CHRISTMAS RITUAL
Local family keeps pierogi-making tradition alive through four generations
The kitchen in the home of Tina and Jay Maguire of Norwood was bustling Saturday afternoon. Dozens of family members, from ages 3 to 75, donning clothes and aprons dusted with flour, squeezed in and out of the room, to take their shift at the stove, sink or table. It was the Kosloski family’s annual holiday pierogimaking party, a tradition that they’ve treasured through four generations.
The popular Eastern European pierogi is a small dough envelope filled with mashed potato, meat, sauerkraut, cheese, or vegetables, crimped to seal the edge and then boiled or fried in butter, typically served with sour cream or fried onions. Spelled Pierogi in Polish, the name is also commonly spelled as peirogy, pyrohy, pyrogy, or perogi.
The Kosloski family members spell it “pierogi” and they’ve been making them since they were knee-high, watching their mother in the kitchen. Steve and Floss Kosloski and their eight children made their lifelong home on Primos Avenue in Folcroft. Although Floss was Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch German by descent, she wanted the children to know their Polish heritage. Steve’s parents, Charles Kozlowski and Sophia Brczyk Kozlowski, fled Poland for America during World War II. Charles later changed his surname from Kozlowski to Kosloski.
Floss not only sent her children to “Polish School” on Sundays at St. Hedwig’s Church in Chester to learn the Polish language, culture, dance, traditions, and customs, but she made it a family tradition to have a traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner, also known as Wigilia, which literally meaning “vigil.” The meatless Christmas Eve meal, also known as the Star Supper, doesn’t begin until the first star appears in the sky. As part of the meatless dinner, the Kosloski family always enjoyed pierogi, handmade by their mother.
“Mom not only made the Christmas Eve pierogi,” remembered Terry Kosloski Olsen, who now lives in Stevens, Pa., “But she made the entire meatless dinner that included buckwheat with honey, crab casserole, fish, cole slaw, lima beans and brussel sprouts from my dad’s garden.”
As the eight Kosloski children moved out, got married and had families of their own, they would continue to gather at their parents’ home in Folcroft every Christmas Eve, no matter how far they had to travel, to enjoy the traditional meatless dinner and be together. If they arrived early, they were put to work , helping their mom fry the pierogi.
When Floss had a stroke in 1992, Tina Maguire, the oldest of the Kosloski daughters, moved the pierogi-making over to her house and took over as “pierogi matriarch.”
“In the beginning, it was just us girls,” Maguire remembered. “But then the men and the children saw how much fun we were having, and soon they joined in carrying on the tradition.”
The family has come together in the week following Thanksgiving every year to make the Christmas Eve pierogi and carry on this beloved family tradition. Everyone will take home a tray of about 70 pierogi per tray to freeze. Christmas Eve morning, they will take their frozen pierogi out, saute them or bake them , with onion and butter, and bring them over to the Swarthmore home of Denise Maguire Stuhltrager, Tina and Jay’s daughter, and her husband Stephen, where the entire family meets for the meatless feast. They used to meet at West End Boat Club in Tinicum Township for the Christmas Eve extravaganza, but eventually the family party moved to the Stuhltrag-
er’s home. Along with their meatless meal, the family will share oplatek, one of the most ancient and beloved of all Polish Christmas traditions. Oplatek is a thin wafer made of flour and water, similar in taste to the hosts that are used for communion during Mass. Someone in the family volunteers each year to go into Philadelphia to the Polish American Cultural Center on Walnut Street to purchase the Christmas wafer.
This year, the pierogi making venture took 12 pounds of flour, 30 eggs, 8 cups of water, 5 tsp. of salt, 9 pounds of potatoes, 14 tablespoons of butter, 14 pounds of sauerkraut, 3 pounds of American, Cooper Sharp, and cheddar cheese, and 7 onions. The pre-pierogi making day chores are divided up among the Kosloski sisters or their children. This year, Denise made the saurerkraut and onions. Carolynn Kosloski Loughead of Norwood, another of Floss and Steve’s daughters, made the dough, and Terry Olsen, made the mashed potatoes and cheese. One year, they weren’t explicitly clear about who was supposed to make what, and they all made sauerkraut.
“We all got our signals crossed that year,” Tina laughed. “We had to quickly start boiling some potatoes to save the day.”
The Kosloski clan had as many memories as the years spent honoring the family tradition.
“One year, we had a huge snowstorm,” Olsen remembered with a smile. “It took us four hours to get down here. We could hardly see driving through the blizzard and then it got so bad that we had to stay over. I have to admit, it was fun though, after we got here!”
