Ukrainian Canadian community to honour Prime Minister Harper

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has announced that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be awarded the Shevchenko Medal on

Blender Dill Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is as ubiquitous in Ukrainian cusine as any other European culture. It's indispensible when preparing fish, egg and salad dishes, for starters.

There's nothing like homemade mayonnaise, and when you have the time I think it's worth the trouble of making. We're lucky to live in a time when we have the option of buying it when we're pressed for time.

Sylvia's favourite substitute for homemeade mayonnaise is

Talents of Ukraine – 2011 Canadian Tour

Boen Performing Arts is bringing another fabulous Ukrainian act to Canada this fall.

Just got word of it and waiting to get details from Ken Kachmar of Boen Arts ... this story is so new it it wasn't even posted on their website the last time I checked!

Here's what is known so far:

The show tour, dedicated to the 120th anniversary of Ukrainians in Canada, will feature The Honored Academic Song and Dance Company of Ukraine "Donbas."

The group began its creative activity in 1937 in the city of Donetsk, Ukraine and since then has enchanted audiences with the bright spectacle of the song and dance of their native land.

Many well known choreographers  have worked in this Dance Company, including Pavlo Virsky, Oleksiy Homon, and Valentyn Mykhailow.

Donbas has performed in Poland, Romania, Germany, Spain, France, Greece, Portugal and other European venues. During the last decade, under the direction of Valentyn Kichik and artistic direction of Oleksander Prokopenko, they performed in the USA, China, Syria and three times in Brazil.

I couldn't find a website for them but did come across this delightful YouTube video of a group by that name. If it's the same group then Canadian audiences are in for a real treat!



Featured soloists are violinist Innesa Tymochko and singers Svitlana Sasu and Yevhen Vaskin.

Innesa Tymochko has performed at concerts, banquets, festivals, on television, radio, and in theaters throughout Europe, including Belgium, Spain, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Austria, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Russia and Chernohirja. In 2005 she was a featured performer at the internationally acclaimed Eurovision Awards, Europe's answer to America's Grammy Awards, held in Kyiv.

Yevhen Vaskin has a charming tenor voice and a varied repertoire ranging from folk songs to contemporary arrangements of original compositions. He has performed extensively on the international scene and has won several all-Ukrainian vocal competitions.

Svitlana Sasu is a Ukrainian actress and singer, originally from Moldova, who currently lives and works in Kyiv. She has won many awards, including the International vocal competition "Baltic Trembita" in Tallin, Estonia (2005), the International competition "Perlyna" (Pearl) in Tyraspil, Moldova (2007), an international competition of Ukrainian songs "Hilka Kalyny" (Rasberry branch) in Rome, Italy (2010, and in 2011, she was the winner of the International singing competition of Ukrainian Romance in Lviv, Ukraine, honouring the beloved Ukrainian American singer, the late Kvitka Cisyk.

So far this is where The Talents of Ukraine 2011 Canadian Tour is booked to perform:

Vancouver on Tuesday, October 11 at The Centre For Performing Arts, 777 Homer St. (Tickets)

Vernon on Wednesday, October 12 at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre (Tickets)
 
Edmonton on  Friday, October 14 at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, 11455 — 87 Avenue (Tickets)

More details as I get them. Stay tuned!

Vancouver audio archives updated to July 03

Here's what on this week's edition of

Congratulations to the 2011 recipients of the UCC Youth Leadership Award of Excellence

The Board of Directors of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress has selected four individuals to receive the UCC Youth Leadership Award of Excellence.

"The Youth Leadership Award is an important instrument to recognize, encourage, and show appreciation for the young leaders of the Ukrainian Canadian community," said UCC National President Paul Grod. "Therefore, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress is pleased to present the Ukrainian Canadian Youth Leadership Award of Excellence to the following recipients:

Old-time Ukrainian favourite: Chicken in Dill Sauce

Dill is an all-time favourite in the Ukrainian kitchen. It is certainly one of my favourite herbs!

The Ukrainian word for dill is кріп (krip). I'm not sure of the Ukrainian etymology, but the English work for dill comes from the Norse word "dilla" which means to lull. It is for this calmative property that dill is best known medicinally.

Dill seeds contain a volatile oil that has a relaxant effect on muscles, especially those of the digestive tract. Teas made with dill seed relieve indigestion and nausea, and produce a lulling effect.

Gripe water is made with dill seed specifically as a remedy for colic in infants.

Even Charlemagne, in the 8th century knew of the curative properties of dill seed. He ordered crystal vial of it placed on his banquet tables to stop the hiccups of guests who ate and drank too much!

Dill is very rich in minerals, vitamin C and flavanoids. The seeds are particularly calcium-rich: 1 tablespoon contains 100 milligrams of calcium ...more than in 1/3 cup of milk!

Dill's soft taste marries well with sweet or sour cream and onion. Here's a delicious recipe for a traditional Ukrainian dish from Sylvia Molnar's collection:

1 frying chicken, cut into serving pieces
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
4 Tbsp. oil or butter (or a mix of both) for frying
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup water or chicken broth
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
1 cup whipping cream
2 Tbsp flour

Mix flour, salt and pepper, and coat chicken pieces.

Brown chicken slowly in oil or butter (or mixture). Add the onion and garlic to the chicken and sauté for two minutes.

Add water or broth and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally.

Blend flour with cream, add dill and mix into the chicken. Heat to cook the flour, about five minutes (but do not boil).

