Author

Junelle Mah

Junelle holds a BSc in Human Ecology from the University of Alberta and a MA in Professional Communication from Royal Roads University. She is presently 'sheltering-in-place' with her two loving kitties, an embarrassingly large stash of fabric, her mama's Janome sewing machine, and a never-ending quest to test out online recipes in her kitchen.

    Happy Heritage Day: Our Staff Serve Up Their Family Faves in Absence of Yearly Festival

    by Junelle Mah
    written by Junelle Mah
    UAL’s Strategic Communications Manager Meredith Bratland‘s amazing Belgian picnic spread!

    There is no denying that a strong connection exists between family (blood or chosen), friends, food, and festivity. A highlight of summers-past in the City of Edmonton includes the ever-popular and wildly tasty Heritage Festival; an August long weekend sun-soaked celebration of our multicultural city. During this time, Hawrelak Park comes alive with a diverse display of various ethnic delights, including food! The current pandemic climate continues to change agendas;  we are unable to gather to collectively and the Heritage Festival has gone virtual. As a nod to this festival, a few of our library staff have reached into their family recipe books, and/or Instagram feeds, to share a bit of their heritage with you.

    Polish Placki Ziemniaczane
    – from Information Services Specialist, @uofalibrary Instagram Jedi, and proud Ukrainian, Eva Romanick.

    This is a traditional pan-fried potato pancake recipe and a wonderful comfort food. If you really want to spice up your life, add goulash on top…but maybe next time…baby steps!

    Placki Ziemniaczane
    6 medium-sized peeled potatoes (please ignore my unpeeled potatoes above)
    1 medium-sized onion
    4 Tbsp flour
    1 large egg
    salt & pepper to taste
    sour cream for serving – optional but necessary, if you know what I mean 🙂

    Grate potatoes and onion in a food processor (you can pulse too, but it’s personal preference). Place mixture into a mixing bowl. Add egg. Mix. Add flour. Mix. Add salt & pepper. Mix. Add oil to a non stick skillet, and heat up. Fry them like you would any regular breakfast pancakes, just a couple minutes each side, until golden brown. Place on plate. Garnish with sour cream and enjoy your placki ziemniaczane supper!

    Meredith’s Gallery of Goodies
    – Meredith Bratland, our UAL Strategic Communications Manager, Instagrams the MOST. SPECTACULAR. FOOD. Seriously, her feed will make you want to eat your phone.

    “We are all about the food heritage in our house and food helps us feel connected to Billy’s [my partner’s] home country, Belgium,” Mer explains, “He is known throughout our family and friends for his cooking gifts and talent. We are definitely a family that shows love through nourishment. My father-in-law is also an incredible cook and has passed his skills on to my partner.“

    The spectacular dish on the left is waterzooi, a Flemish stew that can be made with chicken or fish.

    • Mer’s father-in-law’s
      Christmas vol-au-vent.
    • Paella is Spanish, but a family fave as well. It is always totally luxe.
    • A sampling of Billy’s homemade Belgian pastries.

    Wiart Family Salsa
    – from Information Services Specialist, UAL green thumb, & chef /baker extraordinaire, Carmen Loconte. Guy is Carmen’s father and the Rutherford staff can heartily verify that his salsa recipe is the real deal and a trip straight to flavourtown!

    Guy’s Salsa Recipe
    10 lbs ripe tomatoes (I use romas, if you use other tomatoes, you may wish to remove the skins)
    4 cups diced onions
    ½ cup pickling salt 

    • Combine and let set overnight (refrigerate, drain the next morning

    Add in a large pot:
    6 cups diced celery
    2 diced green peppers
    4 small jalapeño peppers (take seeds out for mild)
    3 tsp dried chili peppers
    2 ½ tbsp. mustard seed
    1 small can tomato paste
    2 cups white vinegar
    ½ tsp cayenne pepper|
    ½ sugar
    1 tsp cumin

    • Bring all to a boil for 10 minutes and then add ½ cup cornstarch (with water), and boil for 3 more minutes.
    • To prepare jars and lids: put in oven at 200 for 10 minutes to sterilize everything.

