The boys and I spent the day cooking with my mother and made several of the traditional dishes. Pirogi, mushroom soup , nut and poppy-seed breads, and a tourtatierre for tomorrow's after church brunch. As usual, we made some changes and this year used raspberry preserves instead of prunes in the pirogi.

The meat pie was made with a mixture of venison, bison, and rabbit this year. We used about a pound of white mushrooms and 8 ounces of dried Chinese black mushrooms, soaked in the stock. It came out nice and because we pre-baked the bottom crust, it wasn't soggy underneath.  It is a good idea to add a layer of foil between the crust and the pie weights - cleaning them is a pain.

Since the nut and poppy-seed bread recipes are on the older archives, here is the recipe again.

8 cup flours
1/2 pounds butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
 2 egg yolks
 2 package dry yeast
1 pint milk, lukewarm (or use the liquid from the egg cheese)

Heat the milk to 110-120F. Dissolve yeast in the milk with 1 tsp sugar. Mix the flour, butter, the remaining sugar, and salt together so its like a pie crust. Then add the eggs and the extra yolks. Add the liquid mixture and mix together. Knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
 
Nut Fillings:
2 pounds ground walnuts
1 tsp butter
2 tbsp milk (or more needs to be a dry paste
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg white

For the poppy seed filling, I buy the canned. It's easier...

Preheat oven to 325 F. Divide into 8 parts and roll out. Spread 4 with nut mixture and 4 with poppy-seed mix, ending 1 inch from each long end and 4" from each side. Fold one side in and fold up into something like a jellyroll. Seal ends by wetting with milk and mashing together. Brush top with a beaten egg and bake for 35-40 minutes at 325 F on a greased pan or cookie sheet. After removing from the oven, brush with 1 Tbsp sugar in about ¼ cup water. Let cool.