Homemade Polish Kolaczki

Happy Pulaski Day, everyone! If you're from the Chicago area, odds are you know exactly what we're talking about. If not, well, you might be a bit lost. Not to worry, we can explain.

Pulaski Day is celebrated in honor of Casimir Pulaski, a Polish soldier and hero of the American Revolution. You can read all about Pulaski here, but the short version is that he's the father of the American cavalry, and once saved George Washington's life. He's kind of a big deal in the Polish-American community, so much so that Chicago's city offices are closed on the holiday.

Des Moines, though it is a rather diverse city, doesn't have near the Polish-American population that Chicago does. Greg is of mostly Polish descent, so when we decided to celebrate the day, we needed to do so from scratch. We spent yesterday morning making kolaczki (kohl-ach-key, sometimes spelled kolacky), a deceptively simple yet amazingly delicious jam-filled Polish pastry.

See that? That's the dough, deconstructed. Just butter, cream cheese and flour. You start by beating together  three sticks of butter and an 8 oz package of cream cheese until fluffy. Once that's done, you gradually mix in 3 cups of flour, about a cup at a time. This recipe makes about 5 dozen kolaczki. If that's too much for you, it's easy to do proportions and make a smaller batch.

Once the dough is well mixed, it's best to throw it in the fridge for about an hour so it's not so soft. Next, dust your working surface with an even mixture of granulated and powdered sugar, so the dough doesn't stick. Roll out the dough into a thin sheet about 1/4 inch thick.

When the dough is rolled smooth, you next cut it to size for the individual kolaczki. You can use a round cookie cutter if you prefer a more freeform look, or you can use a pizza cutter to slice it into the checkerboard-looking shape we have here. Each square is two inches on a side.

Now for the fun part. Kolaczki are usually filled with jam, but you can use any kind you like. Apricot and raspberry are some of the more traditional options, but there's nothing saying you can't use whatever fruit you like. We opted for the classic apricot and also strawberry. We also used preserves rather than jam, which is a little thicker and might help keep the filling from running out of the kolaczki in the oven.

Place a small (smaller than you think you need) dollop of preserves on the center of each dough square, then fold two diagonal corners up and place one over the other so that you end up with the shape shown here. If your dough doesn't want to stick together, Greg's sister Karin reports that using a little water will really glue the corners together.

These baked at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes, so a batch of kolaczki is done almost before you know it. A good sign that they're done is when the tips of the squares begin to turn golden brown. When they're finished, they should look like this!

If your corners didn't stick perfectly (say you didn't know about the water trick until afterward, like us), you may have some kolaczki that have unfolded. You have a couple of options here. If you're not too picky, leave them as they are. They'll taste just as good! Otherwise, when they're fresh out of the oven, the dough is still a little pliable, so you can try to curl the corners back down. Don't worry if you have a few imperfect ones though - those are the ones you snack on as you go!

The final step is to dust your kolaczki with a sprinkle of powdered sugar, then serve and eat. You just can't beat a homemade kolaczki: the soft, layered crust and the sweet, fruity filling make for a delicious combination. You don't have to be Polish to love this dessert!

If you prefer recipes in traditional format, we mostly followed this one.

Pumpkin Pie - Locavore Style

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our readers! Whether you'll be traveling like us or staying home, whether you'll be at a big gathering or with just a few friends or family members, there are a few dishes that just make it feel like Thanksgiving. Most people would agree that a pumpkin pie is one of them. Here at You Can't Eat a Lawn world headquarters, we were put in charge of that very pie for one of our families' feasts. Naturally, we started out the same way everyone does:

What? You mean everyone doesn't make a pumpkin pie from a whole pumpkin?? Okay, okay, we know the ubiquitous cans of Libby's pumpkin are really handy, and we have made our fair share of pumpkin dishes in that way. But here in Iowa (and the Midwest), there are so many places where you can get a whole pumpkin fresh off the vine, grown by a local farmer. In fact, we got our little pie pumpkin at a lovely pick-your-own patch called Wills Family Orchard, just a short drive from our house.

The Wills Family grows a whole variety of pie pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, squashes and gourds. We picked up a couple of jack-o-lanterns for carving, but we made sure to buy one pie pumpkin for baking. In theory you could use a jack-o-lantern for pie, but it doesn't really have the right qualities. Jack-o-lanterns are bred to be larger, with thin walls for easy carving. That means not much flesh for a pie. A pie pumpkin wouldn't impress sitting on your front porch, but it'll make a great pie.

So, once you've got a pie pumpkin, then what? It's actually really easy! First, cut it in half and remove the seeds and stringy guts. Be very careful when cutting, since the skins are quite tough and your knife can end up slipping. We use a very sharp knife and wear a cut resistant glove, just in case. Once you've got the pumpkin cut open, it'll look like this:

We placed the halves, cut side down, in a 9x13 baking dish, tented with foil over the top. They went into a 350 degree oven for 90 minutes, by which time the flesh had softened up noticeably. You can really tell that it's done by poking around various spots with a fork. When it pierces the flesh easily, the pumpkin is done. As this picture shows, it may not look much different, so you'll have to go by feel.

Next we scooped the flesh away from the skin. The cooked pumpkin is really soft, and it should be quite easy to scoop out with a spoon. We placed all of the cooked pumpkin directly into a blender and pureed it until it was silky smooth.

And honestly, that's about all there is to it! This puree in the blender can be used just like the canned stuff you buy in the store. But you have the added bonus that it was grown locally this season, probably by a small family farmer. You can use this in any recipe you like; we opted to make our pie using a recipe from the always-helpful Pickyourown.org. When it came out of the oven it looked like this:

Tempted though we are, we dare not cut into this pie until the feast tomorrow. If you can judge it by aroma alone, this is sure to be a delicious dessert. It may have been a little more initial effort than simply opening a can, but we're sure it will be worth it.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!