My family’s culture is Carpatho – Rusyn. My mother is 100% Carpatho-Rusyn. Each year, Rusyn’s celebrate Christmas Eve with the Holy Supper. In our family, this is a seven course meatless meal, which includes homemade piroghi. 
Before the beginning of the Holy Supper meal, my mom sprinkles all of us at the table with holy water so that we will be thinking of the Birth of Christ. We light a single candle on the table to symbolize the appearance of Christ, at His Birth. We then do a toast with Palenka before the start of the meal. My mom then goes around before dinner and puts honey on our foreheads, which symbolizes the sweetness of life. 
We all eat a piece of raw garlic for the bitterness of life. We then dig into a seven course meal, which is really delicious! At the end of dinner, someone will blow out the candle and wherever the smoke goes to, that person will have good luck the following year. Because the meal is seven courses, we make the piroghi ahead of time. This is Nicholas and Susanna (my twins) helping out making piroghi for our Christmas Eve dinner. In Tea – of course!!
- Prep your potato mixture by cooking a potato and mashing it with butter. Mix flour and egg with enough water to make a soft dough. Knead well on a flat surface.
- Roll out on a floured cutting board or counter until the dough becomes thin.
- Cut the dough into squares.
- Place 1 teaspoon of potato filling on each square. Fold in half to make a triangle. Pinch the edges well to secure the filling inside.
- Drop each triangle into boiling salted water and cook until they rise to the surface. Cook them for five minutes longer.
- Remove from the water and place in a colander. Rinse them with hot water. Drain and pour melted butter over the pirohy and serve (with grated cheese if you want!).
