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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; As Wilkes University student Cassie Morey studied for an exam on a recent Thursday, the savory aroma of butter and onions wafted through the second floor of the Eugene S. Farley Library. Mmm.</p><p>&#8220;It definitely smells good,&#8221; she said.</p><p>When she eventually put aside her pharmacy book and followed the scent, she found members of the Wilkes University Polish Room committee happily dishing out servings of pierogies, kielbasi, pickled red beets and Polish pastries to students, faculty and any other library visitors who approached them.</p><p>&#8220;We do this every October,&#8221; Joyce Latoski, of Wilkes-Barre, said. &#8220;We&#8217;re expressing our appreciation for the library housing the Polish Room.&#8221;</p><p>Inside the Polish Room &#8212; which visitors can access throughout the year by asking library staff to let them in &#8212; you can find books, dolls, richly embroidered ethnic attire and intricately carved wooden furniture crafted in the style of the Tatra mountains.</p><p>Immediately outside the room on the special &#8220;Polish Lunch Day&#8221; people found the kind of treats that come from recipes passed down by the babcis, or Polish grandmothers.</p><p>&#8220;My cousin is a farmer and she gave me the cabbage,&#8221; Jean Levandowski, of Wilkes-Barre said, explaining she shredded the fresh cabbage and added it to medium-wide noodles for a dish called halushki.</p><p>&#8220;And this is halupki, right?&#8221; a bystander asked, looking at a slow-cooker filled with a &#8220;pigs in the blanket&#8221; dish of rolled cabbage stuffed with meat and rice.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s not the Polish word,&#8221; Levandowski said. &#8220;We call it golumpki. Our president, Bernie Tarasek made them.&#8221;</p><p>Mary Lou Zaleski, of Glen Lyon, dished out two kinds of kielbasa, or sausage. The fresh kielbasi was combined with sweet peppers and onions; the smoked sausage had a brown sugar glaze.</p><p>While the former makes a hearty main dish, Zaleski said, the latter is a nice appetizer.</p><p>Plenty of desserts were on hand as well, from nut and poppy seed rolls to light pastries called &#8216;chrusciki&#8217; that are fried in a skillet.</p><p>&#8220;Our mothers made them forever. You&#8217;d fry them. You had to stand there,&#8221; said Marie Amico, of Pittston, who contributed a peanut butter version of the dessert to the event.</p><p>After making their way through the buffet line, a group of Wilkes University staffers said they enjoyed the food.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s always delicious,&#8221; said Mary Watkins, who works in inter-library loans.</p><p>&#8220;It reminds me of how my grandmother had a freezer full of pierogies in the cellar,&#8221; Sue Jolley from the alumni office said. &#8220;They were in bags of half of a dozen each, with or without onions.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;All Polish food is good,&#8221; said Ron Dennis, who works in information technology. &#8220;You don&#8217;t find it anymore. The young people don&#8217;t want to learn how to make it.&#8221;</p><p>Ah, but some of them do.</p><p>Zaleski, for one, said making pierogies has become a family project.</p><p>&#8220;My son learned from his grandmother,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I do the filling; he makes the dough and my husband and I pinch them.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Antoinette Luce, left, hands a plate of pumpkin cookies to Josephine Kline and Joyce Latoski at the Polish Room committee event in the Farley Library at Wilkes University. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web1_TTL102616polishfood1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Antoinette Luce, left, hands a plate of pumpkin cookies to Josephine Kline and Joyce Latoski at the Polish Room committee event in the Farley Library at Wilkes University. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web1_TTL102616polishfood2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Mary Buczynski, 95, looks around at the people and food during a recent luncheon at the Polish Room in Wilkes University&#8217;s library. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web1_TTL102616polishfood2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Mary Buczynski, 95, looks around at the people and food during a recent luncheon at the Polish Room in Wilkes University&#8217;s library. </caption1><photoCredit1>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web1_TTL102616polishfood3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A plate of Polish pastries called &#8216;chrusciki&#8217; is one of the tempting treats served as dessert during a recent luncheon at the Wilkes University Polish Room. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web1_TTL102616polishfood3.jpg</photo2><caption2>A plate of Polish pastries called &#8216;chrusciki&#8217; is one of the tempting treats served as dessert during a recent luncheon at the Wilkes University Polish Room. </caption2><photoCredit2>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Polish Room committee members serve ethnic specialties at university library.</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Polish Room committee serves Polish lunch at Wilkes University