Czechmatediary

“Why don’t you come over for some coffee and Babovka?”,that was (and still is) one of the most popular sentences in the Czech Republic. Whenever someone comes over for a visit to a Czech home, they better have Babovka on their table, or some angry plates will be flying through the air.

Babovka is a Czech name for a (marble) pound cake. I know Americans have their pound cake, but the Czech version is less sweet and there is NO gross frosting on it!!! I found an easy enough recipe on Recepty.cz for everyone to try out. I was somehow successful in my attempt to make the perfect Babovka, yet I still have ways to go. The first time I made it I was out of butter and since I am not very particular and precise in my cooking I substituted butter with olive oil. The Babovka came out dry and hard. The second time I had butter but only salted butter and Babovka came out moist this time but not sweet enough. According to the Czech ratings however, the recipe is bullet-proof so don’t mind my self-inflicted troubles. [continue reading…]

My classmate shared on Facebook a great blog post about the Czechs and their Hobbit-like nature. Do you agree? Disagree??

READ THE ARTICLE HERE (click here)!

CZ: Jsou Cesi jako Hobiti nebo ne? Prectete si vyse zmineny clanek a rozhodnete se sami.

Moravia is kind of like the French Riviera of the Czech Republic: it is unique, extra beautiful and almost unblemished. Although my grandma was from there, I am guilty of visiting Moravia only once – when I was just a little pipsqueak that is.

No wonder every time I come across this Czech region in the news I tend to linger there to find out what is going on. This time I came across a strange image which my brain had hard time categorizing.  At first I thought it was some giant construction, then maybe a UFO  or perhaps a giant new roller-coaster. I had to read the whole article to find out what this thing was! And it turned out to be a new, 18o feet tall  HIKING TRAIL (tower?)!!!!

To tell you the truth, I am not that excited about the look of it but I am pretty excited about what it does:

• to get from one level to the next, one can climb the so-called ‘sleeves’ made out of thick nets
• in case a tiredness hits someone like a sack of bricks, there are hammocks available everywhere
• What if you get to the top and want to get down a little faster? You can use a huge tube slide which brings you all the way back to the entrance (for my taste a little toooooo crazy)

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• I don’t know how about you but I celebrated New Year in style. Instead of of a boring champagne my husband made me Krtek espresso (we may patent it later as “krespresso”), which is a perfect size not only for Krtek to drink but also for my daughter to feel like a drinking-coffee-grown up.

  

   

   

   

   

  We also got a new kitty from a pound! His official name is Peppermint which dwarfed into  Peppe, which dwarfed into PEPIK.

   

   

   

  And my New Year’s resolution? I have a couple in mind. Here I go :

  *never eat one more piece of curkrovi (Czech Christmas cookie)
  *exercise more
  *read my kids more Czech books
  *potty train our guinea pig Zuzu

   

  How about yours?

  CZ: Zdravim vsechny v Novem Roce! My jsme to neoslavili s nudnum sapmanem, nybrz s krtkovskym mini espressem! Takove espreso nejenze probudi maleho krtka, ale take prida me dceri nejmene 10 let! Jen se na ni podivejte ;).

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Hello everybody!

Semester at my school is finally finished, which means I have some spare time to bake!!!! Besides, the whole world is bombarding me with questions about Czech Christmas cookies, so it is time to get to work (I think I should open a hot line, actually).

What is new? We are getting ready for a Czech-American Christmas, listening to – and singing – Czech and American Christmas carols, constantly pulling our white cat out of the chimney (do we have Santa stuck in there??), and drinking eggnog….normal stuff. [continue reading…]

Hello to all Czehmatediararians!!!

I came back from the under-world of big words and fanciful ideas. For those of you who do not know I am in the process of getting a teaching credential and the school is – well was – kicking my butt, now I am managing much better. That doesn’t mean I have time to do my most favorite thing in the world – write posts in the Czechmate Diary!

I have a lot to share. First of, remember when you, as a young individual, went to college and had to compete with those older folks in the front rows? They usually had jobs and took evening classes or they were moms and took classes while their kids were at school. They were always prepared, knew everything, and LOVED to talk. Well, I think I am officially one of them. Not sure if I am the most annoying student in the class but I do like to raise my hand and tell the teacher and the class what I think. What is worst, I think that since I am the elder person there, it is my DUTY to educate the youngsters about the ‘other side’ of things.

I really enjoy going to school again. I have three classes: one is The basics of teaching, then Technology in the classroom, and finally Diversity in Education. The first one is my most favorite one, the middle course gives me the biggest anxiety and the latter class mostly just ticks me off. [continue reading…]

If you were following the European news at all, you know it is a mess out there, especially with Greece, which is currently owing $271 million to its international creditors.

The Czech Republic owes about $70,000 which is not bad at all when compared to other EU countries. The lowest debtors are Estonia, Luxembourg and Bulgaria.

“It is very easy to get used to borrowing money all the time and thinking that one can repay other debts with it as well as restart the country’s economic growth,” says a Czech financial anayst, Petr Dufek. [continue reading…]

Now this is an atrocious lie! Do you see on that photo what I see? Mr. Owen is daring to call hotdog in a bun  a “KOLACHE”???!!! Now either that person is A/making a cruel joke or B/someone of a distant Czech origin described to him a long time ago what kolaches are but his description was very poor….or do you have a “C” option to explain this barbaric acton?

I took this photo not very long ago on one of my not-so-frequent-trips to Walmart.

AND here is an image (and a recipe) of true Czech/Slovak Kolache.…for comparison. Now you see what I mean?

CZ: Tak se prosim podivejte na foto, ktere jsem nedavno vyplodila ve Walmartu. Nejaky pan Owen si dovoluje nazvat parek v rohliku ‘KOLACE’!!!!! Tak to uz je dost. Takoveho kacire jsem tu jeste nepotkala.