The Food of Romania

No matter where we visit, one of the important things for us is to taste the traditional foods of the region. Visiting Romania was no exception and we asked all of the locals that we met what foods we should eat while we were there. We were able to try the greatest variety of food while we were in Brasov, but we understand that these were typical meals that could be found throughout the country. What we heard over and over again was that we needed to try the polenta with a spicy pepper as well as the cabbage rolls, so we definitely wanted to give that a try.

Stuffed Cabbage and Grape Leaves with Polenta
Mushroom Soup
Lamb with Polenta

Pork dominated most menus, but there plenty of other choices as well.  We did find that most meals did not utilize a lot of spices, although they were almost all hearty in nature. There are definitely influences from countries throughout the region, so it should be no surprise that we found treats like Baklava on various menus in addition to those unique to Romania. One of the more interesting meals that we ate was a pork loin filled with goat cheese and spinach with a black currant sauce.

Stuffed Pork Loin
Baklava
A Toast to Romania

Our photos will not do the food true justice, but we did enjoy trying some of the various dishes from Romania. At some point, when we have a chance, we will likely try to recreate some of these on our own, but we will likely tweak them a little to include a few more spices.

Fried Pork and Goose Fat
Whiskey Sour
Pickled Sauerkraut

 

The Gift of a Christmas Cookie

Being here in Germany, away from family and friends, we are missing the normal exchanging of gifts that would normally occur. We decided to do something personal for the friends that we have made since arriving and chose to bake some chocolate chip cookies in order to share a little of our memories with our new friends. It is a simple recipe and that is fortunate since we couldn’t find some of the same things that we would have normally used, but even so, the cookies turned out just fine. In fact, we would say that they were quite delicious, although we have learned that cookies or biscuits or not quite as common here as they are in the United States. They certainly love their sweets, but it is more about candy, cakes, and pastries than it is about a plate of cookies to be left by the fireplace for Santa to enjoy. What we enjoyed the most was the faces of our friends as they tasted these tempting treats. Sure, the cookies were good, but sharing something personal was even sweeter. We hope that you enjoy!

Plate Full of Cookies

INGREDIENTS

  •  1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
     3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
  •  3/4 cup sugar
  •  2 large eggs
  •  1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  •  1 (12-ounce) bag semisweet chocolate chips, or chunks
  •  2 1/4 cups all-purpose-flour
  •  3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  •  1 teaspoon fine salt
Delicious Cookies

Directions

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt the butter in a microwave or on the stove. Whisk the eggs, sugars, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and then fold into the wet ingredients with a wooden spoon. We didn’t have baking soda, so we left that out and brown sugar here is more like a granulated sugar, but it worked equally as well. We also couldn’t find chocolate chips, but we did find chocolate chunks and even chopping up a block of chocolate would have worked. Place heaping spoonful’s of cookie dough onto the baking sheet, leaving about an inch to two inches between each cookie. Bake for 12 to 16 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the center is still soft. This batch makes about 30 to 36 cookies.

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