I've looked forward to Christmas day dinner at my grandmother's since I was a little girl. Though our usual meal is always delicious, I've only ever really desired my grandma's Hungarian pastries, or kolache. Each Christmas, there is a huge platter of the small, diamond-shaped pastries, filled with fruit preserves including apricot (my favorite), raspberry, blueberry, cherry, prune and poppy seed. Each year, as soon as my family arrives, I run to my grandfather's office where the desserts are kept until after dinner. I locate the platter and scarf down at least five or six pastries before dinner, occasionally sneaking back in with my cousins to eat a few more before they're officially brought out. The pastries are so small and supple we can eat tens of them at a time. The tradition began when my great grandfather on my grandfather's side arrived at Ellis Island from Hungary. He then married my great grandmother. The recipe was shared with my grandmother by my great grandmother (her mother-in-law), who learned the recipe from her mother-in-law, my great great grandmother. My great grandmother was a first generation immigrant from Spain, but as my great grandfather's wife, she adopted his Hungarian cultural cuisine and traditions and mastered the recipe to make for him and to pass down through the generations. So eventually, my grandmother learned this traditional Hungarian recipe to make for my grandfather and her children and, eventually, my cousins and me, her grandchildren.

– Veronika Jelenik

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more