The house smells of smoked meats and rasols for days afterwards! (Laila Rudzone)

Festive table NOVEMBER 2025 The house smells of smoked meats and rasols for days afterwards! (Laila Rudzone) Germany On the holiday table at home, there’s always rosolīts (potato salad). Every year we agree that this time we’ll make a bit less of it, but somehow it always ends up being a big bowl — and it’s always eaten to the last bite. Sometimes we roast chicken or carp with garlic and dill.  And the queen of the table is a homemade cake with lingonberry jam and custard cream. You can make lingonberry-apple jam here in Germany too. I couldn’t find fresh lingonberries anywhere, but you can buy them frozen at the Mix Markt store. Then you put the lingonberries in a pot together with peeled apples, a bit of sugar, and a clove or two for flavor. The jam is ready!  You can also buy dill at this store — which turns out to be surprisingly hard to find fresh, crisp, and fragrant in other shops, for salads or boiled potatoes. After the home celebrations, the house still smells of smoke and rosolīts for two more days. Story sent in by Laila Rudzone. NOVEMBER news The house smells of smoked meats and rasols for days afterwards! (Laila Rudzone) When fermenting cabbage, you have to kiss over the barrel (Laila Rudzone) Grandma’s secret ingredient used in pickled vegetables (Ana Beatrise Apse-Paese) What I truly miss here when I think of Latvia A once-a-year feast of Latvian specialities (Maija Liiv) Inta talks about celebrations in her home / Philadelphia, USA Amber Table (Dace Gulbe and Inta Grunde) Hostesses in Latvian communities abroad: in different times and countries. Photographs from the collection of the museum Latvians Abroad. Festive tables of Latvian communities abroad: in different times and countries. Photographs from the collection of the museum Latvians Abroad. Ladies’ Committee canapé party! (Inta Šķiņķis) Ladies’ Committees helped maintain the Latvian community (Aija Abens) Mom runs around the stores looking for the “right” kind of cabbage The salmon looks like it’s swimming! (Ingrida Hawke) Searching for Latvian mushrooms How can you shred cabbage without having a beer? (Pēteris Freimanis) Little Māra went into the forest… Ēriks and Aina on mushroom picking Fermenting for three generations in Canada (Aija Zichmane) Liene pickles cucumbers Madara Riley – Mushroom Maddie Certified mushroomer from Michigan (Larisa Mednis) Are you going to send me to mushroom school? (Austra Muižniece) Liene makes kotletes (rissoles) Sauerkraut-making workshop in Melbourne No posts found

A once-a-year feast of Latvian specialities (Maija Liiv)

My family left Latvia in 1944, and settled in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, in 1950 and I was born here. At this pre-Christmas time of year I think back, with nostalgia, to the once-a-year feast of Latvian specialties of my childhood.
My brother and I had birthdays either side of Christmas Day, so there was always a huge family and friends party at our house then.
The anticipation and preparations started long before. I remember taking out our best plates and serving dishes, cleaning the rarely-used silverware, and shopping at the far-away delicatessen that was the only place in those days that had the ingredients we needed for our party table. I loved the sights and smells of that delicatessen, as well as the sounds of many languages spoken by customers.
My mother (Lauma Sīlis) baked her own rye bread and sweet-sour bread, bacon rolls, cinnamon buns and poppy seed buns, pepper cakes, and our birthday tortes. She assembled platters of what seemed ‘exotic’ cold-cuts in those times of comparatively very plain Australian food. There was smoked salmon, rollmop herrings, sprats, smoked eel, tongue, and salami. The making of meat-in-aspic involved a trip the to butcher’s shop to buy a pig’s head. In those days,1950’s 60’s, pigs’ heads (wearing sunglasses, very tropical) were displayed in butcher shop windows.
She also made her own pate, rasols (with beetroot), stuffed eggs, fresh cucumbers in sour cream, and home-pickled cucumbers, and countless other traditional Latvian treats.
Australian Christmas staples were also on the table: ham, home-roasted chicken (after killing and plucking), prawns, trifle, and Christmas fruitcake.
My mother Lauma did all this as a single mother (separated), who also worked in full-time employment as a shop assistant. I honour her for her effort, her planning and coordination, her ability to save all year for this annual expense, and most of all for her love and for her incredible culinary talent. This woman, who left Latvia as a 17 year old, gave us our Latvian heritage and the most amazing childhood birthday/Christmas memories. Unforgettable.

Inta talks about celebrations in her home / Philadelphia, USA

…In our home, 2–3 days beforehand we were already preparing all kinds of dishes. Sometimes, at our house, we ate three times: everyone gathered for dinner around six o’clock and ate the hot meal; then afterwards, the men went off to play cards, the women washed the dishes, and then there was the coffee table; and around two or three in the morning, my mother set out the smorgasbord.

From an interview with Inta Grunde for the museum “Latvians Abroad.” Interviewed by Ieva Vītola in 2016.

Amber Table (Dace Gulbe and Inta Grunde)

Dace Gulbe and Inta Grunde have been preparing and setting festive tables for Latvians on the East Coast of the United States for about 20 years with Amber catering company.They talk about the most popular foods they make (pīrāgi!), about their cooking process, and also share their experience of how it was recently when the President visited Priedaine and they prepared the food for the event.

Ladies’ Committee canapé party! (Inta Šķiņķis)

Inta Šķiņķis hosted a birthday party with a Ladies’ Committee canapé theme! She invited everyone to revisit childhood memories and bring a plate of Ladies’ Committee canapés in two categories: traditional Ladies’ Committee canapés and modern interpretations in a global style. The event also included a competition, awards were given for best traditional canapé, best modern interpretation, best taste, and best appearance.

Ladies’ Committees helped maintain the Latvian community (Aija Abens)

A richly set table is an indispensable part of these celebrations. It is prepared in various ways – sometimes participants arrive with baskets of their own homemade treats, including savory and sweet snacks, decorative “pretty buns,” curd or apple pies, Russian-style salads, and other dishes. Other times, the tables are arranged by the hosts – dedicated and warm-hearted women’s groups, such as church or Latvian society committees, who, in addition to other responsibilities, take care of the event’s decorations and food. These women, often working behind the scenes, are nonetheless the cornerstone of these events, bringing warmth, order, and the true taste of the holidays to Latvian communities abroad.

The salmon looks like it’s swimming! (Ingrida Hawke)

Ingrīda Hawke sets tables for the Australian Latvian community — for weddings, funerals, and anniversaries. In this interview excerpt, she describes her own festive table creations: one of the main elements is often a salmon, baked in such a way that it looks as if it’s swimming!