A Taste of the Book

Recipes

This is the one place the book lets color off the leash. Five dishes from the oldest branch of the family — a preview drawn from the draft, not the final text. Tap any dish to see it up close.

A bowl of deep beet-red borscht with a swirl of sour cream, steam rising, on warm linen.

Borscht

Polish-Ukrainian

The beet soup that opens the oldest branch — deep, sour-sweet, finished with a spoon of sour cream.

Stuffed cabbage rolls, galumpka, glossy in a warm tomato sauce on a neutral ceramic plate.

Galumpka

Polish-Ukrainian

Nana Anna's stuffed cabbage rolls, simmered slow in tomato until the sauce goes deep.

Pierogi with golden pan-seared edges and a glisten of butter, arranged on warm linen.

Pierogi

Polish-Ukrainian

Filled dumplings, boiled then crisped in butter until the edges catch and brown.

Thin Ukrainian crepes, mlyntsi, rolled and stacked with a dusting of powdered sugar in morning light.

Mlyntsi

Ukrainian

Thin Ukrainian crepes, rolled and stacked — a morning dish dusted with sugar.

Chrusciki, fried bow-tie pastries piled high under a heavy dusting of powdered sugar.

Chrusciki

Polish-Ukrainian

Fried bow-tie pastries, light as ribbon and buried in powdered sugar — the holiday treat.

See how the branches are organized →