    Lamoriss Family Perogies
    – for years I have been making my Auntie Doreen’s perogie dough recipe and recently I’ve been honoured to pass these mad skills on to my niece, Trisha! My name is Junelle Mah; blog author, Information Services Specialist, and GIPHY deployer on our @uofalibrary Twitter feed.

    Perogie Dough
    1 tsp salt
    1x 500ml sour cream (full fat)
    1 egg
    4-5 cups of all purpose flour*

     

    Blend together salt, sour cream, & egg until thoroughly combined. Slowly add in up to 4 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time until incorporated and then start kneading until it turns into a solid ball. Use the 5th cup only if the dough really, really needs it; likely you won’t and will use this for rolling out the perogies later on. Cover in a bowl with saran wrap. Let rest overnight if possible, at minimum one hour.
     
    Perogie Filling
    A LOT of onions, chopped fine (say 3-4 big ones depending how oniony you like them…chop up another 2-3 to caramelize for topping them when they’re done)
    A few lbs of butter (must be butter)
    Dry curd cottage cheese (1x 500 ml tub/batch of dough or medium cheddar cheese (I usually get a couple of bags of shredded to cut down on prep time)
    Salt & pepper to taste
    Russet Potatoes (2.5 lbs per batch of dough)
     
    Assembly Line
    Day One: peel potatoes & cut into manageable pieces. Boil until soft; can put a knife through easily. Rice them in a potato ricer and DO NOT TOUCH. Let them cool in the freshly riced form, preferably overnight.
     
    Caramelize chopped onions in butter and salt. This will take a LONG time over medium heat. Cast iron works best, but use what you think would be best.
     
    Assemble dough. Let rest in fridge.
     
    Day Two:  Combine potatoes with salt & pepper, cheese, & onions. There is no ‘right’ amount, you measure that stuff with your heart & your taste buds…in other words, add in what you think is best.  You need to do lots of tasting to make sure that the amounts are correct.
     
    Cut out portions of the dough at a time to roll out; make sure you keep the rest covered so it doesn’t dry out. Roll out to the desired thickness on a clean, floured counter; this will take time to get the right ‘feel’ for it. Roll some out, cut out a round with a cookie cutter or wine glass and fill it with some filling. If the dough creates holes it means the dough is rolled out too thin. When you fold your perogies, make sure you pinch them well all the way around. MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO GAPS AND EVERYTHING IS SEALED. If you don’t, the filling will boil out.
     
    Have a pot of boiling water ready to go on the stove for when the pinched perogies are ready. Pop them in boiling water and pull them out to cool on a parchment-covered baking sheet. To serve: plate them up right out of the water or pan fry for a little colour.  Top with your favourite flavours; caramelized onions are our family’s go-to, other options include sour cream, butter, bacon…
     
    To freeze: Let them cool and then store flat in a large freezer bag. 12 or so should fit in each bag flat. DO NOT STACK THEM OR ELSE THEY WILL STICK. You MUST boil them before you store or freeze them, otherwise the dough turns into a gluey mess when they thaw.
     
    *for gluten-free method, please email me (see above hyperlink in my name)…it requires more explanation. 

    Thanks for the view, we hope you get a chance to whip up some of these amazing recipes! We invite you to subscribe to our newsletter (scroll down to the bottom right side of this page). From our families to yours, we wish you a safe and happy Heritage Day long weekend!

