As I mentioned in my last post, my love recently celebrated his birthday. Birthdays in Novi Sad are an affair for family and friends just as they were in my home state of Louisiana. The difference? Here birthdays are also for adults.
Back in Louisiana, birthdays were mainly for kids. We take them to McDonald's, or the skating rink, or whatever business caters to kids birthdays with a bunch of their friends. Or, we'd have a party at home with their friends and cake and ice cream. When the kids were small grandparents would come, too.
For adults, usually the husband and wife go out to dinner at a nice restaurant and maybe a movie. If you are dating someone, same thing. If you are a young adult, usually you do have a party with friends.
Here in Novi Sad, my love invited his closest friends and his daughter and her family over and we ate, drank, talked, joked and listened to music. He tends to like the traditional music of Vojvodina and US music from the 50's and 60's. We also listened to some of my CD's. I like all kinds of music, so for his guests we listened to some Trisha Yearwood, Lionel Ritchie, Fleetwood Mac...easy listening. They like their music a little louder than I do, but they speak loudly so they can still hear each other over it!
I have posted before about how when people here are speaking they can get rather loud. If you didn't know better, you would think they were mad at each other. My love told me a story of one time one of his neighbors visited with a mutual friend and after several rakija's they got pretty loud. His son-in-law (who lives in the building) came to the door concerned that they were fighting! He said they all laughed and invited him in to join them.
To me, this is just another example of the zest for life that these people have. It's like everything they do, they do with vigor. It can be overwhelming sometimes, but it is also endearing.
The guests seemed to like my music. I know they are familiar with American music. The whole world is. There are many radio stations here in Novi Sad and I can always find several playing American music, but I like the traditional music as well.
The little roasted pig was a hit. They eat everything here. Nothing is wasted. The pig's tail, ears, etc. were all consumed. The meat was very good, roasted perfectly.
The one major disappointment was my camera. It has been acting up lately and did not cooperate for me to take pictures. I think I had some bad batteries, because it is working now that I have replaced them.
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Srećan Rođendan! (Happy Birthday!)
This is a busy weekend for us.
Tonight we celebrate my love's birthday. We have invited friends over to our apartment and we have a half of a roasted pig cooking at the corner pekara to eat with them.
Must run now and go buy mineral water and pivo which we will serve in addition to beli vino.
Tomorrow we go to Čelarevo to visit family and celebrate the 15th anniversary of my love's brother and his girlfriend. This will be another big party with lots of food and laughter.
I will have pictures of these events and tell about how they celebrate birthdays (birzdays..haha) in my next post.
Tonight we celebrate my love's birthday. We have invited friends over to our apartment and we have a half of a roasted pig cooking at the corner pekara to eat with them.
Must run now and go buy mineral water and pivo which we will serve in addition to beli vino.
Tomorrow we go to Čelarevo to visit family and celebrate the 15th anniversary of my love's brother and his girlfriend. This will be another big party with lots of food and laughter.
I will have pictures of these events and tell about how they celebrate birthdays (birzdays..haha) in my next post.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Mexican Feast
Last night I cooked Mexican food for our neighbors. I couldn't believe how well it turned out, considering I can't find cheddar cheese here. Back home, I wouldn't even attempt Mexican food without it. But, I had a major craving for Mexican and our neighbor had asked me what to do with the tortillas he had seen at the market.
This was the menu:
Chicken Enchiladas with Sour Cream Sauce
Refried Beans
Mexican Rice
Every bit of it was homemade...nothing from a can. Wow. And it was fun. Cooking in our tiny kitchen was a bit of a challenge, though. I had 3 of 4 burners going at one time.
It was interesting the substitutions I made. (I had brought a large container of chili powder with me when I came here...don't really know why, but at the time it seemed like a good idea.) The tortillas were flour, I prefer corn, but they only had the flour kind. Couldn't find Monterrey Jack, so I used a little "Pizza Sir"...mozzarella cheese...it's fairly bland and melted beautifully. I just wanted a little cheese to hold the chicken and other stuff together in the enchilada and a little to put on top. I used the beans they have here and refried them with a little oil and onion and garlic and chili powder. I don't know exactly what kind of bean they are. Pretty much like pinto beans. I can't find green bell pepper here to put in the enchiladas and rice, so I used some mild paprikas instead since green bell peppers are mild...worked out fine.
