Joliet club preserves Croatian heritage, celebrates diverse cultures

JOLIET – Boris Mijatovic of Crest Hill chuckled as he recalled a patron's reaction to the stuffed peppers the Croatian Cultural Club in Joliet served at last year's Berba Grozda – or Grape Harvest – dinner.

"She said she [did not like] stuffed peppers," Boris said, "but she liked ours."

Boris and his wife, Lucy Mijatovic, will again coordinate the dinner scheduled for Saturday. Last year, the couple introduced the stuffed pepper alternative to the traditional cabbage roll dinner, as the club has a few members now with the skill for making them.

"So we went to stuffed peppers," Lucy said. "Everyone really liked them."

Accompanying the stuffed peppers will be burek (seasoned meat rolled up in dough), mashed potatoes, salad and dessert palacinke (a jam-stuffed crepe sprinkled with sugar). The recipes are from Lucy's family.

"It's what we've done for generations," Lucy said.

The grape harvest is an important time for Croatians, said Delores Pavich of Plainfield, a member of the Croatian Culture Club in Joliet. It is commemorated annually with a huge celebration, which includes food cooked by the Mijatovics and their volunteer team.

While members will not actually harvest grapes, the presence of grapes will symbolically acknowledge the harvest in the home country.

"We put bowls of grapes on the table that the people enjoy while waiting for their dinner," Pavich said.

Begun in 1960 to perpetuate the Croatian heritage, as well as the heritages of its non-Croatian members, the Croatian Cultural Club serves some type of food most weeks of the year, Pavich said.

"We like to promote the culture of all countries," Pavich said. "We have Irish night, with bagpipes here sometimes, and we have corned beef and cabbage dinners."

In addition, Pavich said, the Croatian Club Kolo Dancers meet every Tuesday and do the Kolo, the traditional dance of Croatia. Bill Pederson of Joliet, club president, added that the club features live music every Friday (polka), Saturday (Croatian) and Sunday ('50s and '60s light rock).

Still, the club is known for its terrific food. Twice a year – on Father's Day and also toward the end of summer – the club hosts barbecue lamb picnics. Joe Jelinek, recording secretary, said boneless lamb is seasoned with salt, pepper, lemon and granulated garlic and then roasted.

"We also stuff the lamb with garlic cloves," Jelinek said.

Another picnic item is cevapcici, a sausage traditionally grilled over an open fire. Customarily, cevapcici are served with green onions and two types of sauces, but the club offers only onions, Pavich said.

One dish the club used to prepare frequently, but now only offers at its Good Friday fish fry, is bakalar – a dried and salted codfish, said Marko Babic of Crest Hill, one of the club's original members.

"The salt preserved it," Babic said. "It was the people's main diet when they were out to sea for months."

Bakalar also appears in Italian cuisine, cooked in tomato sauce, Babic said. The Croatians prepare it differently.

"Ours is with olive oil, butter and a lot of garlic," Jelinek said.
Not every Friday has a fish fry. Sometimes, the club hosts chicken or pork chop dinners, Pavich added. Twice a year, the club offers a steak fry, Gelinek added.

"As things change, we change," Pederson said. "We go with the flow."

Last May, Boris and Lucy introduced another new – but traditional – dinner, with goulash as the entree, again with recipes from Lucy's family. The meal included rice and palacinke – not for dessert, but stuffed with ham and cheese, Lucy said. There was cake for dessert.

"We like to cook," Lucy said. "It makes me happy when someone likes it."

Nevertheless, it's Boris and Lucy's devotion to the Croatian Cultural Club – not their fondness for cooking – that drives their volunteer efforts. In 1998, they left war-torn Croatia with their children to manage an apartment complex in Chicago.

When the company transferred the couple to Joliet, Boris and Lucy decided to buy a house in Crest Hill. While driving through the neighborhoods looking for possibilities, Boris spied the Croatian Cultural Club on Clement Street in Joliet.

"We were so happy," Lucy said. "It was like finding a piece of our country."

RECIPE
Dessert Palacinke
Submitted by Delores Pavich
6 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon sugar
3 cups flour
Dash salt
Oil
Mix all ingredients together. If needed, add more milk to thin. Use about 1/4 cup of batter at a time in hot skillet using oil. Tilt pan to spread, flip once. Spread palacinke with jelly and roll. Sprinkle with powder sugar. Dobar tek (Bon appetit).

If you go
WHAT: Berba Grozda Stuffed Pepper Dinner
WHEN: 5 p.m. Oct. 11
WHERE: Croatian Cultural Club, 1503 Clement St., Joliet
COST: $12
CONTACT: 815-723-3154