I’ll be in the country for the next five days, relaxing with my friends, eating good food, communing with Hili the Cat, and working on my book. It’s a real treat to get up at 8 a.m. instead of 5 a.m.!
Here are a few more holiday snaps:
Malgozata and the apple cake (with almonds and apricot jam) she baked yesterday using apples from the family orchard:
This featured as part of a three-item post-dinner snack, along with poppy seed cake and ciastkokajmakowe, a very rich and luscious chocolate mini-tart:
I can see that comestibles are on my mind. Here’s a real treat—fresh cherry juice, squeezed directly from the fruit and undiluted:
Lunch: Polish ham, two types of sausages (note the very skinny one on the board), salad, two types of Polish cheese (one smoked), bread, coffee and tea. Smacznego!
And dinner: chicken in sauce with sesame seeds, local potatoes, and corn, served with a lovely and gutsy Italian wine:
When not cavorting outside among the cherry trees, Hili is snoozing on somebody’s lap (with luck, mine) or on a chair. The transition between out and in is effected by her jumping on the windowsill to call attention to her needs:
Hili recumbent. Someone once said that there is no such thing as a cat with insomnia, and Hili certainly fits that pattern. (A bit of Googling, however, shows that some cats do suffer from sleeplessness.)
Finally, a familiar site: Andrzej and Malgorzata at their dueling computers, hard at work on their website Racjonalista. It is immensely popular among Polish rationalists, both in Poland and abroad. It gets about 30,000 views per day!
I see AC Grayling’s book is what she is reading.
That apple cake and the chocolate mini-tart look delicious! And the smoked Polish cheese sounds great.
There’s a great shop with a fantastic selection of cheeses near me on the Upper West Side of Manhattan called Barzini’s. I’m going to ask the owners if they can get some cheese from Poland. I’m always looking to try something new!
The best ones are those produced by the Tatra Mountains higlanders:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscypek
“Andrzej and Malgorzata at their dueling computers, hard at work on their website Racjonalista.”
Looks like he’s on Facebook to me
Hili once again demonstrates that, the more uncomfortable-looking the position the cat is sleeping in, the greater the state of the cat’s bliss.
Then again, in a home like that, with food like that, how could she not be?
b&
That food looks so good and Hili is such a cute cat! Her food looks like she stepped in something green or got grass stain!
That is the remnant of an antibiotic ointment that is, for some reason, semipermanent. She had an infected toe about ten days ago and had to have her foot anointed several times a day. She’s better now, but the pigment hasn’t yet worn off.
That cat is soooooo adorable! I keep forgetting to send you pics of my kitties.
The small sausage makes me curious, what provides such small intestines? Lambs?
Or maybe poultry?
Rats 😉
You made me laugh. 😀
Rats?- possibly. Even Wikipedia does not say: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabanos
But I promise, this is one very, very tasty sausage.
The long thin sausage is called a kabanos. Sheep casing is used.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabanos
Thanks everyone! They don’t look much like what is called “kabanoss” over here, but I’m sure they taste better!
I’m sorry, but this isn’t good enough. All these pictures showing glorious food, and not a recipe in sight. I mean, really, mini chocolate tarts, apple cake with almonds and apricot jam, poppy seed cake, and no recipes. Your smiling face, knowing you get to eat all this yum, and still no recipes. Sigh, Jayne
I can’t give you recipes for everything (I have to prepare food for Jerry, not type recipes!) but at least the apple tart (very easy to make):
Take 6 big sour apples, two tablespoons of apricot jam, 2 eggs, 100 gram butter, 100 gram almonds, 100 gram sugar.
Peel apples and cut them into thin slices. Put them into a bakingform (greazed) and spread the apricot jam over apples.
Mix: sugar, grounded almonds, butter and eggs.
Spread the mixed mass over the apples.
Bake about 45 minutes in 200C.
You can serve it with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or just without anything.
Maybe you could put Jerry to work by making note of what you do and then posting it….
b&
Oh, thank you, that looks lovely! I will try it this week.
In the States it is common to make Apple Crisp, with apples on the bottom and a topping made of brown sugar, butter, chopped nuts, a little flour, and (raw) oatmeal. But this one with ground almonds looks delicious.
Could you convert everything to PROPER units for me? (ponies, jacks, gills, etc.?). I’m wondering if I need to make 2 butt/pipe’s worth of apple tart for the army I’m amassing, how many firkins of butter it would require?
(thanks for the second excellent recipe in a row. XXX)
And if you want to know the baking time, should it be converted to hail marys? 😉
Absolutely not. What a SILLY question. The proper units are “Our Fathers”.
Jeez…
Oh my god… I only now noticed your link.
I may have to take that last comment back. I am humbled.
This community is a veritable cornucopia of information. I’m getting out my beads and stopwatch to do some experimentation.
It all looks lovely and I bet they are happy to have someone to share their goodies and kitties with.
It all looks fabulous, fresh cherry juice would be amazing! I will be making that apple cake. What an idyllic holiday.
I’m still freaking out over the fresh cherry juice.
What marvelous hosts! All three. 😉
Delighted to be sharing this experience with you.
I particularly like the upper canines over Hili’s lower lip, sleeping like that.