I made a homemade salsa from tomatoes, onions, garlic, hot paprika (peppers), a little oregano, crushed coriander, salt, pepper and a little oil. I made it the day before and it was great as a garnish on the enchiladas with the sour cream on top. If I could have found some tortilla chips, I would have made more for a dip. The fresh tomatoes and other vegetables here are unbelievably delicious!
The funniest part of all was when I finished everything, I thought "uh oh, it doesn't look right, I don't think it will be good." But, I was committed, we had nothing else prepared and our neighbors were at the door.
It turned out well. They LOVED it. You can tell someone here likes it when they really eat. The wife had 2 helpings and her husband had 3! My love had 2 helpings also, although he is so sweet that he will eat anything I cook.
I made chicken and sausage jambalaya when I first came here for some friends and take my word for it...they DIDN'T like it. They ate only one tiny helping to be polite. We had to eat that stuff for days because you just don't throw food away here. And that's ok.
Now my love has two dishes he loves and wants me to cook for everyone...my "American" pizza with mushrooms and sausage and now my Mexican feast. We went for a drink with other friends afterwards (these late nights are killing me) and he was telling them about it and inviting them over for dinner soon to try it!
This was the menu:
Chicken Enchiladas with Sour Cream Sauce
Refried Beans
Mexican Rice
Every bit of it was homemade...nothing from a can. Wow. And it was fun. Cooking in our tiny kitchen was a bit of a challenge, though. I had 3 of 4 burners going at one time.
It was interesting the substitutions I made. (I had brought a large container of chili powder with me when I came here...don't really know why, but at the time it seemed like a good idea.) The tortillas were flour, I prefer corn, but they only had the flour kind. Couldn't find Monterrey Jack, so I used a little "Pizza Sir"...mozzarella cheese...it's fairly bland and melted beautifully. I just wanted a little cheese to hold the chicken and other stuff together in the enchilada and a little to put on top. I used the beans they have here and refried them with a little oil and onion and garlic and chili powder. I don't know exactly what kind of bean they are. Pretty much like pinto beans. I can't find green bell pepper here to put in the enchiladas and rice, so I used some mild paprikas instead since green bell peppers are mild...worked out fine.
I made a homemade salsa from tomatoes, onions, garlic, hot paprika (peppers), a little oregano, crushed coriander, salt, pepper and a little oil. I made it the day before and it was great as a garnish on the enchiladas with the sour cream on top. If I could have found some tortilla chips, I would have made more for a dip. The fresh tomatoes and other vegetables here are unbelievably delicious!
The funniest part of all was when I finished everything, I thought "uh oh, it doesn't look right, I don't think it will be good." But, I was committed, we had nothing else prepared and our neighbors were at the door.
It turned out well. They LOVED it. You can tell someone here likes it when they really eat. The wife had 2 helpings and her husband had 3! My love had 2 helpings also, although he is so sweet that he will eat anything I cook.
I made chicken and sausage jambalaya when I first came here for some friends and take my word for it...they DIDN'T like it. They ate only one tiny helping to be polite. We had to eat that stuff for days because you just don't throw food away here. And that's ok.
Now my love has two dishes he loves and wants me to cook for everyone...my "American" pizza with mushrooms and sausage and now my Mexican feast. We went for a drink with other friends afterwards (these late nights are killing me) and he was telling them about it and inviting them over for dinner soon to try it!
Friday, April 13, 2007
Easter Celebrations
This year both Catholic and Orthodox celebrated Easter on the same day. The way that my love and his family and friends celebrated Easter was very lovely:
We prepared the traditional Easter breakfast meal this year to be eaten at the home of his daughter and her family who live in the same building that we do. Because the shops are closed on Sunday...all of them, evidently..we had to buy everything we would need until Monday. That meant extra bread and bottled water (which we usually buy daily)and anything we would need for the breakfast and lunch on Sunday. This is kind of hard to do when you usually just run out and get things as you need them.
