Roasting Peppers - The Easy Way

This is the time of the year when the locals buy bags of red peppers to roast and enjoy in the fall/winter months. A friend of ours told me an easy way to do this and I wanted to share the method with you. (We don't have a grill which is what lots of people use, so we needed another way.)

First, you just go and buy how ever much of fresh red paprika that you want. Wash them and dry them thoroughly and put them on a baking sheet or pan:

Turn your oven to it's highest heat and let it preheat. After it is ready, put the pan full of peppers inside and cook them until they are bubbly and cooked to where there is some black on them. My oven goes to 250C and it took about 20-30 min for my peppers. Don't open the oven during this process unless you must. Here's the finished product:

Now carefully remove the peppers from the oven and the baking sheet with tongs or something. Put them into a plastic bag, close it and let them cool. You'll have to pick them up with your hands to pull the skins off, so they really need to cool.
When they have cooled, they will look like this:

Now comes the fun part. Cut the stem of the pepper off and peel the skin away. It should come off rather easily, but if you need to, use a knife to help it along. You can keep the seeds, or discard them...whatever you like. You can keep the peppers whole (more authentic, I think) or cut them into slices. Here's what that process looks like:

For the final step, put your peppers into a bowl and add chopped fresh garlic, a little oil and vinegar and a little salt. Mix it all up and refrigerate it for a couple of hours to let it marinate. I like to refrigerate overnight and enjoy them the next day. As you can see, I like mine garlicy, too. No problem with vampires in our apartment!

These are great as a side dish, which is the way the locals have served them to me. I think they are fantastic on sandwiches or added to salads.

I don't know how long they will keep, as we eat them all in one day, but I would imagine it is best to eat them in a couple of days since they are fresh and have no preservatives.
Isvoljeti! Prijatno!

Shopping for Food in Novi Sad

Last night we went to the grocery store. We go every 2 weeks after my love gets paid. We go to a store called "Alba Supermarket". It's very much like any medium sized grocery store in Louisiana, with a couple of exceptions:

In the produce section, you choose your fresh fruits and veggies, but you take them to a worker who weighs them and puts the info on the bag for you. These seem to be grown organically, or at least with minimum pesticides because they aren't the pictures of perfection that you get in US supermarkets. But they certainly look and taste fine. You can also by bulk dried beans, rice, nuts etc. in this area, but the worker has to bag and weigh it for you. Not a problem unless it is a busy Friday night, but that's the American in me, I guess. People I have seen just wait calmly.
Of course, you can also buy these things packaged in other areas of the store.

There is a section where you can buy fresh fish. By fresh fish I mean, the fish are swimming around in a big tank and you can pick the one you want and they fish it out for you with a small net. They also have packaged fresh fish and in the frozen food department you can buy frozen fish, octopus, squid, shrimp, etc...complete with heads, tails, etc. or breaded and ready to cook. See earlier rant about this here.

Anyway, the rest of the store is like in America. They have fresh meat-not a lot of beef in our Alba. I've only seen what we would call stew meat (used for goulash)ground beef but no steak (as if anyone could afford it). There is a lot of nice chicken and pork. A good selection of deli meats and cheeses, baked goods (but, I haven't seen fresh baked cookies-not that I need any of those) and prepared meats like rotisserie chicken fresh feta and similar cheeses, marinated olives, and lots of sausage (!). (Note to BettiM - they DO have cornflakes, several kinds in fact..and peanut butter.) The selection is plentiful, the store is clean, no funky smells... Just what you would expect in a nice store.

They are always restocking the shelves. We have been in there on probably every day of the week and workers always have flats and boxes of merchandise they are putting out.

Many times when we go on the weekend, in the juice, soda, pivo and wine area they just leave the packages of stock on the floor close to the shelf because people buy these so fast, it's the easiest way to keep up with demand.

I've met such nice people in the store, too. I always go with my fiancé, but when I am looking for something women need like something to wash my face with, or body lotion, etc. I've had to ask a stranger in the aisle, or a worker because he really has no clue...hahaha. As I have mentioned before, many of the young people speak english very well, so I just find a young woman and ask. They have always been very helpful and seem "tickled pink" (as we say in the South) to speak to me.