Serve with rice, noodles or potatoes. (Serves 4.)

For a variation use sour cream instead of whipping cream, and add one cup of peas (fresh or frozen) and cook another 10 minutes.

Smachnoho!

Update: This recipe and 300+ more from Sylvia Molnar's collection are published (August 2024) and now available on Amazon.  Link here.

Kubasonics on hold after 15th anniversary celebrations

In 15 years The Kubasonics have gone where few polka bands have gone before.

But then, The Kubasonics are not your average polka band.

Their unique brand of speed-folk incorporates elements of

The 1929 Ukrainian cookbook of Olha Senatovych

As mentioned in an earlier post, we’re presenting Nash Holos listeners and blog readers with a translation of the cookbook of one Olha Senatovych of Lviv, Ukraine, dating back to 1929.

It's really more of a journal filled with information and cooking tips that Olha gathered and compiled, perhaps with the intention of passing them on to her descendants. The recipes she included are both familiar and exotic to modern cooks who know all about Ukrainian cuisine.

Olha's original “cookbook” is hand-written, in Galician Ukrainian. (Galicia is a province in western Ukraine.) Her grandson in Lviv has kindly provided us with a digitized version — also in Ukrainian.

It all started out as a translation project for a writer’s group that Natalia Buchok (fellow contributor to Kobzar’s Children) and I belong to. A few of the members who are fluent in Ukrainian had a preliminary look-see and decided that it was definitely something worth translating and sharing with the world.

Natalka was fascinated with the book and , in spite of an already insane work and home schedule, decided to take on the translation.

Meanwhile, it occured to me that such an ongoing project would be perfect for Ukrainian Food Flair. Mindful of her crazy schedule, I nonetheless asked Natalka (nothing ventured, nothing gained, eh?) if she would be interested in sharing her translated treasured with Nash Holos listeners.

The "radio bug" bit down hard, and she agreed to host Ukrainian Food Flair on a bi-weekly basis.

Admittedly, it was a huge undertaking, and neither of us really had any idea how Natalia was going to find the time to do both the translation and the radio gig.

Enter another member of our writer’s group to the rescue. 

Mila Komarnisky, a native Ukrainian speaker and first-time published author, is our Angel of Mercy. With her novel, Wretched Land, finally completed and now in print, Mila was ready for another project and offered to help us out.

This frees Natalia up to focus on the radio presentation of the recipes as well as the valuable information and fascinating historical and personal anecdotes in Olha's cookbook.

In addition to the translation, Mila is also creating low-calorie versions of Olha's recipes, much of which rely on larger quantities of ingredients like cream, butter, bacon, and sugar than we’re used to these days. (It was written in the 1920s, after all!)

Many thanks to both Natalka and Mila for undertaking this fascinating project. I’m sure you’ll find our journey of Ukrainian culinary discoveries every bit as enjoyable as we do!

So stay tuned as Natalka presents Olha's recipes and Mila's low-cal adaptations on Ukrainian Food Flair every other week, and posts them here on the Nash Holos blog!

Ukraine's answer to Benny Hill?

Two perogy suppers in Vancouver this Friday June 24

If you're in the Greater Vancouver area and craving some good old-fashioned stick-to-your-ribs Ukrainian food tonight, you're in luck!

There are two venues to satisfy your cravings:

Ukrainians as Aryans: Marsha Skrypuch's novel Stolen Child about bizarre Nazi eugenics

Talk about twisted.

In the 1930s the Nazis devised a scheme to create a master race that is purely Aryan. Because to their warped minds Aryans were supposedly superior to all other human beings and thereby entitled to rule the world.

Only one problem with that plan. Not enough blond blue-eyed Aryan "pure bloods" in Germany to grow their gene pool.

Slavs, although considered untermenschen (sub-human) by the Nazis, were nonetheless one rung up from the Jews on the Nazis' hierarchy of humans. While the Nazis aimed to annihilate every single Jew on the face of the earth, some Slavs were to be spared, as the Third Reich needed slaves to do the manual labour.

As WWII got underway and the Nazis invaded the Slavic lands to the east, they realized they had a "solution" to their master race problem.

Little is known about this nefarious "solution" known as the Lebensborn Program, and less yet is known about the Ukrainians and other Slavs who fell victim to it.

When popular children's author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch found she had a personal connection to it, she resolved to write about it.

The result was her mid-grade novel, Stolen Child, which was recently given a Crystal Kite Award by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. (It was also shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association's children's book of the year award, Saskatchewan's Diamond Willow Award and the Ontario Library Association's Golden Oak Book Award.

It also was named an Ontario Library Association best bet, one of the top juvenile novels of 2010, and year's best by Resource Links, a national journal that reviews resources for children and young adults.

Stolen Child is the story of 12-year old Nadia, a Ukrainian child who had been kidnapped for her blond, blue-eyed Aryan looks by the Nazis in their frenzy to build a master race. After the war she finds herself in Brantford, Ontario where she slowly unravels her past life as a Lebensborn.

Stolen Child is published by Scholastic Canada and is available from the publisher as well as from Amazon and other major booksellers.


Marsha Skrypuch is available for school readings and loves to talk about her writing. She has been interviewed on Nash Holos several times, most recently (May 29, 2011) to talk about Stolen Child. More information about Marsha's books can be found at her website. You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter, as well as on her blog .

Ukrainian Proverb for week of June 19

Freedom conquers all things but slavery destroys the mind.

Вільність здобуває, а неволя і розум ламає.