Bigos all the way! Growing up myself and my siblings were not fond of a number of the dishes, but I’ve since become addicted to this dish, to the point of making my own occasionally throughout the year. Must be served with rye bread, the secret is in getting all the flavouring and re-heating (it get’s better everytime it’s served)… my first year away from home I made bigos for my flatmates and against their English instincts came to love it.

Another dish that is usually completely devoured by midnight on the Eve is (I can’t find the Polish spelling but I know how it’s pronounced) ‘pashtchiki’? They look like sausage rolls but a filled with a vegetable stew (again appearances are very deceiving!), we dip them in the borsch.

This blog is great, I’m learning an awful lot as an English-Pole (all my grandparents bar one were Polish). In recent years we have had to drastically reduce the courses at dinner (my family home has moved too far from London to find all the ingredients and we have gotten lazy) but we still break bread without fail and keep a seat for the stranger! Wesołych Świąt! xxx

Polish honey cake – definitely a labour of love! It didn’t help when I presented a ‘heap’ of cake on a plate to my Polish friends, only to be told that the Poles don’t have such a thing! Is this true??

Getting back to Polish Christmas customs – my friend told me about Christmas Eve. “when you see the first star on the sky that day – the wish you will be thinking – will come true! So around 4.30pm if you would walk down the streets there would be thousands wee (Scottish) noses glued to the window panes – with all the sweets of this world in mind…..” What a lovely picture.