the atmosphere was warm and inviting.

The above photos are close-ups of the detail of a gorgeous quilt that Gayla showed me while I was there. She saves fabrics and old clothing (material left over from her wedding dress, prom dresses, maternity clothes, etc.) and she and her sisters get together to make pieced quilts from this vintage fabric. They sew it into blocks and then finish it with colorful stitching. Absolutely beautiful. Very awesome to the craft-challenged like me! There's something about this quilt that is metaphorical . . . something that speaks of thousands of colorful experiences all stitched together with love into one big beautiful comforter.
This photo was the "parting shot" that I took of Allan and Gayla on their front porch. I've looked at this photo many times over the past three years and thought that it told a beautiful story of love, loyalty, commitment, happiness and respect. The kind of love that lives on forever. No matter what.
When I saw this word collage, the other day, posted on facebook by Al's sister Lois, I knew that I had found the perfect expression of what I see in this photo. It was put together by Kelly Morrison (who, I hope, will not mind that I'm posting it here on the Ursaki blog) for Al's birthday.

Al, I want to thank you for the interest that you've taken in this family blog and in the extended family in general. I've truly enjoyed your warm and witty contributions. You are a gifted writer and an all around great guy.
Sandra Ursaki Hale

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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, 30 May 2013

Stitched together with love

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