Thanks, Crowhugger!!! Sure you're crazy if you wanted to learn Polish :) Just let me know if I can do anything for you in this field. Your Polish is great!!! The Mudcat is great, too. I've learned so many things here, though I'm a member for 2 days only...

Hallo, Rollo! Wie geht es dir? Ein Erlebnis ist unser "Kashubian Lakes District" :) Unserer Seen sind wunderschon! I hope you'll have a great time!

That's true we shared some areas for quite a long time. Hence now you can meet many people speaking German in the Kashubian and Mazurian regions in our country. The Kashubian language, still spoken by some people in this area, is quite similar to German. Polish people who never learned German can't understand this Kashubian speech at all!!! Now perhaps the recipe for bigos...

Przepis na bigos (A recipe for bigos)Ingredients: 1kg of sauerkraut (this pickled cabbage cut into small pieces), 0,5kg white cabbage (also cut into small pieces :), 75dkg of cooked meat (it's best if you take an equal amount of pork and beef).

You put the two kinds of cabbage in a bowl with a small amount of water. While it is boiling (not too hard, just... boiling) you add the meat, previously cut into small cubes. Then you let the bigos simmer (Yes! That's the word I was looking for!) till it's tender and ready to eat. (My book says it usu. takes 40 up to 50 minutes) You add some salt and pepper to it. You can also add some dried mushrooms and/or dried plums. I know that some people put 1/2 or 3/4 glass of dry red wine into it, but if you asked me, I'd rather drink the wine as it is :) You can also use sausage and ham instead/with the meat. Generally speaking, any kind of meat you find in your fridge is ok for the bigos. Plum jam can be used instead of dried plums. (What a liberal dish! :)As for this cooked meat, you prepare it like this: you salt it and put it in a frying pan and let it stay there till it acquires this nice "golden" colour. Then you put it in a bowl and let it simmer till it's tender enough. Next you cut it into small cubes and so on... (see above)

Again: please don't hold me responsible if anything goes wrong... Though, I've never heard of a bigos that went wrong. One thing I forgot to mention: it's good to stir it from time to time while it simmers.

It looks like I've produced a terribly long message again... Herzliche Grusse!!!

Karolina