My love always buys chocolate bars and little yogurts with fruit for his little grandsons when we go to the store. Doesn't sound like much to an American like I used to be, but again, things here aren't easy for most people and this is a real treat for these little guys. He loves them very much and it pleases him to give them regularly what he rarely got as a child. Have I mentioned how wonderful he is lately?

There are some things that we prefer to buy in the fresh markets you can find all over town. There is one close to where my fiancé works and he goes to that one for fresh produce and "fish fingers" (fish sticks - only MUCH better because they are fresh and a little spicy - I LOVE spicy). He also buys some stuff for around the house there because it is cheaper (like cleaning cloths, batteries, etc.). Every dinar counts in this place.

We buy stuff like water,pivo, and juice at the little liquor store a couple of blocks down from us. We buy fresh brown eggs at the little store across the street, and bread from the bakery that is practically our neighbor.

As far as clothing, I haven't really needed to buy much here yet. I brought most of what I need with me. I have had to buy a couple of things and I bought them at one of the ubiquitous Chinese shops that are on every 10 blocks or so. Things there are cheap (price and quality) but for just a top to wear around, why not? There are tons of clothing and shoe stores all over town if you want to buy something and spend some real money, but that's not really an option or a need for me right now.

These little Chinese shops have clothing for men, women and kids. They have household things like dishes, towels, glasses. Some of the larger ones have some pretty neat Chinese trinkets. They are staffed and run by Chinese...some of them have a local working there to talk to customers, but really, the Chinese person just bags your purchase and takes your money, so a lot of conversation is not really necessary. When I go to the little one a few blocks from our home, I just look for what I need, or else by means of the universal language of hand signals and pointing, etc. she is able to understand what I want.

And of course, you can find EVERYTHING and ANYTHING at the flea market in Novi Sad.

Not quite as easy as just going to WalMart for everything, but a lot more interesting.

Pivo Festival in Čelarevo

On Saturday night we went to the opening of the Pivo (Beer) Festival in Čelarevo. Čelarevo is the home of LAV (Lion) Beer. It's pretty good beer. Kind of strong, but I am a light beer person. (I know, many people think light beer is an abomination, but Coors and Miller light are what I drank in Louisiana, although I prefer wine.)
Anyway, the free beer flowed and the young people partied. And those of us who are a little older had a good time,too. I met the sweetest old man and his grandson who spoke perfect english. The grandson told me his name, but there is no way I can pronounce it...he said his nickname is "Bottle"...that I can handle. Here's a picture of us:


He recently graduated from university with a degree in Computer Information Systems which is the same thing that my daughter is studying. He is 23 and she is 22...small world. He was working the festival, serving free beer.

There was music and dancing at the festival on a very large stage. There was also a beer drinking contest for the young men. Here's a picture of that:



There were also men roasting beef for the crowd to enjoy..free, so all in all the villagers were having a great time. There were rides and game booths for the kids and lots of laughter as villagers greeted each other and friends from other places. The buses that go between the towns and villages arrived frequently unloading even more people.

Here's a picture of my love with his sister and his nephew:


He really is the cutest thing....

Visit to Čelarevo in Vojvodina, Serbia

On Friday we went to visit my love's sister and brother in Čelarevo. They each have a little house on the Danube there. These little houses are compact, but very comfortable. His brother bought his and fixed it up as nice as any home in town.

The bottom floor of most of these houses has a large kitchen with a table for eating indoors and a bathroom. There is a large front porch where they usually have another table so they can eat outside, which is what they do during the nice weather.

There are stairs leading up to the second floor where there is a nice sleeping area, with a television and in some cases, another bathroom. They also have terraces up on this floor.

Here's a picture of his brother's house on the River:


In the kitchens of most of these homes is a wood burning stove like this one:


I am amazed and impressed at what they are able to cook on these stoves. They also do a lot of cooking outside. Some have grills, others use the tripod with a cooking pot method. When we were there, his brother-in-law made fish soup (regional specialty) outside on a tripod cooker.

When lunch was served, we had 2 courses. The first was the soup served with egg noodles. You put the noodles in your bowl and pour the rich fish stock over them. You add some Pavlaka if you like and stir it up. (Pavlaka is like sour cream...yummy, but fattening of course!) When you have your fill of that, you put some of the fish in your bowl and eat it with your fingers. The fish is basically the whole gutted fish sans the head. So, you pull off the fins and stuff and try not to eat any bones! His sister also made some delicious paprika on the side. And no meal is complete without bread - hleb.

