It's Lithuania Week ...

... all week at the University Club in Madison. We enjoyed our meals there last year, and we'll be there tonight for a Madison Vilnius Sister Cities, Inc. dinner.

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Madison, Wisconsin, March 2015. Don't miss the Cepelinai (the star of the show).

It's "World Cepelinas Day"

Are you cooking Cepelinai today? We're not, but it's a nice day to revisit the recipe:

The last time Mr. Irene and I had Cepelinai was when we visited Grand Duke's Restaurant:

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Happy Call

Suburban Chicago, January 1977. Mom does not seem to be engaged here in a work-related call. The throw pillow features Lithuanian motifs; the mother of my friend Ron made it for Mom (Ron's Mom also made the best Cepelinai I've tasted). The watercolor is by Murinas.

Here's the pillow today:

If you don't like it, then consider a Russian proverb: "In taste and colors, there are no friends." That's what I tell a friend each time I start (another) beige sweater.

Sold Out

Madison-Vilnius Sister Cities this week celebrated Lithuania's Restoration Day. The organization sponsored a banquet at The University Club; guests dined on Šaltibarščiai, Cepelinai, and Honey Torte. The food was authentic and delicious.

The University Club offered a Lithuanian menu this week. Mom and I popped in for lunch today. Misery! The Cepelinai we craved were sold out. So we had the Cabbage Rolls instead. The Cabbage Rolls were good, but Cabbage Rolls are something we easily make at home. Cepelinai are a production, and we rarely cook them. As a result, we didn't have what we had sought. We did start out, however, with the Šaltibarščiai. I thought the soup was excellent; Mom claimed my recipe is better. *Blushes.*

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(I asked the server to show me the machine the cook had used to grate the potatoes.)

Bummeris*

Mr. Irene and I had planned last night to attend the annual banquet of the Madison Vilnius Sister Cities, Inc. organization. We couldn't go because I got the flu! I haven't had a cold or other viral illness since 2007, so I was shocked when I developed feverish symptoms and spent three days in bed. It was a big disappointment.

Mr. Irene did, however, stop off at the venue to deliver the items he and I donated to the banquet's loterija. He snapped a few photos while he was there.

Madison, Wisconsin, May 3, 2014. Our gracious greeter checked in guests.

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 3, 2014. The raffle prizes included Lithuanian beer, some woven sashes, a woven tablecloth, two baumkuchenai, and a bottle of Polish vodka (our fault).

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 3, 2014. How nice!

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 3, 2014. Super bummeris: look what we missed. The chef again adapted some Lithuanian dishes for the service. This time, he added Cepelinai to the menu.

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 3, 2014. The guest of honor was His Excellency Žygimantas Pavilionis, the Lithuanian Ambassador to the United States.

Ambassador Pavilionis also spoke to WISC-TV. You can watch the clip here.

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*Lithuanians adopt English nouns into their vocabulary by adding declentive endings to the words. "Bummer" becomes "bummeris;" "basement" is "basementas;" and "blog" is "blogas."

"The potatoes are wrung dry."

The key to good Cepelinai is the potato processing.

Late-Night Eats

The Cooking Channel's "Eden Eats" tries Cepelinai at Baltimore's Lithuanian Hall.

ADDED: Hey—that's the potato-grating machine we use.

"See what you missed?"

That's what my friend, V, wrote when she sent along this image from yesterday's "Kaziuko Mugė:"



Lithuanian World Center, Lemont, Illinois, March 3, 2013. The sign on the left that reads "Valgykla" directs visitors to the cafeteria. Kugelis! Cepelinai!

Thanks to my friend V for making this photo available to us.

Grating potatoes.

Now that the holidays are over, do you yearn for a nice meal built around the humble potato? Do you have a taste for Kugelis? Perhaps you'd rather have Cepelinai or maybe a lot of Cepelinai?

An electric potato grating machine will make the preparation easier. Here's a slick model (see the recipe—for a double batch of—Kugelis there, too). This is the appliance that we use.

"Vilnius has not established itself as a bachelor party capital"

"We are positioning Lithuania as a country of high quality service for a good price. Bachelor parties and drinking sprees have not quite yet taken root here. Our capital is distinguished as a place where tourists are elegant and calm."

Okay. But please don't mess with the Cepelinai:

Union Pier

Union Pier, Michigan is a short drive from Chicago. Its sandy dunes attracted Chicagoans for many summers. The area underwent a slump in the late 1950s. Beginning in the 1960s, Lithuanian DPs played an important role in the area's revival.

Lithuanians living in Chicago found the Union Pier beaches resembled the white sands of Palanga. The dunes reminded the DPs of better times back in the homeland. Union Pier was to Lithuanian immigrants what the Catskills were to Jewish immigrants.

