The Stiglich and Cendric Families (79)

Florian Stiglich was raised in Croatia and met and married Francis Cindric in Ongiline, Croatia.  Florian and Francis had six together.  They were Mary Margarite, Stella (Slava), Pete, Francis, Joseph, and George.

Croatian Dress

Sometime in the early 1900s, the Stiglich family immigrated to America.  They traveled on the French liner La Savoy through Ellis Island in New York.  The trip on the overcrowded boat was  a rough one, and at one point the boat was rocking so hard that Slava almost fell overboard.

Eventually the family made its way to the Croatian community of Strawberry Hill in Kanas City, Kansas.  The Stiglich family moved into a home on Sandusky Ln. that they had to share with six other families.  Pop Stimach remembered that there were too many women and not enough kitchens and bathrooms for them to be very happy.

The oldest daughter, Mary, met and married Pop Stimac at the St. John's Catholic Church in Stawberry Hill.  It wasn't long before Pop and Mary started having children of their own, and in 1912, they had John.  Unfortunately, Mary didn't produce enough milk to feed the baby properly.  Luckily, Francis had also just had a baby, George, and would feed both babies at the same time.  Usually John would fall asleep before he had finished eating.  Mary Stimac-Goodell remembered hearing that Francis would come up to feed John everyday and would supplement his diet with chamomile tea.

Mary also remembered that "Grandma would bring lemon drop candies, cookies, breads, sausages, and other goodies when she came to visit.  She would try to visit once a week and Johnny would meet her  in a buggy at the streetcar.  She always brought material to make the girls dresses" and would buy licorice for the boys.

Francis with children/grandchildren

The Croatian families of Stimac, Stiglich, and Cendric's always cooked and celebrated family events with lots of food and beer.

No holiday celebrations would be complete without povitica, a type of rolled, sweet, nut bread.
The ladies would spend days in the kitchen preparing povitica, apple strudel, and other pies, cookies, and cakes.  Here is a povitica recipe and a Croatian dish by Stella Stimach-Belke:

Povitica Recipe by Stella Stimach-Belke
This recipe has two parts.  The first is the create the dough, the second is the filler.
Filling: Makes Four Large Loafs
For each loaf use:
3 cups of ground walnuts
1/2 cup of honey
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of scalded milk and 1/2 stick of oleo
2 eggs beaten
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Blend together and let sit until you roll your dough with the filling.

Dough:
2 cakes compressed yeast or dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
2 teaspoons of salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 stick of oleo
2-3 eggs, beaten
8 cups of flour
Soften yeast in water. Meantime scald milk, combine milk, salt, sugar and oleo.  Blend thoroughly.  Cool to lukewarm.  Add eggs and softened yeast.  Blend thoroughly. Sift six cups of flour in a large bowl.  Gradually add milk mixture beating vigorously.  This makes a sticky dough.  Gradually add remaining 2 cups of flour, enough of it to make a soft dough.  Place on floured board and kneed lightly for about five minutes.  Place in a large glass bowl, cover with damp cloth.  Let rise in a warm place 1-1.5 hours until it doubles in bulk. Spread the dough with  with melted oleo.  Roll the dough so that it is thin, and then add the melted oleo, spread with fingertips or pastry brush, then you can pull the ends so that you won't have a thick end.  Spread the filling and roll the dough into a loaf.  Bake for one hour at 350 degrees.  Brush each loaf with beaten egg during baking.


Stella's Saldama Balls Recipe
One pound of hamburger/sausage
3/4 cup of rice (breadcrumbs or cornmeal is fine)
(Stella recommends Minute Rice, but don't pre-cook it).
One large onion chopped
4 slices of bacon
3 eggs
One large can of sauerkraut
One can of tomato sauce

Fry the bacon crisply and saute with the chopped onion.  Drain the grease.  add the rice and the meat.  Then add the eggs and salt and pepper as desired.  Mix into balls.
Use a deep skillet and place one layer of sauerkraut on the bottom.  Then place meatballs on top and add the second can of sauerkraut.  Add one can of tomato sauce on top and add water until the meatballs are fully covered.  cover the skillet and cook for an hour and a half by bringing it to a boil and then turning down the heat and allow it to simmer.  Ed Stimach recommends adding potatoes and cabbage.  he says to layer it and cook it slow.