Young and old gathered around the kitchen table Saturday. Nine-year-old Kendall Northrop of Prospect Park, great-granddaughter of Steve and Floss, wiped off flour that accidentally flew into her eye, and then reached for another ball of dough to roll.
“This is so much fun,” the fourth generation pierogi maker exclaimed. “I can’t wait to do this again next year.”
Duties at every year’s pierogi-making event are designated. Some rolled, some cooked, some served snacks, some filled drinks, and some replenished supplies. Each year, all participants bring their own rolling pin, cookie sheet to use as a take-home tray, and apron. Although not everyone can make it every year, attendance is “pretty good” those in the room said. There are always unexpected, extra people who attend, friends of family members, other cousins, or family members of in-laws. The family warmly welcomes first-time attendees, as well as repeat visitors, and eagerly shares their tradition, recipe, and tips with them.
Loughead cut the dough into small pieces, while those at the table rolled out a piece, took a spoonful of mashed potatoes or sauerkraut from bowls on the table, dropped the fillings on the flattened dough, brushed water around the perimeter of the dough piece and crimped closed by pressing the sides of the dough with their fingers.
“Tina and I are certified pierogi-makers,” Loughead announced proudly with a chuckle, explaining that she and her sister once took a class in pierogi-making from first generation Polish women at Sacred Heart Church in Clifton Heights. “We wanted to see if they made theirs any differently than we made ours and we hoped to pick up some tips. We ended up getting certificates to show that we aced the class!”
As each platter was filled, Stuhltrager and her niece, Alexis Maguire of West Chester, who stood by the stove throughout the event, took the pierogi and dropped them into pots of boiling water to cook.
“We’ve only had three fall apart this entire day— that’s a record,” Stuhltrager laughed as she carefully
spooned the cooked pierogi onto trays.
Michael Kosloski of Titusville, New Jersey, another of Floss and Steve’s eight children and the only man at the table, said perfecting his perogi-making is an art.
“My family likes to keep the basic recipe. I tried to switch it up one year by adding mushrooms and another year I stuffed some with shrimp, but everyone had a fit about me doing this,” he laughed. “I think of our pierogi day as a wonderful stress-reliever. Sitting down with family totally relieves your stress and it’s really nice to keep a positive family tradition alive.”
“Daddy and mom would be thrilled to death that we still do this,” Tina said as she recorded amounts of ingredients used this year and how she could improve or tweak how things were done for next year. “To have the whole family coming here to carry on our parents’ tradition is one of the
best parts of the Christmas season for me.”
“This is the very best day of the year for me, too, ” Olsen elaborated. “It’s better than any holiday—it’s family time! I just couldn’t even imagine not having this day together. We share one-onone time,that you just don’t get when you go to family parties and other events. We’re a close family and we get together often. But sitting around a table like this, is so intimate and so loving, and you really talk and are able to be with one another in a way unlike the rest of the year.”
Some of the men and paticipants who took breaks here and there, watched football on TV and chatted in the other rooms as the perogi were made. The party lasts until the dough runs out.
“We’re not allowed to leave until that last bit of dough is rolled out,” joked Natalie Kosloski who rolled out pierogi dough next to her ten-year-old son Tommy. Natalie’s husband Stephen Kosloski, Floss and Steve’s grandson, is serving in the U.S. Navy in Saudi Arabia. She traveled to the event from Clermont, New Jersey, because she didn’t want to miss it.
Clean-up detail is also a family affair. As chairs and counters were being wiped, Chrissy Revoir of Audubon, New Jersey, Tina’s sister, talked about a mechanical wheel that she saw on the internet to automate the pierogi making. At once, the kitchen crew, busy at work, while three-year-old twins Aaron and Jason Maguire zipped through the kitchen, vetoed the idea before she even finished explaining it. They immediately and unanimously agreed that they like doing the entire process with their own hands.
“We used to scrub the table until our fingers were numb,” joked Revoir. “One year, we wised up and now we put plastic on the table so we can just roll up the mess and throw it out. It makes clean-up a lot easier.”
Following clean-up, the family ends the day with a full dinner, minus any of the just-made pierogi which are saved for Christmas Eve. After dinner, they sat around and discussed who brings what for the December 24th meal and found out who they get for their polyanna. In the extended Kosloski family, Godmothers and Godchildren exchange gifts and the others are called “Orphan Annies” and get their names in the hat to draw for the gift exchange.
With over 500 pierogi made in one afternoon, the family felt like Pierogi Day 2017 was another successful venture and they were ready and prepared for the fifty plus hungry family members who will gather in a few weeks on Christmas Eve.
“Ours is a lovely family tradition,” Loughead said warmly. “It’s not only a lot of fun, but it reiterates how much we enjoy being with family members. It really is one of the best parts of the Christmas season for us.”