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.
Baked Polenta with Cheese
Chicken and Dumplings Soup
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.
Pierogi
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?
SugarFree September
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.
Mushroom Spread
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.
Crepes
I’ve been planning to post this recipe for quite some time now. This is a long time favorite in our home and I love it because you can always change the filling and make it look like a totally new dish. Some of our favorite fillings for sweet crepes are Nutella, nutella and bananas, honey and chopped walnuts, lemon curd and berries, jam, sugar.
You can also do a savory variation – usually I replace 1/3 of the milk quantity with tomato juice and add fresh herbs to the mixture. For savory crepes filling we like sauteed mushrooms and onion, cheese and ham, cheese and fresh herbs.
Refried Beans
Don’t worry this recipe does not involve any frying, this is how my mother taught me to cook refried beans and it’s the recipe she has been using for years with our family, there might be other recipes out there that actually involve frying but not this one. I tried to name this dish differently however, to resonate with the readers, we will stay with refried beans name. This is a staple dish of the Romanian cuisine ‘Fasole Batuta’ and especially served during lent, there are probably hundreds of recipes of this dish and each house has its own, needless to say that I find this the most delicious so give it a try.
It can be served as a meal, a dip or side dish; works great with sausage and some pickles.
Seeds and Olives Bread
I make most of the bread we eat in our home and we really enjoy it. If you want fresh bread in the morning you can try the No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread I posted a while back as you get everything ready in the evening and you just need to warm up the oven and let it bake in the morning. The below is a recipe that will take you about 2 -2.5 hours from start to finish, I usually make it during the weekend and it lasts our family of 5 for a couple days.
Creamy Spinach Salmon
I love salmon! It’s easy to cook and tastes delicious, my entire family loves it so it’s a win-win dinner option for us. It goes well with so many sides – my favorite include mashed potatoes, rice, farro, steamed potatoes, steamed veggies – or you can serve it over a salad; leftovers can be used in our Baked Salmon Patties recipe. This time I tried a creamy spinach sauce and we served it with Farro and a red cabbage salad. It was so good that I completely forgot to take a picture of the plated meal but i’ll do so next time I cook it.
All Lavender
My Lavender obsession is at all time high these days. I absolutely love this plant. First it’s just beautiful and smells divine; I dream of someday having a lavender field but that is a far away dream as all the Lavender plants I used in my garden have never survived the Ohio winter so every spring I plant new ones but they don’t grow to their full potential.