Anniversary in Quarantine I talk about my Croatian father a lot on this blog. Though it is my mother who influenced my obsessive nature, my recipe collecting, my inability to cook anything less than a full pot size meal, and my drive towards baking, my …
The perfect Irish secret, this Kerry Apple Cake is light, fluffy, moist beyond belief, and filled with the ideal dice of autumn apples. No cinnamon needed, other than a sugar & spice top crust that creates a burst of cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar upon an …
A Companion Essay to Cevapcici Feast Day By Maryana Lucia Vestic Cevapcici recipes found here Outskirts The crumbling facade of the apartment block stood idle under the pale Bosnian morning. No shadows existed, whether made by the Igman mountain, the remaining scorched birch trees, or …
Amnesia I have no memory of eating Cevapcici as a child. Wait, I’m moving too fast. For those who do not know, Cevapcici (also called Cevapci and Cevapi–Croatians sometimes like to add the ‘ci’ in the hopes of sounding more Italian) finds its history, as …
Queen of Tarts I should have known I would fall in love with my tart pan. Being an anglophile, I always loved the term “tart” rather than other, less colorful and more hardcore words describing a vivacious lady. Like many things, the term’s meaning varies, …
A Journey Into Time As I crack open the window in the pentagon shaped living room, the room that feels like a cabin on a ship perched high in the trees above the street, I feel cold, but no wind. There is a soft, periwinkle …
A Christmas Eve Tradition Christmas Eve in Westchester, 1985. It was our last Christmas in the only home I had ever known in life and childhood, the big California style house on the hill, the one with modern additions thanks to my Croatian born father’s …
The Irish inspired, Spiced Rum Carrot Cake makes a two or three layer cake full of fresh grated carrots made incredibly moist by the addition of applesauce. A little rum and spice add another layer of flavor, while the spiced cream cheese frosting flows like …
Mysterious Origins I never understood where it came from. My maternal grandfather was Croatian, from Sinj, on the Dalmatian coast. I’ve written plenty about him, recently in the Inquisitive Eater here. He was, at least on many levels, not typically American, even though he came …
Cranberry Madness I never liked cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving growing up. My mother often used the typical cranberry in a can to go along with turkey on non-Thanksgiving-holidays. On Thanksgiving itself, she made her own cranberry sauce, but it was a more natural mirror image …