Follow our family and try some Easter European inspired recipes
We normally did not have Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday in Romania. In fact, Good Friday would normally be a fasting day in preparation for Easter. However, my kids are born in the US and, even though we go by the Orthodox calendar, they want to celebrate everything so here we are making Hot Cross Buns.
‘Mucenici’ are a traditional Romanian baked sweet bread that is only cooked and served on March 9 to celebrate the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sabastia (know in Romania as ‘Mucenici’).
This is not something I had on my wish list but since we have few maple trees in our backyard, last year we decided to tap some of them so the kids would see the process of making Maple Syrup. It was such a great experience that we will continue to do this every year.
Eclairs are one of my favorite desserts. If you only tried the mini-frozen eclairs that you find at the grocery store you have not tried the real thing. So give this recipe a try and you will never buy the frozen eclairs ever again.
This recipe can look intimidating but I assure you that you do not have to be a French pastry chef to make croissants. You do need some patience and a wood rolling pin, other than that you should have all the gifts needed to master this recipe. The best part is that you can use the same recipe for sweet, savory or plain croissants and I make all in a batch.
If you are to ask a romanian to list few staple foods in Romania polenta would definitely be at the top of the list. We eat polenta as a substitute for bread, as a side dish and as a main course.
We eat soup year round in our household – no matter if the weather is warm or cold, soup is one of the staple things I make each week – each week might be a different variety and the kids have their favorites but my favorite thing about them eating soup is the amount of vegetable I can get them to eat each day.
My son loves pierogi and we are lucky to have a really good pierogi place nearby. However, I decided to try and make some pierogi myself and I was surprised of how easy it is to make pierogi. Mine don’t look as polished yet but I can assure you that they taste delicious.
Tomorrow, October 8, is actually National Pierogi Day so what better timing to try making some?
Sometime in August we decided to cut sugar during the month of September and by we I mean ‘I’ decided to try a sugarfree month for our family and had to convince everyone else to jump on board (by everyone else I mean a 3 years old, a 5 years old, a 7 years old and my husband who likes Pepsi). Once I got my husband’s approval I started preaching to my kids and getting them ready that we will not have any sugar in September. I will start by saying that our September SugarFree month was not completely sugar free (at least not for all the members of the family) but overall it was a success. Also, we went though a lot of maple syrup, honey and bananas.
If you are looking for an appetizer idea this is a great option. It’s easy to make and you can prepare in advance, who doesn’t like that? Also, it’s a one pot dish (if you exclude the strainer) so in my mom of 3 world this would be a perfect dish – minimum effort, no dishes to clean and tastes great.