Czechmatediary

Alenka was so kind and posted her own family recipe in the comment area so I am re-printing it here. It is yet another recipe for Czech Christmas cookies but once you read it you will know that it  is the unconventional method. The ‘boring’ method can be found here (you pretty much make a regular dough shaped in hedgehog shape, put melted chocolate on top and sprinkle it with coconut). Alenka’s dad was a little more inventive and untraditional: [continue reading…]

Did you folks have a good St. Nicholas day? For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, here is an update on this guy:

CZ: Jak jste oslavili v cizine den Svateho Mikulase? Meli jste besidku? A co deti? Rvaly??? 

Nejdrive si pripomenme, kdo ten Svaty Mikulas vubec byl:

St. Nicholas was a 4th-century Catholic Saint and a Greek bishop from Myra (today’s part of Turkey) who had a reputation for a secret gift-giving, leaving coins in the shoes for those who left them out for him. That is why up to this day many countries around the world celebrate this day in similar demeanor. The trinity of Saint Nicholas, the angel, and the devil walks in the streets, looking for little children to give them presents. Once they encounter one, the ‘victim’ is asked if he/she had been good all year. The child usually says ‘yes’ because he is a/ afraid of the scary devil who may take him to hell b/wants presents from St. Nicholas. But St. Nicholas usually checks with the parents. If the parents’ response is different from the child’s response then it’s the devils turn to scare the child for his naughtyness. He usually shakes his iron chain, makes devil noises and shows the child his big sack that he carries on this shoulders and threatens the child to take him away to hell in it. The victimized child usually starts weeping profusely. Sometimes the devil goes as far as taking the child behind the door (if the event is in the closed out area, like a pre-school class) to pretend in front of the other kids that he, indeed, took the child to hell. Pretty hard-core stuff here we are talking about…especially when you are like 5 years old. [continue reading…]

It’s been a while since I posted but the truth is that Christmas has been really busy for me. Getting the tree ready, baking Czech Christmas cookies, sending Christmas cards, Christmas parties…..oh my! And the preparations are far from done or perfect. For instance, I wanted to make linzer cookies today but I could not find the cookie cutters!!!! I was so mad but also determined so I ended up using plato cookie cutters. That is why we have cookies in a shape of a butterfly, a pretzel, a strawberry, a horse….not very Christmasy but hey! Why not….

To put us in the mood I selected a YouTube video about Slovak Christmas this time. It is very nicely done and it allows you to see the similarities/differences when compared to the Czech Christmas. Actually, I don’t think I have even seen any kind of differences in the movie. Could any one of you Slovak folks fill us in on that? [continue reading…]

I love Christmas but it seems like every time I seem to struggle with what to give people since they (most of the time) have everything. I usually end up making them something or use the wonderful home made  gifts from Etsy. If you struggle with the same problem AND the Czech culture means something to you, you should check out the Czechmate Diary store (click). All of the gifts are home-made and unique. And if you are registered with Czechmate Diary via email you get a 10% discount!!!!

CZ: Ja miluju Vanoce, ale kazdy rok bojuji s tim samym problemem: co dat lidem za darek, kdyz uz vsechno maji? Proto jim casto neco vyrobim anebo najdu nejaky napadity darek na Etsy. Jestli mate ten samy problem a ceska kultura pro vas neco znamena, urcite se podivejte do Czechmate Diary obchudku – vsechny veci jsou mnou vyrobene a jedinecne.

Christmas is just around the corner (again!) and it’s time to get ready. Many, many years ago I posted a recipe for Pernik cookies which are hard, flat cookies decorated by white frosting. There is another soft-style Pernik cake, which is also very Christmasy and delicious. The problem is that the spices that go in it vary and there are a quite a lot of them. The easiest solution is to have it all prepackaged  and you are done very quickly (and don’t worry, it’s all natural, no additives, no GMO, no soy lecithin…).

The pernik spices are not available in the US but behold – Czechmate Diary now has them! Also, the recipe calls for a ‘vanilla sugar’ which is very common in Czech recipes (the Czechs don’t use vanilla syrup like we do here) and that is why I added one in the gift package as well.

That’s right! This is an easy and original Pernik gift package which includes:

• pernik spices package (imported from Czech Republic)
• vanilla sugar
• the original translated recipe of Czech pernik
• cute little gift bag [continue reading…]

This the season to make a Sain Nicholas costume because December 6th – the Saint Nicholas Day –  is just around the corner. To complete the trinity you need to obtain the costume of an angel as well as the  devil because they all walk together on that day, but that’s easy peasy. The St. Nick part is the hard part. The good old red and white Santa outfit is just not going to work…… So you just have to make one for yourself like I did! Most of it is pretty easy to do except the stinkin’ hat. But what you see on the picture is my first try of this costume and the hat did not turn out that bad either. You just have to make sure you mesure the circumference of the head of the person that’s going to wear it.

The body outfit is a very simple cut: a one doubled up rectangle ‘nightgown’ and another doubled up square that goes over the nightgown and you cut a hole for the head. Done. Then you find some fancy gold ribbon, make a cross from it and sew it on. You can also decorate the edges of the garment.

Now the hat. A bit challenging. To make it stiff you have to get so-called ‘fabric interfacing’, which is basically a net-like material on which you iron your fabric. You iron a piece of fabric from the inside as well as from the outside (the outside fabric has another ribbon cross which I sewed on ahead of time. Once I had both of the fabric interfacing pieces (the back piece and the front one) covered with white fabric I sewed them together and again, decorated the edges with some extra fancy ribbon. And done! [continue reading…]

It is a soup weather again so this time I chose to write a recipe for a cauliflower soup (kvetakova polekva) –  my daughter’s favorite soup. Not sure if the Americans cook it here but I don’t think so. If they do they probably put it in a blender to make a puree but that is not the Czech style. Well, the fact that I added some mushrooms and spinach is not the traditional Czech way either but it makes it more interesting. [continue reading…]

I guess this month is all about new designs for Czechmate Diary because I came across yet ANOTHER article about an incredibly inventive Czech guy (check out the other post about cool Czech designs here)!

The first time I wrote this post I was really excited about it and wrote a lot about him. For some reason 97% of the article did not get saved so I am very upset at my computer right now and  this post will be much shorter.

Anyway, Bohuslav Lhota from Velke Hamry is well over 70 years of age and keeps busy by improving his   – I call it the UFO house. He has been working on it for 31 years and it is indeed a masterpiece. Not only that the whole building turns toward the sun to acquire the solar energy from it but it also has the ability to submerge UNDER the ground during winter months. Why? Because soil serves as a natural thermal insulator. [continue reading…]

OK, we know that the Czechs are quite inventive. Prokop Divis invented a lighting rod, Jan Jansky invented blood types, Otto Wichterle came up with contact lenses...and the list goes on. But czech out this Czech guy!!!! (pix attached). Should he not be on the inventor’s list as well??

Petr Kratochvil of the Czech Republic rides his “aerodynamic,” bicycle on Federal Highway in Hollywood, Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012. Kratochvil, who is an “inventor,” says the bike keeps him in the wet weather and in the shade when it is sunny. Photo by Joe Cavaretta, SunSentinel (c)2012 [continue reading…]