COOKING IN A DIFFERENT CULTURE, part 4

My kitchen at home.

So, what do I struggle with and miss while trying to cook in Slovakia?

• Big rolls of Bounty Select-a-Size paper towels. I'm addicted.
• Blue 3M Scotch-Brite sponges. MP has an imported supply, so I'm happy.
• Big ovens. Not the norm here, and if available very expensive.
• Ice maker. Europeans have never seen the point, I guess.
• Grocery store coffee grinders. We keep trying, but even Starbucks in Vienna ground the beans too finely for the French press.
• Big boxes of kleenexes. Even the Kleenex brand only has a few in each box and mostly you see the purse-sized packs.
• Target and WalMart. One-stop shopping doesn't really exist in BA.
• 24-7 grocery stores.
• 90% lean ground beef. We had some custom-ground in Simmering, but it was really too lean; and don't they age their beef? It looks too pink and doesn't have the flavor of U.S. corn-fed.
• Good bread. Forces me to bake my own. People should insist on good bread. Maybe no one but the French remember what it should taste like. And, in France bread is a national treasure...
• Chicken stock. I would even settle for a mediocre brand. Again, forced to make my own. Produce is great here, and all I need are onions, carrots, celery, and parsnips along with a fat hen. And, the Slovaks know fat hens! Far more available than in the states because people here still cook.
• Spaghetti sauce in jars. You find these tiny jars that don't taste very good. We get several and doctor them up by adding tomatoes, tomato sauce, wine, and garlic. Good, but not half as good as our doctored-up Prego at home.
• Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. We get around this by using Bambino or baby cheese which comes in little red tubes--kind of like a white Cheez-Whiz--and dried pasta. The little ones like it, but at first don't trust it's whiteness, accustomed as they are to the fake-orange of Kraft.
• Haagen Das, Ben & Jerry's, Dove. There are Magnum bars which are yummy, but this trip they don't seem quite as rich and over-the-top creamy as I remember--similar to what happened to Dove bars. Someone got cheap with the butterfat content.
• Pam. MP has one can which I am guiltily consuming. Don't think I use it this often at home...
• My kitchen. Yep! I have to admit that 5 weeks is a long time to be out of my element. I'm not tired of seeing new places and things, but I do miss the comforts of my kitchen.

COOKING IN A DIFFERENT CULTURE, part 3

So what have I been cooking? As mentioned, Grandma's Christmas bread trees and muffins. Also, I bought a great new oval skillet/sauté pan at IKEA before Christmas--perfect for the Spanish-style omelets I have been envisioning. Think frittata and you will get the picture. I make one with onions, tomatoes, peppers, and bacon; and then, another with baby spinach, onions, and Slovak bryndza cheese [milder, but much like feta].

We have vegetable soup with our left-over beef tenderloin... And, creamy chicken, pasta soup that is so yummy and has fresh-squeezed lemon juice added just at the end. I also manage to make a pot of cream of chicken and mushroom soup with 5 leftover mushrooms and one chicken breast.

That's one of the things I love about soup--you can take a few simple or leftover ingredients and make it a meal. It works especially well if you have the ingredients for a proper mirapois--equal parts of finely chopped celery, carrots, and onions sautéed in extra-virgin olive oil or butter. When the onions are translucent you add some flour and make a roux , stirring over medium heat until the flour is cooked. You then thin it to desired consistency with a lovely chicken or vegetable stock and It's Soup! You can add your favorites and make it as chunky or smooth as you like--even pureeing with an immersible blender. Some mirapois have minced garlic added, but suit your own taste.

We have egg salad a couple of times. On Christmas Day we eat it topped with baby shrimp. MP spent 4 years studying in Norway and learned to love that combination. DM mixes up our family's favorite guacamole. We are missing the jalapeno peppers, so we use green and a few shots of hot sauce.

The night that CA and I babysit the grandkids we stir-fry some onions and sweet peppers with some spicy sausage slices and mix it all together with some white rice. Just to make it clear--we ate this spicy concoction. The little ones had their normal mac and cheese.

DM steered me away from the canned tuna at the grocery store, but when we were in Simmering near Vienna in Austria I did my normal label staring and managed to secure three cans of nice tuna fish, so there has also been tuna salad.

