This is less a column than a glowing thank-you note to Henrietta Brabec, whose guest I was Sunday at a Czech Heritage Day.

Thursday, October 11, 2001

This is less a column than a glowing thank-you note to Henrietta Brabec, whose guest I was Sunday at a Czech Heritage Day. It was held at Albert Lea Union Hall. Though judging from the Fraternal Herald, Lodge No. 44, Hayward and Lodge No. 38, Austin, were hosts.

Can’t remember when I’ve met so many wonderfully friendly people. Mrs. Brabec had to be there early, but she had thoughtfully stationed a daughter, Kathy Jerdahl at the door so I wouldn’t wander around in my customary dazed condition.

A marvelous, and I was told traditional, Czech meal was served. It consisted of roast pork, raised dumplings (made with yeast rather than baking powder), sauerkraut and gravy. Plates of the Bohemian sweet rolls, kolachki, were available for dessert. Don’t take my word for the spelling of these. At least three different cookbooks on my kitchen shelf contain recipes for them, and no two spell them the same.

Bernice Weber, Austin, made 700 dumplings for the dinner. A bakery sale also took place and she made 25 dozen kolachki. Mrs. Elton (Marie) Krikava, Glenville, made 1100 of the kolachki, but said her husband helped her.

I don’t know whether Mrs. Brabec realized it or not, but the gathering gave me a chance to relive some wonderful memories. I am not Bohemian, but from the time I was 17 until I was almost 21 I lived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A place said to have a larger population of Bohemians than any city outside of Prague.

It was there I learned to love and respect those of that nationality. It was there, too, I learned to eat kolachki with such enthusiasm. In the homes of my new friends the evening usually wound up with kolachkis and Russian tea.

When I came to Albert Lea I used to be homesick for those friendly gatherings. To be honest I missed the refreshments, too. My non-Bohemian friends all told me that unless you were Bohemian you couldn’t make kolachkis.

Always an optimist, I found a recipe and gave it the old college try. They were right. People ate them and either liked or pretended to like them, but they weren’t what I was used to.

So determined was I, though, that when I was still part of the Tribune staff, and called upon a couple visiting in Glenville from Czechoslovakia, I asked help from them after the interview was over. Their hostess had been acting as an interpreter, since I couldn’t speak their language nor them mine. Strangely enough the visiting woman knew what I’d asked even though the question had been asked in English. Through her hostess she told me not to use lard or vegetable shortening, but chicken or goose fat.

So far, I haven’t been able to try it. I don’t know where to get chicken or goose fat and I’m not sure how to use it even if I do find it.

The Russian tea was no cinch either. I almost got kicked out of Dayton’s book store copying the recipe for that out of a cookbook. It was an expensive cookbook and that was the only recipe in it I wanted.

Russian tea has, as I recall, something like 29 or 32 ingredients. My handwriting being what it is particularly when I’m writing under the disapproving eye of a clerk who keeps asking if I wouldn’t like to buy the book…Well, that recipe never did me much good. It doesn’t matter. Since then I’ve discovered Constant Comment. It tastes pretty much like Russian tea.

Now if I can just locate a meat department that sells chicken fat. I’ll tell you the truth, that party Sunday has inspired me. I’m ever so grateful.

Love Cruikshank is an Albert Lea resident. Her column appears Thursdays.