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  • Our Green (and Gold) Thumbs: Part III

    by Junelle Mah
    by Junelle Mah

    Thanks for joining us for the third and final instalment of Our Green (and Gold) Thumbs.  We are truly blown away by the willingness of our staff to share their passion for gardening, growing, and maintaining. A big thanks to everyone for their contributions to make this trilogy grow to a bumper crop. Our Part I and Part II are still in bloom on our blog for those who may wish to visit. Natasha Nunn, our…

  • Our Green (and Gold) Thumbs: Part II

    by Junelle Mah
    by Junelle Mah

    Welcome back! Grab a socially-distanced lawn chair and join us for our second instalment of Green (and Gold) Thumbs, the three-part series that showcases the botanic beauty nurtured by our talented University of Alberta Library staff. If you missed Part I, feel free to wander down the garden path to the story on our blog to get caught up! Our Digital Content Specialist, Anna Bombak, shares this array of plants waiting for staff…

  • Our Green (and Gold) Thumbs: Part I

    by Junelle Mah
    by Junelle Mah

    For our University of Alberta Library staff, April showers (and snow), bring May flowers (and vegetable seedlings)! An email call-out to our folks to share their ‘green (and gold) thumbs’ yielded such an abundant crop of photos that we need to dig through this series as a trilogy! Stay tuned to our blog over the next three Fridays so we can give you all the dirt (presented in no particular order)! A…

  • Congratulations grads! Don’t forget, your Alumni Perks Include Library Access

    by Junelle Mah
    by Junelle Mah

    Congratulations to you, University of Alberta graduate! The last couple of months have been strange, to say the least, but don’t let that diminish your achievements. You’re ready to hit up the real world with your brain full of academic wonder, but what happens when someone tries to challenge your knowledge base once you’ve left the U ofA ’s bunny-frolicked campus grounds? Which academic resources can you use as an alumni to…

  • Stay-at-Home Hobbyists: Part II

    by Junelle Mah
    by Junelle Mah

    Our stellar staffers share more hobbies and interests during our sixth week of sheltering-in-place. Welcome to the second instalment of our #StayatHome Hobbyists feature. We ran out of blog room last week as we highlighted the hobbies of some of our library staffers, so we are pleased to have you join us as we continue our showcase. Librarian David Sulz has been known to bust out an impromptu concert in the Rutherford…

  • Stay-at-Home Hobbyists: Part I

    by Junelle Mah
    by Junelle Mah

    We have a number of talented folks amongst our library staff and we have the pictures to prove it! As we adjust to our new routines at home, during this period of physical distancing, we are finding new and old ways to help pass the time and connect with our families. We did a call-out to our library staff for folks to send in their hobby photos. And we received an impressive…

  • Law Students to test research skills in legal-themed ‘Escape Room’

    by Junelle Mah
    by Junelle Mah

    J. A. Weir Library lends ‘Turn of the Century Law Office’ as space for the challenge Students in the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law have been issued a summons to test their puzzle-solving and legal research skills in a scenario-based escape room. This unique opportunity was created by Tiffany Yii, a second-year student with the School of Library and Information Studies, and Dylan Robertson, a third year law student. The challenge…

  • Trim a Pyjama Tree in support of Kids Kottage!

    by Junelle Mah
    by Junelle Mah

    Our H. T. Coutts Education Library kicks off their annual Donation Tree campaign on Tuesday, December 3, 2019 with a pyjama-inspired tree-trimming theme in support of Kids Kottage. Kids Kottage is a locally-run, non-profit organization that provides 24-hour crisis care for kids and families in need. The Education Library’s 2019 drive focuses on the collection of kids’ pyjamas and onesies, but they will also accept items for Kids Kottage from the organization’s prescribed wish…

  • Let’s Library! A 30-Minute Session to Get You Research-Ready

    by Junelle Mah
    by Junelle Mah

    The first weeks of class are over and perhaps you are sitting with your course outline in-hand wondering how you will get all of your research done for your assignments. Fear not!  Let’s Library, an introductory information session offered at Rutherford Library, can get your library skills research-ready! A short 30 minutes may reduce your research stress by familiarizing you with the large number of resources and services the Libraries have to offer.…

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