On Saturday night, we cooked (boiled) a beautifully lean smoked ham with some sausages and also some boiled eggs in with this (for added flavor - the eggs that is). I made some American style deviled eggs for them to taste as well. We also boiled some eggs to dye and decorate for his grandchildren...just as we do in America. There was alot of activity that night...many cooking pots going at once, his daughter coming by to bring us some vinegar for the egg dyeing and to look at what my love had bought for the children's Easter...it was fun.
Sunday morning we called friends and family to wish them a Happy Easter and to proclaim "Christ is Risen!". Then, we took all of the food downstairs to his daughter's apartment and ate with them. Bread, salad, the meat, eggs, vino, pivo...food was plentiful and very good. His daughter provided two delicious cakes for desert.
The children had lots of chocolate and candy in their baskets, just like in America. It is now almost a week later and they still have chocolate..hahahha.
The eldest grandson made me a little egg holder at school and presented me with a very pretty egg to save until next year. As long as the egg does not get damaged, it is kept out in the home for "good luck".
After breakfast and a very nice visit (both his daughter and son-in-law speak English), we came back to our apartment to rest and prepare lunch. Our plan was to go back downstairs and eat with them. However, the doorbell began to ring and eventually we had 6 guests arrive! All were family and friends and we sat and laughed and joked and drank a little vino. I didn't think that many people could fit in our little attic apartment space, but they did and it was very nice.
One thing they do here is everyone gets a boiled egg and you tap your egg (top or bottom) against another person's egg (top or bottom)...if yours cracks, you lose and the other person taps the next person's egg...and on it goes. So, here we were, all adults doing this...it was funny.
Everyone left after a few hours and we went on downstairs and ate what we had prepared for lunch and visited a little while. Then we came home and watched a little TV before calling it a day.
Overall, a very relaxing, family oriented day.
We prepared the traditional Easter breakfast meal this year to be eaten at the home of his daughter and her family who live in the same building that we do. Because the shops are closed on Sunday...all of them, evidently..we had to buy everything we would need until Monday. That meant extra bread and bottled water (which we usually buy daily)and anything we would need for the breakfast and lunch on Sunday. This is kind of hard to do when you usually just run out and get things as you need them.
On Saturday night, we cooked (boiled) a beautifully lean smoked ham with some sausages and also some boiled eggs in with this (for added flavor - the eggs that is). I made some American style deviled eggs for them to taste as well. We also boiled some eggs to dye and decorate for his grandchildren...just as we do in America. There was alot of activity that night...many cooking pots going at once, his daughter coming by to bring us some vinegar for the egg dyeing and to look at what my love had bought for the children's Easter...it was fun.
Sunday morning we called friends and family to wish them a Happy Easter and to proclaim "Christ is Risen!". Then, we took all of the food downstairs to his daughter's apartment and ate with them. Bread, salad, the meat, eggs, vino, pivo...food was plentiful and very good. His daughter provided two delicious cakes for desert.
The children had lots of chocolate and candy in their baskets, just like in America. It is now almost a week later and they still have chocolate..hahahha.
The eldest grandson made me a little egg holder at school and presented me with a very pretty egg to save until next year. As long as the egg does not get damaged, it is kept out in the home for "good luck".
After breakfast and a very nice visit (both his daughter and son-in-law speak English), we came back to our apartment to rest and prepare lunch. Our plan was to go back downstairs and eat with them. However, the doorbell began to ring and eventually we had 6 guests arrive! All were family and friends and we sat and laughed and joked and drank a little vino. I didn't think that many people could fit in our little attic apartment space, but they did and it was very nice.
One thing they do here is everyone gets a boiled egg and you tap your egg (top or bottom) against another person's egg (top or bottom)...if yours cracks, you lose and the other person taps the next person's egg...and on it goes. So, here we were, all adults doing this...it was funny.
Everyone left after a few hours and we went on downstairs and ate what we had prepared for lunch and visited a little while. Then we came home and watched a little TV before calling it a day.
Overall, a very relaxing, family oriented day.
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