Twarożek (Polish Cottage Cheese Spread)

As a daughter, you can often feel the weight of your mother's work at home. There is a clear second shift—after working all day, many mothers are expected to take care of and feed their families too. My mom was and still is a generous host—there's so much love in her food. But I always loved when she made Polish brunch (szwedzki stół). It was not only a meal that pleased everyone, it freed up my mom from doing so much cooking and then overseeing a massive cleanup effort. It allowed her to sit down with us. The food was colorful and the conversation bright. We were all present together.

My mom excels at creating a nourishing Polish brunch (szwedzki stół) out of nowhere. It features sturdy Polish rye bread that can handle the weight of salmon spread or liverwurst, along with a mix of sliced vegetables, including cucumbers. She tosses sliced tomatoes and onions with salt and pepper and lets them sit, covered at room temperature, until they take on the seasoning fully. Sometimes there's preserved fish, like herring in cream or oil. On Easter, she adds hard-boiled eggs and thick slices of kielbasa, along with mustard and horseradish. In the days between Christmas and New Year's Day, there would be leftover ham, turkey or fish to make little open-faced sandwiches known as kanapki. But it was also her go-to for weekend brunch, in which she leaned into seasonal produce and what was available at the Polish market.

And at the heart of szwedzki stół is a spread called twarożek, which is made with farmers' cheese in Poland, but is more often made with cottage cheese in the United States. My mom likes to add scallions to the spread. It's simple and herbaceous, and a crowd-pleaser for kids and adults alike.

There is no right or wrong way to do szwedzki stół, and every family has their own way of making twarożek. For instance, I mix radishes, scallions, cucumbers and dill into the cottage cheese for color and flavor. But the constant is that the spread is cooling and bright, whether it's spread on that rye bread or used as a dip for vegetables. There is even a sweet version, with cottage cheese seasoned with sugar, cinnamon and vanilla to serve with apples and berries.

There is ease and joy in being able to build out your meal according to your particular taste. My father, for example, might be the only one to eat herring in oil, my sister would opt for a more American approach to eggs with mayo and a little bit of horseradish, and I loved eating liverwurst with Polish mustard and sour pickles on rye as a child.

When I serve Polish brunch, I like to make sure the five tastes are present: sour from Polish pickles or sour cherries, spicy horseradish, sweet strawberries or gooseberries, saltiness from the herring or river fish, and savoriness from kielbasa slices or slices of fresh porcini mushrooms from the farmers' market. Now as I host meals at my home as an adult, I find myself turning to szwedzki stół too, especially on weekends, hot days or when friends with kids come over. The simplicity of being able to sit around the table and talk while building new flavor profiles is something I appreciate, and it brings me back to those easy days at my mom's table. It's a tradition I hope to keep alive for my family, with my own unique style.