Here is that course:


After I was stuffed with that, they brought out the fried fish. They fry with fat. They are quick to tell you that oil is "not natural" and gums up your blood. Fat, they say is "natural" and flows right on through. Anyway, I just ate a little. It was delicious. Here's the fried fish:



Before eating, we all had a little "Stomaklija"..a rakija (brandy) with herbs that is supposed to be good for your stomach. This is another example of the cultural-medical wisdom here. Very interesting. The drink was good and it stimulated the appetite not a problem for me, unfortunately :^( Here's a picture of the bottle...note the obligatory ashtray.


During the meal, though we did not have any drink. It's one of those things here. Most of the time, no drink is served at a meal, not even water. After you eat, beer, vino, rakija, everything is offered to you. My love says this is common.

The water on the river was up, but it crested on Sunday and will begin to go down. I took some pictures of a beautiful pair of swans that swam right up to where we were...very comfortable with the people. My love's sister says she gives them some bread and they like that. Here they are:

Sunshine in the Rain

Today my son wrote me an email and told me that he wants to have a relationship with me again. He has been having a hard time adjusting...to school and to life with just his Dad, as his sister has moved out. He has had some problems and I have wanted to help, but couldn't.

This is one of the happiest days of my life. I didn't think he would ever speak to me again other than to tell me that he hated me. He sent me a picture of him and a song. He and I love music and he knows I like to listen to some of the same things he does.

My son and I have always been so close. Leaving him was the hardest thing of all. I'm not going to go into all the details. Just that my divorce has been hard on my kids and it is all my fault.

Dwelling on the guilt is something I do all of the time, and I really must let it go. Having him email me the past two days has done so much to help me that I can't really express it.

I look forward to the healing for him and for me. I feel like for the first time in many years, my prayers are being heard. This is not a religious blog, nor am I a religious person anymore, but I am grateful.

Visit To Šen Winery - Ilok, Croatia

We returned to the winery of Rudolph Šen in Ilok. He had some wonderful rose wine as well as his very nice, dry white.

We visited about an hour with this wonderful man and he took a few pictures with us.



He spoke to us about his life (he's 77) as we tasted wine and shared our stories. Once again, here is someone who we really didn't know other than as wine customers, and now we are friends.

Trip to Budva/Petrovac, Montenegro

We just returned from one week in beautiful Budva, Montenegro on the Adriatic. My fiance and I were there for the World Martial Arts Festival.

We stayed at the Slovenska Plaza, which is a resort consisting of many "mini" hotels. It is right there at the beach. There were tourists from many countries. Hearing all of the languages being spoken made me think of the Tower of Babel story from the bible. English, German, Serb, Macedonian, Russian, Korean, French...
The water was cold like ice! But, the water was clear and blue and the beach was nice with sand and small pebbles. I am used to the mud of a lake bottom where your feet sink into the goo, so I loved it. But, not being a "nature girl" I spent most of my time in one of the two pools there at Slovenska Plaza. They used fresh seawater in the pool and it too was freezing, but refreshing.

On our last night, we went to Petrovac, another village on the Adriatic and stayed at the Hotel Palas. The accomodations were even better than at Budva. Our room had a terrace, air conditioning, TV and a mini fridge and we had a beautiful view:


The little island on the right has a little Orthodox church on the top of it!

The weather turned stormy and cold that night, so we took the train back home to Novi Sad.

Prices were very reasonable. I think for most Americans, English, etc. it would be considered cheap to stay in Budva or Petrovac. I noted some prices:
Large Pivo 1.5 Euro
Hamburger or other sandwich 1.50 Euro
Room in hotel 55 Euro per night
(This included a full buffet breakfast and dinner, with meat, salad, bread, dessert, everything. And the food was good. The hotel in Petrovac, owned by some French investors even served white or red wine with dinner.)

Parasailing, boat tours, fishing expeditions, carnival rides for the kids...all was available from about 3 Euro and up. And of course, souvenirs of all kinds were available.

There were the usual little markets conveniently located so that you could buy juice, fruit, whatever you wanted at prices that were close to what we pay here in Novi Sad.