If you've ever lived in the Southern USA, you're totally familiar with the question, "Brown or white?" Meaning: What type of gravy do you want to dip your fries in? Or, have them smothered in? You're also always given the option of melted cheese, onions and chili.This delicious US culinary dish is actually documented as pre-dating the US Civil War. However, Canada's Poutine was invented only in 1957 - with the one variation being the addition of cheese curds and, a really cool name meaning, "a mess." [admit it America. it does beat, "smothered fries" right?] Anyway, the end question remains. "Who really invented this dish?"Whoever it was, cheers to Canada and the US on their delicious collaboration! My students had a blast not only making this crazy easy mess of a hot dish but, devouring it and learning of both histories!

A national dish of Slovakia! Halusky are like soft gnocchi, somewhat similar to German Spaetzle noodles. It's mixed with a slightly tangy, yet creamy Slovakian sheep cheese called Bryndza and topped with fried bacon. Bryndza can be hard to find outside of Slovakia, but you could try substituting another soft cheese like feta, cottage, goat cheese, etc. The flavor will be totally different but it's close as you can get without Bryndza. When I visited Slovakia, my friend introduced me to this dish. I had the chance to eat it with fresh brynza goat cheese in Spisské! I got this recipe from a Slovakian cookbook and translated it with some help.

My godmother, taught us to make holubtsi, borscht, and perogies. I loved Holubtsi, but hated steaming, trimming, and rolling the cabbage leaves. So, I doctored the recipe to make it less time-consuming. It's not the 'real' thing, but it can be whipped up in a couple of hours.

I miss the wild mushrooms that my father gathered from the local forests surrounding our home in Willis, Michigan in the 1950s. He looked for two types in particular, a morel mushroom in the spring and a brown mushroom in the early fall. In the fall, there were many types of mushrooms—some edible, and some deadly poisonous. My dad knew the one type that was edible and could recognize it at a glance. We feasted on fresh from the forest mushrooms sautéed with onions in butter.Mushrooms are also a mainstay of a fall/winter dish of Hunter’s Stew, or Bigos (bee-goes). The traditional meats for this sauerkraut/cabbage stew are those that a hunter might find—venison or rabbit, perhaps.My mother made her version with pork ribs and smoked or fresh kielbasa, simmered for hours in a big soup pot on the stove. She called it Kapusta (kah-poo-stah) which is the Polish word for cabbage. Every Polish family has their own version. This recipe is an easy one for beginners. If you make it, please let me know how it turned out for you!

A Big Family Favorite when I was growing up!

This recipe was given to me by a family friend. A hardy meal that offers a lot of flavor.

I am happy to share my family’s recipe with you and again I am sharing this with you exactly how it was passed down to me. I have to include my family’s halupki recipe here, it only makes sense being raised in a Ukrainian/Hungarian home.

This is a recipe that my grandmother taught me how to make. I added a few extra things to it.

So tasty!! Not the healthiest, but it is the ultimate in comfort food! My hubby and I love it!! :excited

I went to my sister's house and she made this for me to try. Since then, I've been adding other vegetables to it. I'm giving you the basic recipe here.Change it around how you like. I like adding carrots, corn, cauliflower, and celery. That's in the batch in the photo. Its really easy to make vegetarian too.

My husband loves kielbasa and I was trying to think of ways to cook it for him besides the obvious combination with sauerkraut. I'm always trying to think of ways to get more vegetables into our diet and I came up with this hash-type recipe. We usually substitute turkey kielbasa to save on calories but either turkey or traditional kielbasa will work well.

I was going to make for St Patrick’s Day but got side tracked. I thought it was a different take on bangers and mash. I did forget the onions lol