Ukrainian dinner

On Friday night we hosted a dinner for 20 people. I suggested that we have a Ukrainian meal with cabbage rolls, perogies, and sausage. The cabbage rolls posed no problem as cabbage, ground meat and rice were easy to find. The only sausage that we could find in most supermarkets was chorizo...in a hundred different versions! A couple of Italian sausages were discovered at a MEGA store and we hoped that our guests wouldn't know the difference. The perogies were going to be a time consuming challenge. At the last minute, in the freezer section at Costco, we found three bags of cheese ravioli and decided that when boiled and fried with onion & bacon, they would be perfect.

Doug was my sous-chef with the cabbage rolls; John A-P boiled and fried the "perogies"; John M sliced and diced(removing part of a thumb in the process). When everything was ready, we smiled at each other and lay in the sun for a pleasant afternoon break.

John A-P left at 6pm to pick up flowers. I lifted the salad out of the refrigerator. It slid out of my hands and crashed to the floor, smashing the glass bowl and spreading jicama, peppers, glass and spinach everywhere. A panic call took place to John A-P's cell phone to pick up replacement ingredients!

The bartender arrived at 6:30pm, the first guests at 6:45pm and the replacement salad stuff at 7:00pm. That was when John lost part of his thumb, helping me to prep the salad!

Everyone raved about the food, especially the perogies!! No one discovered extra protein in the salad!