We've been talking about lemon tarts, biscuits w/ sausage gravy, and molasses cookies... MP asks about making BBQ pulled pork with the lovely pork loin roast her mother gave her. There is not commercially made BBQ sauce available, so I will have to figure something out with what's available.

AUSFAHRT AND OTHER AMUSING WORDS...

Can't help but chuckle every time I see the sign Ausfahrt in Austria. It indicates a vehicle exit, and the Americanized version is somewhat of an exit, too, isn't it?

LG was sick a bit when we returned from our three weeks in France and Spain. She keeps telling us that she is no longer girting, which is her version of the Slovak word for vomitting...

LG is all show biz. JA and KF are much lower key and as they grow up they will most likely end up as her cohorts in crime. She is the oldest and has the strongest "leadership" skills! LG isn't shy about performing, even with her as-yet limited talent. To our great and diabolical amusement, she always insists that we "crap" for her. "We are crapping..."

And, grandpa carefully compared two trendy shirts for JA while shopping at Du Pareil au Meme, finally settling on a very urban/trendy look to go with the "grunge" sweater jacket and cool scarf. Unfortunately, some French words don't translate as PC in American English. The little squishy guy's wonderful shirt announces "retard" in letters bolder than we would wish... With Latin the base language for both French and English, it makes sense that this French word meaning delay or lateness in America English refers to the developmentally disabled [now considered a derogatory term, but commonly used in the late 20th century. Never acceptable when used as a noun: retard; commonly and politely used as an adjective: "The child is retarded."].

CELEBRATING IN BRATISLAVA

Just a few of the desserts from Christmas Eve at the Krupa home

So confusing... Did St. Mikulas, Baby Jesus, or Santa Claus bring these gifts?

Christmas morning. Decorations by LG...

Christmas Day + one...

Took JE, MA, and the squishy little guy to the airport in Vienna today. Sad to see them go, but they had been visiting for two weeks and the little guy was sick for two-thirds of the time. Wait until he wakes up in his own bed tomorrow morning! He will be so happy he might not leave his bed all day.

He had some good times with his cousins... Learned how to pick on those smaller and weaker than him--giving the littlest girl a shove every chance he got. :) Shocking to his parents, but teeny, tiny KF never knew what was going on and would always right herself and go smiling on her way. The little guy was appropriately disciplined--could (and frequently did) verbalize his sins, but when the opportunity again presented itself he couldn't resist a good shove in KF's direction. Wouldn't have been half so amusing if he wasn't such a compliant, sweet-natured little guy 99% of the time.

LG has had a big time with a new and larger audience. She fancies herself a singer--doesn't matter if she knows the words or the tune(?!) she just keeps on rocking. The really fun thing about her is that she LOVES to cook. At 3-1/2 she cracks fresh eggs flawlessly and needs to have her hands in every project happening in the kitchen. Christmas morning as I glazed great grandma's Christmas tree coffee cake recipe, she knew intuitively to put one gumdrop dead center on each of the rolls. A smashing success!

KF has been a delight. She began walking at about 10 months. She is such a tiny little girl and she considers herself on an equal level with the older two. She chases around the dividing wall, carrying a toy in each hand. She has a sweetly melodious little voice--inherited from her mommy--like angels singing. She sticks like Velcro to her mommy but has warmed up considerably to grandpa and I. Don't think she would settle down if left with us for a day, but we would be game...

This past week we've had lots of French press coffee and many Czech beers and regional wines were consumed. MA managed to get 9 beers and 13 bottles of wine (or some such number) into their luggage. He will be enjoying memories of Central Europe for many days to come and sharing his joy with family and friends!

MP's mom did her traditional over-the-top Christmas Eve extravaganza! All the traditional foods, including three entrees, soup, salads, and too many desserts to count. There was a wonderful multi-layered chestnut cake with meltingly, yummy buttercream icing. And, a similar coffee-flavored confection. There were two strudels--apple & cheese and poppy seed--and an endless array of cookies and sweets.

