The Villages - April 2020 - 20

Food

TRADITIONAL

POLISH
EASTER
THERESA STREB SHARES THE
TRADITIONAL POLISH FOODS SHE AND
HER FAMILY MADE FOR EASTER DINNER
STORY BY MARK ANDERSON
PHOTOS BY ROB WILKERSON

For Theresa Streb and her family, Easter morning was
a time of celebration.
Coming from a Polish background, Streb remembers
enjoying traditional Polish foods for Easter breakfast and
dinner with her family while growing up in Baltimore,
Maryland.
She passed many of those traditional recipes on to her own
children, and she still enjoys making them on occasion today.
A member of The Villages Cookbook Club, Streb also enjoys
cooking and sharing her recipes with others.
Take a look at some of the traditional Polish foods she
enjoyed with her family on Easters past, along with the stories
behind them.
For Easter morning, Streb and her family would prepare
an Easter basket to bring to church for blessing. Calling on
their Polish background, she and her family often brought
traditional foods they enjoyed making at home.
"You would have your Easter eggs dyed and ready to go and
fresh Polish sausage that normally my mom and dad would
make, along with rye bread and horseradish. You would take it
to church, and they would bless the food, which in turn blesses
the people who ate it, and none of it can be thrown out."
Along with the basket, for Easter dinner, Streb and her
family often made a type of borscht her family called "poor
man's borscht." Though some borscht recipes include beets,
Streb's family recipe does not include the bright red veggie,
sticking instead with horseradish, hardboiled eggs and other
seasonings for flavoring.
"It's not like anything (most people) have ever eaten or
seen before. When they hear vinegar goes in it, people usually
are like, 'Whaaat?' But in the end, they usually love it."
20	

APRIL 2020
The Villages - April 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Villages - April 2020
