Yummy!

Hello Dear Readers of this blog!

As I've been learning to cook some dishes new for me, I mean not prepared by me defore, I've come up with an idea to share with you several recipes I have recently found on the Internet and in my recipe book. Moreover, I should say the dishes I've cooked were really delicious! :) 

To begin with, I would like to point out that , like every good cooker knows, when you prepare a certain dish, sticking to all clues of a recipe, there is a risk it won't be so tasty you expect. It is because the ingredients you bought are a bit different or you have different tastes and prefer to add something more or less than it is suggested in the recipe. So it is always smart to improvize a little with proportions ;)

So here you can find a recipe of one of the tastiest Polish first courses - żurek!

To prepare the soup you will need (6-8 portions):

• 2 litres of meat stock
• 500 ml of rye sourdough
• 4 white sausages (not cooked)
• 200 g of bacon
• 1 large onion
• 2 tbsp of of horseradish
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 tbsp of cream
• 3 tbsp of dry marjoram
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper
• boiled eggs to serve with soup

1.  Cook the stock with meat (preferably beef, but can be also pork or chicken), vegetables (mirepoix)
2. In a pan, fry the bacon in a medium heat and in several minutes add a chopped onion until it will all become browned.
3. Add the content of the pan and the entire sausages to the stock and boil it for 30 min.
4. After taking out the sausages, add initially 250 ml of sourdough to the stock for the soup will not be too sour. Add the rest of the sourdough if you like.
5. Then add a sliced clove garlic, 2 tablebspoon of horseradish and the marjoram. I also advise you to add some more seasonings, like allspice and tarragon, it will bring a special aroma and a taste to the soup ;)
6. Boil all the ingredients for several minutes and after turning off the heat add the cream. 
7. Before serving chop the sausages in slices and the eggs in halves and flour żurek with some salt and pepper. 

Good appetite to you!

You can consult the recipe here:
http://www.zajadam.pl/przepisy-zupy/zurek-przepis

In the next post I will present to you another good recipe ;)

Music...

Is there anything in the world that makes you feel so good that you stop thinking about all your worries and problems? My friends and I totally do have such a thing - to create the music. In the beginning , we decided to concentrate on making our covers, but who knows - it is possible that some day we will start composing our own peaces of music. 

Everything started with an improvised lunch in our place, when we invited our friend and he brought a guitar, so we started to play some known songs and then he came up with an idea to register our performance. The first one really was not bad, so we continued our activity. We have already recorded three videos, probably there will be some more. ;)

Actually, every song we recorded, was practised just before our registered performances, and every rehearsal lasted maximum one hour. The two of the sons weren't even known by me and my friend Bartek, but we learnt them really quickly! :) As a matter of fact, it was quite a difficult task for my friend Giulia to combine simultaneously the singing and the playing, but she did well indeed.

I think it is an amazing and inspiring experience, to use our talents and to spend our leisure time in such a pleasant way. 

Here you can find the links to our covers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXSwZb5WtAE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh73D3CE8DY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxDJGbM6Yz8

Autumn...some advice ;)

How are you feeling? If you are ropey, you have a common cold,  a cough, a head ache and the hump, there is nothing strange - the autumn is behind the windows and  almost everyone is ill now. If you don't have yet any of the aforementioned symptoms you are lucky one, but you should be very careful and aware of a high probability of falling ill easily. So if you want to protect yourself from a long and weary staying in bed with a cold and fever, keep in mind some of the best and effective ways of self-treatment:
1) drink a huge amount ofhot liquids, specially powders like Coldrex, Ferweks and others, a lime or currant tea with a slice of lemon andgi gerandonw teasponof honey;
2) buy some raspberry syrupto soothea sore throat;
3) try to eat a piece of garlic with a slice of bread every day;
4) eat one spoon of honey before breakfast;
5) remember about a sufficient and good sleep - your organism needs to regenerate while you sleep;
6) try to reduce stressful factors and keep calm in difficult situations, otherwise your organism will be very weak and susceptible to different diseases;
7) stay away from drinking and eating cold things;
8) and the last advice is to wear warm clothes and to keep yourself away from the cold and from negative emotions and thoughts! ;) Be healthy.

Nothing else metters(c)

Many times we are anxious about what other people would say or would think about our behaviour and our way of thinking. Sometimes we are afraid of being who we really are. Obviously, we don't always know how to behave in certain situations or sometimes we change our mind and in the course of time our personality changes itself.
Anyway, I believe everybody should be sincere with other people and first of all with themselves. The position ought to be clear, yes or no. There is too much duplicity and falsehood in people's relationships. We can see it in a banal example of some politicians, who are members of one party when it reins, but once it loses citizens' support and ceases to be a leader party, the politicians don't have scruples after joining their dissidents' party. But such a scenario can be also noticed in a simple everyday life. Many people who are in minority, don't have enough courage to express their true opinion and to brave the storm  of emotions or other people's comments.
So what I'm trying to say is that it is good to decide who we are, what our position is and to be sincere with everyone.

