Czech Foods Recipes

What a wet and cold April this has been in the Chicago suburbs. Every day brings more saturation and the need to tote the umbrella every day to work. These April showers have left little, if any time to tend to the garden or even the yard. This delay has made me a bit ansy given my anxiety to get things going with my lawn and garden.   I have already put together my garden list for this spring/summer in anticipation of getting things moving very soon. The choices are similar to my prior year’s plantings, but changed things up a tad. 1.        Tomatoes – Tomatoes are my staple. I usually go with three types: Early Bird, Cherry, and Roma. These fruits I typically purchase at the nursery as seedlings, and plant mid May. I typically go with two early birds, three romas, and one cherry plant. Tomatoes, especially the cherry variety are coveted by my children and they produce consistently throughout the summer. The plums and early birds eventually fizzle ou...

It's been a busy two days before Easter getting things done. One of the eastern european christian traditions we follow every year is the baking of the Easter lambs. I went ahead and made them yesterday and they turned out tasty as usual. My recipe for this treat can be found under my Czech recipe listings on the right side of this blog. Pound cake is an interesting dessert as the cake does not call for any rising agents such as baking powder or soda. The recipe is so simple when you consider it's name and the ingredients.."Pound standing for pound of butter, pound of sugar, pound of eggs, and pound of flour. I have never taken the time to measure each item to confirm if that is really true. I don't really eat too much pound cake throughout the year, so preparing the Easter lamb pound cakes in this metal mold really makes the holiday even more fun. This is a tradition my wife and I will hopefully have success passing along to our children. A couple of tricks to remembe...

Why is it that there are not too many song titles or lyrics for the passionate foodie? I racked my brain about this on my commute home from work. Just about every song is written about a new found love, lost love, love of pet, or lack of love. What about love of food or cooking? Trying to find songs about passion for food is one thing, and I am sure with enough artistic creativity one could come up with something better than a Wiggles song about Fruit Salad. I did some scavenging and was able to pull up several titles that pay homage to food or food related content. After diluting my list, I came up with what I consider the top ten songs about food……..or even eating. 1.        American Pie (by Don McLean) – “bye, bye, Miss American Pie……..took the Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry.” My throat would get dry from singing this song. This was a jukebox staple when I was a kid, though I usually didn’t select it. I felt it deserved this list as it is a c...

Czech’s celebrate Easter every year with painting and decorating of eggs. They also like to celebrate the spring renewal with the image of the Easter lamb or pound cake made in the lamb molds or a freshly made Babovka. See my previous post on how to make this. The Czech girls will decorate the eggs and give them to boys. So what do the boys give the girls in return? Why a whipping of course. Say what? That’s right a whipping. Czech Easter tradition involves the boys making or acquiring a handmade whip called a pomlazka which is decorated and may have a dozen or more individual colored twigs or willow fronds on the ends. The boys venture out on Easter morning singing Easter carols and will pursue and whip the girls (Lightly of course) on the back of the legs or behind. The girls reciprocate by offering up a decorated egg (Kraslice) or decoration for the pomlazka or whip. Instead of taking this as abuse, the belief among the whipping of the pomlazka is attributed to restoring youth and b...

Forever and a day I have held kitchenaid products as the “crème de la crème”. They were top banana appliance makers since I was a kid and witnessed my parents dishwasher exceed twenty plus years. I will never really know how long that strong dinosaur dishwasher really lasted since it was sold with the house back in 1991. Anyhow, fast forwarding to the year 2000, I was the newlywed in the midst of purchasing some appliances for our apartment. We had our sights on a tried and true brand at the time, Kitchen aid. This company was in our minds as the “go to” appliance maker for the happy healthy home. The mixer is a standup appliance and I will forever recommend the kitchen aid mixer as a staple in every home. The kitchenaid coffee maker is not such a great appliance. Where do the problems begin? Well, the bottom burner element appeared to crap out on us about six years into its life. The coffee would reduce down to a barely warm temperature about an hour after brewing. The other obstacle ...