For 5 medium pieces of cartof, you will need

130g biscuits

50g butter

60g condensed milk

2 tbsp of cocoa powder

1 dash of rum

+2 tbsp of cocoa powder

After crushing the biscuits, add the melted butter, condensed milk, cocoa powder, and rum.

 

I suggest removing them from the fridge a few minutes before eating them. This way, they will not be too hard. Roll them through cocoa powder; then, enjoy their taste!

I barely managed to make a jar of strawberry preserves! However, I got some magical preserves from the strawberries purchased when we returned from the Delta!

Well, using my Mom’s recipe, I needed:

180g small strawberries

180g sugar

45ml spring water

juice from half an organic lemon

After Marcel cleaned and washed them, I let the strawberries sit with the sugar for one hour. Then, I added the lemon juice and the water. I let everything boil, then simmer for half an hour.

Then, I poured the preserves into the jar.

We still have a small amount of preserves left in the jar. We don’t want it to end; it was that tasty! ♥

• Spring version

Dough:

200g flour

5g fresh yeast

100ml buttermilk

salt

Filling:

2 orach bunches

salt

butter

1 green garlic

+1 small egg

Variant: Add ewe cheese on top of the filling if you wish.

• Fall version

Dough:

240g flour

5g fresh yeast

160g sour cream

salt

Filling:

300g orach

salt

butter

1 pestled garlic clove

+2 tbsp of milk

Baking pan: 20x20 cm

Orach was the ingredient of this year for me! I fell in love! I felt lucky to be able to bake this orach pie in spring and fall!

The recipes are almost similar. To make the dough, mix the yeast with the buttermilk or the sour cream, adding the required amount of flour. You’ll get a non-sticky dough, slightly hard. Let it rise for 1 hour. 

Then (a kind man named Marcel helped me), wash the orach leaves. Be careful, that pink liquid stains (I used red orach). Let the orach leaves simmer in butter; add the salt, the green garlic or the garlic clove, depending on the season.

Roll out half of the dough in a buttered and floured baking pan. Add the filling and the ewe cheese if you wish. Then, add the other half of the rolled-out dough and stick the two pieces together.

Brush the egg or milk on top of the pie, then bake it in the preheated oven at 180°C for 20 minutes. 

Something fast and sweet, Marcel’s idea, as summer should taste—

You’ll need—

1.5 kg watermelon flesh

6 teaspoons of sugar

1 lemon

How to make it?

Add the watermelon flesh pieces into the blender with the sugar and lemon juice.

Blend.

Savour.

makes 130 bezele

4 egg whites

200g sugar

1 tbsp of vinegar

a pinch of salt

When I have more egg whites than needed, my thought flies to my Mom’s bezele recipe.

Here it is!

Take the egg whites out of the fridge. When they sit at room temperature, their foam will be richer.

Mix them with the sugar, adding it bit by bit. Then, mix in the vinegar [it will make the foam ’sit’ and the bezele feel glossy] and the salt.

Fill a pastry bag with the foam and draw bezele. Make a circle, letting the foam flow, then lift the pastry bag.

I got 2 large baking pans and a small one.

Bake in the preheated oven at 110°C for 30 minutes.

They’ll be crunchy for 2-3 days in closed bowls or bags.

That is, if you don’t eat them in the meantime. 😊

1 tbsp of psyllium seeds

2 tbsp of (hot) water

125g gluten-free oatmeal

25g tapioca flour

60g (melted and cooled) butter

1 tbsp of apple vinegar

a pinch of sea salt

The big a-ha moment of the year was the discovery of psyllium seeds! We never stop learning or – as I like to say – remembering! Apparently, all gluten-free doughs require psyllium seeds to be fluffy and elastic. I love them!

How to bake the crust?

First, let the psyllium seeds sit in water for 5-10 minutes.

In a medium bowl, mix the gluten-free oatmeal, the tapioca flour, the melted and cooled butter, the apple vinegar, and the sea salt. Mix in the psyllium seeds and the water, too. Knead until the dough is no longer sticky.

Shape the crust in a buttered and floured tart mould. Add the filling. As a variant, cover the crust with a baking parchment and place baking beads on the crust.

As a third variant, shape the dough to cover the filling and create an upside-down tart.

Bake for 25 minutes at 160°C in the preheated oven.

We were allowed to use butter for cooking during our detoxifications in 2024, so this recipe was excellent! We felt light every time after eating it. ஐ

● Ingredients

4 medium pink potatoes

a pinch of sea salt

a dash of pepper

140g TzaTziki from NoMoMoo

● How to bake them?

Grate the potatoes using a regular grater.

Mix in as much sea salt and pepper as you like.

Add the TzaTziki from NoMoMoo and mix using your hand.

Shape the tocinei into semispheres and place them in a baking pan lined with baking parchment. 

Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven at 230°C.

I got 7 large tocinei. We ate them with spring onions, which would probably work for you, too!

● Notes

I got this recipe from a lady cook from Stejărişu in 2020. The original recipe included telemea [a type of Romanian cheese] and Romanian potatoes. Its time had come to be prepared and slightly adapted. Marcel was of real help!

 

What to use?

5g dry yeast

350ml water

a teaspoon of sugar

500g Graham flour

7g sea salt

2 tbsp of olive oil

Mix the water, dry yeast, and sugar; let them sit for 5 minutes.

Add the sea salt to the Graham flour; then, pour the olive oil and the mix of yeast and water mentioned above over the flour.

The mixture will be quite liquid. Use a wooden spoon to homogenise it; let it rise for one hour.

Line a pound cake tin with baking parchment; pour the batter into it.

Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven at 200⁰C.

How did it start? J

When I was a child, there was a magazine called ’Universul copiilor’ [’The Universe of Children’]. Whenever a new number came out, my Mom would buy it for me. One of these magazines included this recipe.

