MySlovak Page

I am a first generation Canadian  ---- my father came to Canada in 1938, landing in a small Saskatchewan  town - Cadillac, in 1938 December, with his mother.  It was the first time they seen my Grandfather since he had left Slovakia, shortly after my father was born (in 1929).  I can 't even begin to imagine the thoughts going through my Grandmother's mind... arriving in a small town on a cold December day, not having seen or spoken to her husband for almost ten years, not speaking English, with a young boy in tow...

My Father and Grandparents came from Czechoslovakia, from a little town in Slovakia called Tovarné,  (not all that far from Kosice and Hummene) somewhere near Vranov and Hummene and a river - Topla  in 1938.   My grandfather actually came over in 1930, and my grandmother and father followed in 1938 December).   My Grandparents are both gone, now, but my Father is still here.  He was only 9 1/2 years old when he came to Canada (1938 December), so his memory of a lot of things is very faded.  He has been able to tell me a few things that he remembers living there, or having heard of while growing up, but just how much does a 9 year old child retain?

Some of my grandparents family stayed in the Old Country, and some moved to Canada and the U.S.  I know one of my Grandmother's sisters moved to Pennsylvania for sure, and I know one of my Grandmother's sisters did stay in Slovakia (this sister always sent my Grandmother some dried mushrooms every fall, with which my Grandma made a very delicious mushroom soup for Christmas Eve supper every year.   I have been trying to find the recipe for the soup, but have not, yet.  It was a clear broth soup with only mushrooms floating around in it, and she served it with some cooked egg noodles chopped up into little squares.)   Some of my  Grandfather's family also moved to Pennsylvania and Ohio......

I have been on a 25 year quest, searching for  Slovak recipes..... especially those I remember my Grandmother making when I was a young child.  At Christmas, she always made Poppy Seed Rolls (like a jelly roll, filled with poppy seeds!), a delicious Prune-filled Bun (slivkovy' kolác' - which I do not have the exact recipe for yet), Cottage Cheese filled buns (I never liked those), a bean stew-like dish, made with salt pork and navy beans (no milk or cream) to which we always added vinegar just before we ate it  (the Slovak  name for beans is "fazule" , so the Bean stew recipe may be called fazule__??),  a lefse-like pancake my Dad calls Loks'e, made with boiled riced potatoes, eggs and flour (but Loks'e is way better than the Norwegian Lefse because the lefse has lard or fat in them, and I can always taste the fat usage in any I have tasted - no lefse has ever tasted like my Grandma's Loks'e!), and the wonderful mushroom soup I mentioned earlier.  At Easter, she made the Poppy Seed Rolls, Prune buns, and a rice-pudding like loaf, called Koch.  Mmmmm!!!  (I have since received the recipe for this wonderful loaf from a couple wonderful Slovak cyberfriends, and have been making it for the last three years for my family at Easter...  and so the tradition continues!!)

Another Slovak recipe was a grated potato pan cake my Dad thinks is called Malecniki?? or maybe nalecniki? (we called it potato pan cakes, though it wasn't in pancake form!) - it was made with a  combination of grated raw pototoes, salt, and pepper (Dad says no flour was used) and baked in cake pans in the oven - maybe that's why they called them Pan Cakes?? Not sure of oven temp, etc. I also remember she strained the grated potato in strainers before she put them into the cake pans, so that the starch and extra water would drain out.  I was always fascinated at the colour the strained potatoes would turn -- a kind of pinkish colour.  I did find a Polish recipe for Nalecniki, but this was nothing like the potato pan cake Grandma made in the oven.  This she made in the winter because my Dad said you had to use old potatoes to make it -- the new potatoes had too much water in them.

In 2001, my father received a home video made by his cousin in the U.S. while his cousin was on a trip to Slovakia (in 1999).  There was a lot of footage taken while he was visiting in Tovarné.  Much of what my father remembers is gone, but the old castle on the hillside where he and his cousin and their friends used to play is stilll there.  My family watched it with my father at Christmas (2001)...  he was very excited about having this link to his past, and having us interested in watching it with him.  I learned much more about this beautiful country, and about my father's boyhood while he lived there, as the memories flowed (many memories even he had forgotten about until we watched the video and they came flooding back!)  What a wonderful way to spend a Christmas afternoon...

It's All Relative	Slovakia.org	Our Slovakia
Slovak History		Slovak Catholic Sokol
Slovak Heritage		Searching in Slovakia
Christmas in Slovakia		Easter in Slovakia