orthodox christmas

my grandparents are Ukrainian and my other grandparents are polish. i have many memorable food traditions as a result of this heritage. one big one is the Ukrainian orthodox christmas feast. this christmas is held on january 7th, and on the 6th, christmas eve the family gets together and enjoys a 12 course vegetarian feast to celebrate. 

as borris' parents were away over christmas we got together the following week and had a mini version of the Ukrainian christmas feast. the first traditional course is kuitcha, or a boiled wheat grain, poppy seed cold soup. as a kid i did not like this, but as an adult i think it is really nice. i got this recipe from my aunt last time i was home.

here are borris' parents enjoying borscht.

otto came along too but was happy to just lie on the cold tiled floor.

here is the second course, vegetarian borscht. it was really yummy, ans actually so easy to make. 

and then all the rest of the food came out.

we had potato and cheese perogies (like dumplings) and fried sauerkraut, and some pan fried polish sausage. 

in a traditional orthodox christmas feast there would be no meat course, but a fish course. but this was much simpler for me as i made all the food for this feast by myself the day before.

it was a great success. and everyone enjoyed the food. it was nice to have a bit of my Ukrainian tradition here in Australia. i look forward to doing it again next year.

Happy Orthodox Christmas on Wednesday!