Certified craftsmen
Promoter of the old craft of cooking
Stasė Čižauskienė
Stasė was born into a family where traditions were passed down from generation to generation, and holidays were celebrated according to the old customs. In 2013, Stasė started working at the Pivašiūnai Crafts Centre as a manager of cultural and educational activities, and she has applied most of her life experience to her work. She is eager to talk about the traditions and customs of various religious festivals, knows many folk songs and loves to sing them.
Stasė says: "Every celebration had its own traditional table of dishes, and they followed the customs. Today, few people still cook in their furnaces, thanks to electric stoves and ovens, but the recipes and traditions of the ancients still have value. I am happy and proud to cook the dishes that great-grandmother Justina, grandmother Elena and mother Alena used to make. My family is very fond of "Dzūkija bandos" on a cabbage leaf, shvilbiki, homemade sourdough bread, buckwheat babka with crackling, and wheat flour pancakes. I will pass on the recipe I inherited from my great-grandmother to my daughters, who knows what times will come. I never thought that I would be teaching the subtleties of baking traditional Dzūkija pastries in the education sessions at the Pivašiūnai Crafts Centre, and that they would become a staple and a source of pride on the table at various festivals, and that not only Lithuanians, but also guests from abroad would want to taste them.