MP's parents always serve Nescafe with dessert. Yep! The instant kind. It is surprisingly better than you think possible. MA is a die-hard coffee afficiado, so I asked him to have a cup. He agreed, Nescafe works. Go figure. And I thought I needed to spend $3.70 on a Starbucks!

Christmas Day was just our famly--6 adults and 3 little ones. We had great grandma's coffee cake in the morning, guacamole, chips, egg salad, and shrimp cocktail in the afternoon, and dinner was salad, steak and pomme frites with a buerre blanc sauce--thank you MA!

The 26th is a holiday in most of Europe, so not much was happening in Vienna. We walked around the center of the city, enjoying the empty spaces and having time to explore all the side streets. The architecture is overwhelming! The area surrounding St. Stephen's Plaza [Stephensplatz] is usually crammed with tourists and we are too distracted to really take it all in. We found a Segafredo cafe for a melange and croissant, then later had lunch at the Cafe Europa--a chicken club sandwich for me and an array of sausages with a Kaiser roll and condiments for CA. I topped my meal with a Vienna coffee--black coffee topped with whipped, but unsweetened whipping cream. I appreciated that this cup was hot! I like my coffee hot, but the earlier Segafredo coffee was no better than lukewarm--I could almost just not bother with coffee if it isn't hot.

Tomorrow we may drive half way to Vienna to--big surprise--an outlet mall! First one ever in this area and a new concept for Europe. Shopping pretty much sucks in Slovakia and Austria, so my expectations are low...

Count your blessings, Americans. You have fantastic variety, the best quality and prices, and endless options of places to shop. Here you might as well forget about it if you are over a size 10, and most of what you see is either designer labeled or crap quality. I always wonder, "Where do the normal people shop?"

Part of the answer to my question is that people here need far less than what Americans "need." And, if they can afford it they buy excellent quality and far, far fewer items. I would love to shop that way, but told CA that for that plan to work I would need to buy far less for a long period of time and then buy the top quality. Otherwise, I might have to work full time to pay for my wardrobe. Marielle does not plan to work full time! In fact, she would prefer to only work for herself and not have to take any more contract work at any time! Maybe she needs to begin buying lottery tickets? Or, planning a trip to Vegas?

We're here for almost two more weeks. CA started teaching LG a bit today--numbers and connecting dots--and they had a big time. She gets easily distracted [normal for an active 3-year old] but her little mind is always racing and we think that if grandpa challenges her intellectually, we all will better survive her school holiday. We also plan at least one outside activity a day, if the weather holds out and we all stay healthy.

COOKING IN A DIFFERENT CULTURE, part 2

Grocery shopping is always a challenge for me here. Sometimes I discover interesting new ingredients [like a balsamic vinegar reduction syrup] but most of the time I spend way too much time puzzling over the 4 or 5 kinds flour, and which milk is 2% and which milk is whole? We like half & half in our coffee, and they have something called coffee cream which fills the bill. Not that I can tell it says coffee cream, but MP tells me it does. It's even more interesting when I am on my own. Sometimes there are clues--like 12% on the small containers near the milk sounds like it will make our coffee creamy and not watery with milk.

Something I consider very interesting is that all milk here in Slovakia is packaged in cartons and does not require refrigeration until opening. I have seen this on offer in the U.S. but it certainly has not caught on. It is very handy if there are little ones in the house--easier to keep stock on hand in a pantry or closet and not be limited to refrigerator space.

We had decided on a very French bistro meal for Christmas day--steak with pomme frites and salad. We are pretty sure that the mystery sauce at Relaise l'Entrecote is a classic beurre blanc with a dash of mustard, and the reliable Better Homes & Gardens cookbook [my standard for almost 40 years] has a doable recipe.

Stores close on the 24th at noon, by law, and stay closed the 25th and 26th, so we need to power shop today to make sure we have everything we need for the next few days. MP suggests the grocery store Terno at Au Park [the first built of Bratislava's three malls] will have the best selection and variety, so we take two cars with three car seats out into the cold, cold day.

Oh, oh! People in BA don't buy/cook/need steaks, so while there is a huge variety of pork and more goose than ever had a Mother there is no NY strip, filet mignon, rib steak, or T-bone. We think we find parts of the beef tenderloin and smuggly carry it home--bragging about the price.