Czechmatediary

I usually try to find a bit of historical backrgound on my featured recipes but I was unsuccessful when it comes to kremrole. Is it an authentic CS dessert or did it come to us from France or some other fancy country?

There are many ways to make kremrole. There is the SUPER easy way, where you just buy a flaky pastry in your local grocery store (Pepperidge Farms brand is the best), defrost it, make tubes out of them, bake them, fill them with whipped cream and then sprinkle some powdered sugar on them.

Then there is the semi-hard way where you make either the pastry or the filling  yourself. And then there is the SUPER hard way where you do everything from scratch yourself. [continue reading…]

I was standing in the check-out line at Target and behind me was a mom of three (how do I know that? Because they were all climbing all over her!) putting her shopping on the counter belt: Campbell canned soups, Lunchabels, TV dinners for kids, chips,…..I don’t think there was one unprocessed thing there. And I felt bad for the kids knowing what crap they are going to grow up on.

We did have pollution from cars and factories, even dealt with Chernobyl but we also had home-cooked meals every day. Our moms did not know any better and none of these pre-made meals were available. Although working full-time, my mom would make us a 2-course meal –  including soup and main dish – every single night. True, the soup was made sometimes from the store-bought package but I am pretty sure the ingredient list wasn’t a page and half long.

Even though I watched my mom cooking my whole childhood, I myself learned how to cook in the US. And I enjoyed the ride and my husband even more! But even if I didn’t have the ‘cooking genes’ and hated every bit of it I knew deep inside that I have to cook when it comes to my family. I would never even think of giving any of these above-mentioned ‘plastic’ meals on our table! [continue reading…]

I always beat myself over my head remembering that I did not mention some of the Czech-essential thingies (which I have been using for a while) to you guys. Here are just a few of them; there would be more but I never write them down right when I remember them so I forget half.

CZ: Ceske veci bez kterych se neobejdete! Povlak na periny, ceske radio pro deti a papani:

DUVET COVER – or ‘povlak na periny‘; very essential!!!!! I am sorry but who wants to sleep under some thin sheet when it’s freezing outside??!! You need a serious duvet filled with bird feathers to warm you up! And if you have that you also need a cover. You can buy them just about anywhere (Target, Bed bath and Beyond, Walmart), but they are kind of in hiding unless you know this term. Also they may be available only on-line.

DISKO TRYSKO – this is an Czech IPhone application for children. It’s a Czech radio which has three stations: kids disco music, kids fairytale songs, and kids fairytales. All in Czech and all free!!! My girls like to dance to it at least once a day.

FOOD ESSENTIALS – there are bunch of them like Czech Melta, Pribinacek, Czech-style flour…..all of these and many more are mentioned in my other post (click here).

After 10 years Vaclav Klaus had to step down and let someone else rule the country. For the first time in history the Czech people themselves elected former PM Milos Zeman to be their new representative. The BBC News descirbes him as follows:

“Mr Zeman is seen as a hard-drinking, chain-smoking politician, known for his witty put-downs of opponents”.

The city people and people under 29 rooted for Mr. Schwarzenberg, a 75-year-old titled prince, who worked as a chancellor to the famous President Vaclav Havel. The older citizens and the country folks seem to like Zeman more. [continue reading…]

Is it just me or do you agree that kids here in the US are just swimming in overabundance of stuff? Namely TOYS. No matter how hard I try to limit the number of toys they have, their rooms end up being overstuffed with toys that they don’t even play with! I am not over-exagerating if I say that after receiving all of the Christmas presents from us (parents) and relatives, each kid has probably 20 presents. It is a tough situation because the kids LOVE seeing all of them under the tree and the people give them those things with love but at the end I think we are doing them more harm then good. [continue reading…]

These days have been quite eventful for the Czech Republic. Not only did  – now the former president – Vaclav Klaus declare  unexpected (and quite unwelcomed) amnesty during his last New Year’s speech but the citizens are in the process of electing a new Czech president.

It is not just an ordinary elections, however. For the last twenty years the presidents were chosen by the country’s parliament but this year the citizens will be voting directly.

There are 9 presidential candidates and cover a broad spectrum of political ideas as well as appearances. Perhaps the most radical of all is Vladimir Franz, a university teacher, a painter and a composer, who is covered with blue tattoos literarily from head to toe (see image above). I mean, I am speechless; only in the Czech Republic, right? [continue reading…]

Many of you, non-Czech speakers, have been asking me if I know of any good way to learn Czech. And I would always tell you that the best way to learn is to go to the Czech Republic and stay there for some time. And of course, the fastest way to learn is to go to a language school there on top of undertaking the long trip.

I was contacted by a lady named Jana who is in charge of a Czech language school in Brno, called  Study Czech and it looks very good to me. They have either 2 month-long courses, or if you cannot hang out there for that long, you can just do the 2-week intensive crash course. All of the teachers have many years of experience up their sleeve so even the least language-gifted person can learn :). What I liked the most about the program is that they have a personal interview with every student to find out not only what language level he needs to be put in but also what kind of study type he/she is in order to find out what teaching style will fit him the best. [continue reading…]

A couple of days ago I baked a traditional sweet bread called Mazanec (a Butter bread). As the name suggests it is not one of your diet meals – it is high in fat and high in cholesterol. But the good part is that if you make this bread you will be continuing a tradition that is at least 6 centuries old! The Czechs either bake it on New Years or on Easter (hence the cross in the middle which signifies Jesus’s crucifixion).

The New Year’s tradition is a little more interesting because you get to mix a real money coin in the dough and bake it with it. The tradition says that whoever gets the slice which has the coin in it will be rich for the rest of the year. I baked it just a couple of days ago, almost 3/4 of the loaf is gone and still no sign of the coin :). [continue reading…]

OK, here is the second part (click here for part I): what happened in our house on Saint Nicholas day!

CZ: Zde je druha cast o tom, co se stalo u nas na Svateho Mikulase (prvni cast si muzete precist zde):

Our Czech community had a little St. Nicholas party (besidka), where the kids had a chance to perform a couple of Christmas carols as well as some theatre….and of course, people brought Czech food and there was a big pig out…..One nice mom even brought a big box of  home-made venecky! It took her 9 hours to make all of them so God bless her! [continue reading…]