My Parents had friends who owned cottages—or multiple complexes of cottages—in Union Pier. These were small, unpretentious places; some did not have indoor plumbing. Nonetheless, it was a thrill to visit a cottage, change into a swimsuit, and be in the waters of Lake Michigan. Mr. Irene remembers staying at a Lithuanian resort at Union Pier. Guests at the resort ate family-style meals of Koldūnai, Cabbage Rolls, Kugelis, Cepelinai, and Zrazai. There was a bakery to which visitors could walk on weekend mornings to buy hot, fresh bacon buns. Mr. Irene also recalls that on Sundays, his Dad took him to a corner shop to buy a comic book.

My Parents favored Wisconsin over Union Pier. A couple of factors played into that preference. First, Dad did not like driving through Gary, Indiana. The pollution generated by the steel mills in northeastern Indiana was horrific, and in the pre-air-conditioned car days, the trip could be miserable. Dad wanted the drive to be as pleasant as the destination. Second, I suspect Dad rejected Union Pier for the same reasons he vetoed living in Marquette Park. He found Union Pier heavy with "DP camp culture." Dad was something of a loner, and he shunned situations in which group think prevailed.

Today, Union Pier, like many Lake Michigan shore towns, has been gentrified. It nonetheless retains strong Lithuanian ties. One of the best Midwestern Lithuanian food market is in Union Pier, and Lithuanian artists often exhibit their work in Union Pier. The town still has a number of lovely Lithuanian resorts.

I remember good times in Union Pier.

Union Pier, Michigan, August 1962. I am in the foreground, on the far left, with a friend. You get a sense from this shot of how close the cottages were to the dunes.

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Union Pier, Michigan, August 1962. I enjoyed Lake Michigan because it seemed like an ocean.

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Union Pier, Michigan, August 1962. My friend and I collect beach treasures.

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Union Pier, Michigan, August 1962. I've had enough of the water.

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Union Pier, Michigan, August 1964. It's time to enjoy the sand.

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Union Pier, Michigan, August 1962. My Mom keeps a close eye on everyone.

On the Menu

My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, did most of the cooking when I was growing up because my Mom worked a full-time job. Mom liked to bake, and she usually pitched in with holiday party preparations. But Tatjana was in charge of the everyday meals.

Tatjana also loved to entertain, and little satisfied her more than a Sunday party. Her food was the center of attention at these gatherings, and she stepped up her cooking game whenever guests arrived. We started out with zakuski: Russian appetizers. A homemade soup, often a chicken broth accompanied by meat of cabbage rolls, followed the zakuski. Although the main course usually consisted of a simple beef roast (well done, of course!!), Tatjana occasionally made Scalloped Potatoes and "Russian Cauliflower"—a cooked cauliflower covered with a sautéed mixture of breadcrumbs, onions, and parsley. Dessert often consisted of a Pavlova shell filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with defrosted, frozen strawberries in syrup. For holidays, Baba baked Babkas, a walnut torte, and—my least favorite food—poppy seed yeast roll.

All of this hard work rightly gave guests the impression that Tatjana was an amazing cook. On a day-to-day basis, however, her cooking was mediocre. Tatjana often made soup for dinner using a beef chuck roast. Once the soup was ready, she made a "brown sauce" for the meat and served that sauced, boiled beef as the main course—with a side of boiled potatoes. I hated that meal, but I loved it when she covered a boiled chicken from a chicken stock preparation with béchamel sauce and served that over rice. The meatloaf was dry. The cube steak was dusted in Lipton's French Onion Soup mix. Dessert was usually Jell-O. It seemed like a celebration when we had instant pudding instead of Jell-O.

Tatjana prepared spectacular Koldūnai, but she made them rarely. She never cooked the two Lithuanian signature dishes, Kugelis and Cepelinai.

The one "traditional" dish that Tatjana made was one I disliked intensely: Cabbage Rolls.* Tatjana mixed ground beef with rice, stuffed the leaves, and poured canned tomato soup over the rolls.

This week, I decided to overcome my dislike of Cabbage Rolls. Over the last few days, I created a hybrid Cabbage Roll recipe. Mom and I set it up this morning. We'll see if I like the Cabbage Rolls any more than when I was a little girl.

Suburban Chicago, Spring 1960. Tatjana looks tired after cooking. My high chair is behind her.

*Lithuanians call Cabbage Rolls "balandeliai," or "little doves." But Tatjana was Russian, and she did the cooking. So we called Cabbage Rolls by their Russian name, "Golubsti." We added the Lithuanian declination to the noun, of course, so the word became "Golubstai."

Cepelinai!

(or "Zeppelins")

Cepelinai are stuffed potato dumplings.