Well, we changed it a bit over the years, using various types of bread and cheese; however, I still love this recipe – it became part of my family.

How to make it?

For 1 portion, you will need

4 slices of bread

1 small onion

1 tbsp of sunflower or flaxseed oil

a pinch of salt

a little bit of sugar

6 tbsp of tomato juice

15g cheese

Place the bread slices into a baking pan.

Clean and cut the onion.

Sizzle the onion, adding a pinch of salt and some sugar into the oil (it will enhance the flavour of the onion). In the end, mix in the tomato juice. Spread the mixture over the bread slices, carefully dividing it.

Grate the cheese.

Place in the oven for 10 minutes (la 180⁰C).

I hope you enjoy it!

♥

20 bars | Mould: 34 x 24 cm

500g powdered milk

40g cocoa powder

170ml water

400g sugar

125g butter

a drop of rum essence

Here is my Mom’s homemade chocolate recipe. On the other hand, this is a more recent one, which is almost always faultless.

Mix the powdered sugar and cocoa powder in a big bowl.

Add the water and the sugar to a pot and leave it on low heat (to dissolve the sugar) without mixing.

3 minutes after you note bubbles form on the sides of the pot, add the butter and leave the pot on the heat for 3 minutes more.

Then, remove the pot from heat and add a drop of rum essence.

As a last step, transfer the powdered milk and cocoa powder mix to the sugar syrup, mixing well.

When the dry ingredients have been incorporated, pour the chocolate into a mould lined with baking parchment.

Let it sit in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours before cutting the chocolate into bars (you don’t want it to harden excessively). It will keep in the fridge for a few days (though I am not sure it will last that long). J

I promised to write some thoughts on water in this piece.

By following some doctors in the United States worthy of being called as such by vocation and empathy, I stumbled upon Veda Austin. I am fascinated by how water lives and how it absorbs information! (We also ran an experiment.) 

Besides the traumas that turn our body upside down and the foods that poison it, I feel that water plays a crucial role. I don't believe that water from the tap doesn't contain any elements that are bad for us.

We have been filtering our water since 2019; all the animals who lived and are living with us received filtered water.

This summer, Marcel bought an analemma. We are also structuring our water now by using this ’wand’. Apparently, structured water structures unstructured water in any container.

What did I notice? An increase in our appetite, even in the appetite of the cats! Meals feel lighter. Water feels more drinkable. 

If we are present and attentive, we will stay young and healthy in our home to enjoy this wonderful gift as we please.

P.S. I promise to write a more detailed piece about structured water.

This year felt overwhelming. I gave bits of my time in all directions so as not to neglect the beings dear to my heart or the activities that I was engaged in. Even the gogoşari were pickled late in the game.

It was difficult, but I feel that things are going to settle.

Speaking of beings dear to my heart, I have this recipe from Ms Geta, whom I love a lot. She cooks very well and she supported me while preparing the ingredients for the pickled gogoşari, which Marcel ended up preparing.

I share it with you. I hope it will be of use. Of course, you can adapt the amounts based on the quantity of gogoşari used.

For 6 kg of gogoşari (1 of which is lost through seeds and cores, as my father said to me)—

350g honey

750ml wine vinegar

2 tbsps of coarse salt (you can also add sea salt; just don’t use iodised salt – more about it here)

18-24 bay leaves (we had some from our dear Pauli, the daughter of Ms Geta)

6 teaspoons of peppercorns (you can also add mustard seeds, we didn’t have any)

200g horseradish (cleaned and cut into pieces)

+6 x 900g jars

Method:

Wash and clean the gogoşari.

Cut them into pieces in a large bowl.

Add the honey, the vinegar, and the salt.

After 5 hours, mix, then cover the bowl with plastic film.

In the morning, mix again and then cover the bowl again.

Place the gogoşari into jars only after 24 hours, together with the horseradish (which Marcel wanted to add) and the peppercorns. Only this way will the gogoşari leave sufficient juice. They will soften and more will fit into a jar.

Taking Ms Geta’s advice, Marcel left the jar lids slightly open to add more ’juice’ so that the gogoşari are fully covered.

The surprise? In addition to the fact that the gogoşari are terrific, some ’juice’ remained. Marcel pickled some 600g of gogoşari more. J

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1kg raspberries

1kg sugar

juice from one lemon

Behind this recipe (still my Mom’s recipe) are my childhood friends Erzsi and Hilda. Hilda made me drool when she prepared raspberry preserves. Erzsi delivered the raspberries grown and picked by her sister, also in Bod. ♥

Marcel made the preserves and it turned out wonderful.

Place the raspberries in a pan; add the sugar and let it sit for several hours. Of course, you will end up with some juice in the pan. Squeeze the lemon.

Place the pan on low heat. Let the mix simmer for 50 minutes after it starts boiling.

When the preserves has cooled, transfer it into jars. (We got two large jars and a small one.)

I believe that each family has a recipe of delicious plain cookies that moms and grandmas would bake. My recipe’s in my Mom’s handwriting but has been adapted from my Godmother Maria.  

So, I baked these cookies last night. They turned out great and reminded me of the tranquil moments of my childhood!

Do you want to bake them?

For 18 cookies, you’ll need—

250g flour

100g sugar

4g baking powder

lemon zest from 1 organic lemon

2 tbsp milk

1 egg

50g butter

Mix all the ingredients in the above-specified order. Knead well. You’ll feel like you can’t incorporate all the flour, but you will.

The dough will be balanced, so you won’t need flour when you roll it out (its thickness should be 4-5mm).

Use the cutters of your liking and place the cookies in a baking pan lined with baking parchment.

Bake in the preheated oven at 180⁰C for 15 minutes.

So, how are they? J