Dear Joe, Jon, Dale Rose, Katlaughing, Neil, Aine - thank you for your nice messages!!!

Sorry I'm so slow in replying, it's because I had some problems with logging on to the net. (Unfortunately, I do have such problems quite often, but I hope to deal with it in the nearest future. For the time being you'd better get used to the fact that I won't be available every day! Sorry!!!)

Dale Rose, thanks for starting this thread! I hope to answer all the questions asked here.

Katlaughing, thanks for your invitation! I don't have a mic in my comp (but things change, you know, so perhaps one day...) and, generally speaking, I'm not very good with comps, but I hope this is going to change, too!

Aine, I don't listen to much of Polish folk. Hmm, I think it often happens that we underestimate the riches of our own cultures, and this is, I'm afraid, the case with me, too. I listen to some folk from our mountainous region, the Tatras, and I also like old songs from Warsaw, the city I live in. I love and often sing shanties, and here I can tell you a bit more. We've got a large number of shanty groups here, the best of which is, according to me, the group called Rycz¹ce Dwudziestki. Marek Siurawski is also pretty good. He sings traditional shanties and plays the concertina, which is not very common in Poland. Many shanties are written in our own language, however the English-language ones are nearly as popular. We have many translations from English, too.(The banks of Sacramento, Shenandoah, John Kanaka, Spanish Girls etc.etc.) In pubs, it is mostly the Polish versions that are sung. We usually start singing the English ones after the eighth pint :)

On the whole, I listen to all possible kinds of music ( I used to be quite keen on thrash metal some time ago ), still The Whirlwinds of Danger is unknown to me... Sounds interesting, do you know who sings this song, Neil? I've tried to ask some people about it, as I'm curious, but what I got was uproars of laughter, don't know why, perhaps my translation was a bit... inaccurate.

Neil, here you have a recipe for pierogi:

Przepis na pierogi (A recipe for pierogi)

All you need is: 3 glasses of flour, an egg, a glass of water, some salt. You mix all the ingredients and knead the dough so that it becomes "soft" and "damp". Then you put the dough on your moulding-board and roll it out to make it thin. (It's good to put some flour on the m-board before so the dough doesn't stick to it.) Next you take a glass (preferably empty :), turn it bottom up and use it as a "knife" to form small circles in the dough. You put some stuffing in each circle and "close" it carefully with your fingers, so that the stuffing is covered properly. Then you put the pierogi (which now should have this shape of little crescents) in hot, salted water and you take'em out when they appear on the surface. (It's good to check one if they're ready.) You serve them hot, with melted butter, bread crumbs or cream, depending on the stuffing. And don't forget to say Good Appetite! to your guests, which is Smacznego! in Polish. (reads as "smachnego", ch as in chip)

We usually use meat or fruit for the stuffing, and on one special occasion, which is the Christmas Eve, we use mushrooms and cabbage. For more details about how to prepare the stuffing, please contact me, as this message is TOO LONG even without these details!!!

I've taken the recipe from a book called "The Warsaw Cuisine" and I must admit that translating it into English was a real challenge for me. Please excuse the mistakes. And in case you have any problems with getting the sense of it, just e-mail me, or ask here, in the thread, and I'll answer. Next thing I must own up to is that I don't remember when I made pierogi for the last time, as cooking is not my strong point and I avoid it whenever I can. Usually with success :)

Love to you all,

Karolina