Svacina Project

In April of 2018 I got laid off from my job. It was, as layoffs will be, unexpected. I had no savings and no plan and only knew that I desperately wanted to work for myself, trying to make a living from the things that I was most passionate about... Texas Czech food, history, and culture. I started throwing the proverbial spaghetti at the wall. I created a website for my services to plan family reunions and help people publish family cookbooks. I started a side business baking kolaches. And I entered a recipe in the annual contest called the Wisconsin Grilled Cheese Recipe Showdown. I figured that if I won, the thousands of dollars in prize money would keep me going for a little while and one of Texas Czechs' beloved regional foods would gain more national attention in the process. I am the very first person to correct someone calling what is actually a klobasnik, a kolach. So I'll admit that in financial desperation I ignored my own principles for the sake of marketing

Me and my mom at a Morkovsky family reunion in the early 1990s. Three months ago, on January 22, my mother passed away at her home in Katy peacefully with close family members around her bed. She was 71. Her life changed literally overnight in 2011 when she learned she had cancer – her colon ruptured during the night with very little warning. She never went back to work again, never went on an overseas trip again. Her relationship to the world, and to the people in it, became framed by her health, treatments, and how much time she had left to be with us. But my parents’ neighbor Chuck told me he can’t remember one encounter with Betty when she appeared to have a bad day, even during the long battle with her illness. To her last days, she continued to be positive and hopeful, to bake, to listen to and encourage the people in her life, to host and attend family events, and to laugh (or roll her eyes, depending on the situation). She was funny and supportive, creative, generous and