Autumn inspiration ;)

Falling leaves, cold and rainy days, strong wind and lack of the sun...are the best inspiration for preparing and having a cup of hot chocolate! :) 
The day started quite early (at 8 a.m.) especially when it's Sunday and normal people prefer to rest in bed as long as possible, to sleep or just to relax, to have breakfast when it's usually already supposed to have lunch :D But what about me, even if I go to bed rather late, I don't like to waste time sleeping till 11 a.m. I prefer to do as much as possible from the early morning. So this morning I had inspiration and after having breakfast I decided to prepare hot chocolate for me and my friend Giulia. There was also a guy who lives in the same apartment, so he also had an opportunity to taste our chocolate creation. I warmed milk with cinnamon and then I added chopped chocolate, some honey and cooked it a bit. Meanwhile I prepared a decoration - chopped cookies Hit and some walnuts. I sloshed the hot chocolate into cups and covered each with whipped cream and the decoration. 
The effect was wonderful - the hot chocolate was very tasty and after drinking it my friend and I even don't notice bed weather outside and have forgotten at least for some time what does mean hump ;)

Best friend

What a wonderful feeling you experience every time you realise you found a person you can trust and you want to live for. When you notice how many things you have in common, I mean a lot of similar thoughts that you have got, plenty of interests that connect both of you, talents, abilities, almost identical way of seeing and perceiving the world and people. Actually, I'm quite a sceptic person about close women's friendship, but I came around that there are always exceptions of rule. 

I met my best friend Julia a year ago. Our adventure started from finding out about our love of Metallica...:) Then we continued to talk a lot and now we live together for a couple of months. We really enjoy each other's company, talking, playing the piano and singing at home together, cooking for each other a lot of diverse goodies, taking care of each other and simply being together.
We would also like to have a dog, so I hope it will be possible in the nearest future.
I appreciate my best friend and I hope our friendship will be another exception of rule-will last for a long long time.

Bella Italia

It was an exciting and very intensive trip!

Sirmione

Everything started with a short call of my friend with an offer and my acceptance of it on Sunday evening one month ago. Then a meeting with an organizer of the trip, who is also a Polish-Italian sworn translator. In the beginning there were not too many questions - everything seemed quite clear and understandable. Some problems revealed only during our permanence in Italy...

I was a substitute of the translator, as she couldn't come because of some personal reasons. Our group consisted of five teachers, who accompanied the

Scaliger Castle

Girls' choir of Jerzy Kurczewski School in Poznan. There were 31 girls in the choir, at the age of 11-15. Firstly, we went to a little town Negrar in the region Veneto, where we booked in a hotel. The next day we went to a lovely town Sirmione, which is situated in Sirmio peninsula on Lake Garda. We visited a w
ell-known medieval Scaliger Castle - a showcase of Sirmione, which is now only an empty scheduled building. Then we found quite a nice and cosy restaurant next to the Scaliger Castle, and we ordered a delicious pizza to everyone.

Philharmonic Theatre of Verona

That evening we also went to Verona, the girls had a performance in the beginning of the International Choral Competition at the Philharmonic Theatre. Then we were invited to a meeting with a Choir La Parete consistits of male seniors, who were extremely funny and friendly towards us. They also performed for us a medieval Polish anthem Gaude Mater Polonia, which almost made us cry with excitement and commotion. Then we got back to hotel in Negrar.

Piazza delle Erbe

Arena di Verona Amphitheatre

Juliet's House

The penultimate day of our stay in Italy we went to Verona to pass our laisure time just walking in the centre of the city and visiting the most famous places, like Piazza delle Erbe, Arena di Verona Amphitheatre, the Juliet's House (Balcony) and her statue, Garda Family House ecc. We also couldn't restrain from eating a true delicious Italian ice-cream!

Garda Famly House

Lake Garda

 The last day we spent in mountains with a breathtaking view from the top...The name of the locality is Monte Baldo, where we got to the top of the mountain in a cable car, but unfortunately because of a strong fog we barely saw Lake Garda...We had dinner in a local restaurant, which was really cozy and comfortable.
It was quite an intensive and full of emotions trip. We couldn't spend so much time sleeping we would like to. Anyway, it was a great and very rich experience for me as an Italian-Polish translator. I wish I could go back soon to Verona, one of the most amazing and entrancing cities in the world!