Well...I received a call from my brother, Jim, informing me that the information about my heritage was incorrect! No I am not Croatian, my husband is part. However, this is a tradition I adopted back in the 70's with a close friend at the time and continue today - not as frequently as I used to, usually at Easter.
Our family, the Bishops, are known for "Fruitcake" Yes FRUITCAKE! Very good fruitcake I might add! I have not made my share of fruitcake for several years now. I didn't want to hunt down all the ingredients.... however my brother will get a fruitcake next year!
The story goes is that... one year, around 1956 or so, our mother decided to sell fruitcakes door to door to make money for Christmas. My sister and I went out with a basket full of samples and took orders. I don't remember how many we sold, but the kitchen was full of fruitcakes. I not only sold, delivered but had the chore of dusting the fruit with flour and doing lots of stirring.
Our mother made fruitcakes up until her last years, still pretty good.
So.... please stand corrected.... I do have a Croatian sister in law "St. Toni" and I am married to a 1/2 Croatian - that should count!
The next loaf we cut I will obtain a cross section picture to show the thinness of the dough!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
The Making of the Povitica
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Povitica:
"Nut roll is an Eastern European pastry of yeast bread with one or more fillings. It is also known as: Potica (also known as gubana, guban'ca, or povitica, depending on the region) in Slovenian; Orechovnik in Slovak; Makowiec in Polish; Povitica, Orehnjača (walnut variant), or Makovnjača (poppyseed variant), or strudla (trans. strudel) in Croatian; Štrudla in Serbian; [1] and bejgli in Hungarian. Over time, it has been adopted by most of Eastern Europe, and has subsequently changed into regional varieties of the same dessert. It is traditionally made to share at weddings, for Easter and Christmas, and on other celebrations or holidays."
One of the benefits of a large house that we really can't afford is having a large work area in the kitchen. This has allowed Helen to return to her roots (at least gastronomically speaking) and produce a large batch of Povitica before Christmas.
Why these pictures now - on New Years Eve?
A. I need to post something
B. I have, like, 45 pictures of deer in the yard and I'm saving them for the next post
C. The pictures are cool
The view from above:
The final product before baking:
The final product, it is actually BETTER than it looks - and it looks wonderful!
"Nut roll is an Eastern European pastry of yeast bread with one or more fillings. It is also known as: Potica (also known as gubana, guban'ca, or povitica, depending on the region) in Slovenian; Orechovnik in Slovak; Makowiec in Polish; Povitica, Orehnjača (walnut variant), or Makovnjača (poppyseed variant), or strudla (trans. strudel) in Croatian; Štrudla in Serbian; [1] and bejgli in Hungarian. Over time, it has been adopted by most of Eastern Europe, and has subsequently changed into regional varieties of the same dessert. It is traditionally made to share at weddings, for Easter and Christmas, and on other celebrations or holidays."
One of the benefits of a large house that we really can't afford is having a large work area in the kitchen. This has allowed Helen to return to her roots (at least gastronomically speaking) and produce a large batch of Povitica before Christmas.
Why these pictures now - on New Years Eve?
A. I need to post something
B. I have, like, 45 pictures of deer in the yard and I'm saving them for the next post
C. The pictures are cool
The view from above:
The final product before baking:
The final product, it is actually BETTER than it looks - and it looks wonderful!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Three Feet of Powder!
Yesterday - in the midst of a continuing snow storm, Helen and I went on our "Snowshoeing 101" trip with the "Silver Striders". A woman here in Bend has a company that specializes in taking people 50+ snowshoeing.
The area we went to was one of the "snow parks" just adjacent to the Mt. Bachelor skiing area. There was THREE FEET of new powder, and despite me having a rented snowshoe with a binding that was partially broken we had a great time. The round-trip was only 1.5 miles, and the scenery was beautiful!
Helen on the trail...
Lunch Time! We sat on mats that we brought along on our packs. Here is Helen enjoying the moment...
And Mr. Bill...
We rode out to the area with Jack & Julie, nice folks that we had great conversation with on the road. Here they are at lunch...
Pam is the owner and trail breaker - she's in front with her assistant Jim in the background...
And the other member of the group - Kermit...
The area we went to was one of the "snow parks" just adjacent to the Mt. Bachelor skiing area. There was THREE FEET of new powder, and despite me having a rented snowshoe with a binding that was partially broken we had a great time. The round-trip was only 1.5 miles, and the scenery was beautiful!
Helen on the trail...
Lunch Time! We sat on mats that we brought along on our packs. Here is Helen enjoying the moment...
And Mr. Bill...
We rode out to the area with Jack & Julie, nice folks that we had great conversation with on the road. Here they are at lunch...
Pam is the owner and trail breaker - she's in front with her assistant Jim in the background...
And the other member of the group - Kermit...
Friday, December 12, 2008
Can you believe the Internet & a $1500 surprise
The house we own in Bend was built about two years ago - and we have owned it for almost a year now. But needless to say we have spent very little time in the place until recently. So the two recent problems:
Our GE Advantium oven (high-tech thing with all kinds of electronic controls on it) started beeping and giving an "F3" error on the control panel. Of course the first think Mr. Bill does is hit the Internet to find out what is going on. GASP not only was there a plethora of complaints about the control panels on these ovens (all with the F3 error code)but also horror stories of how the manufacturer doesn't pay the companies that do the repair work so it's hard to get these ovens fixed.
Add to this that the warranty is one year from the DATE OF PURCHASE of the unit, and you can see a train-wreck coming. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The contact at GE was cordial and sympathetic and gave us an authorization number after a little bit of research. The local company came out in about 5 business days to fix it, and GE called us back the next day to make sure that everything went well. So take that Internet stuff with a large grain of salt!
Problem #2:
We have a high-efficiency furnace and AC system that has already needed maintenance twice since we have moved in. TWO pieces of good news - they have finally diagnosed the most recent problem and everything is working well; also in this process we found out that the contractor that built the place took out a 10-year parts and maintenance plan (a $1500 value) so we are good for eight more years! A pleasant surprise as there has been a lot more money going out of our pockets than into them recently.
Our GE Advantium oven (high-tech thing with all kinds of electronic controls on it) started beeping and giving an "F3" error on the control panel. Of course the first think Mr. Bill does is hit the Internet to find out what is going on. GASP not only was there a plethora of complaints about the control panels on these ovens (all with the F3 error code)but also horror stories of how the manufacturer doesn't pay the companies that do the repair work so it's hard to get these ovens fixed.
Add to this that the warranty is one year from the DATE OF PURCHASE of the unit, and you can see a train-wreck coming. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The contact at GE was cordial and sympathetic and gave us an authorization number after a little bit of research. The local company came out in about 5 business days to fix it, and GE called us back the next day to make sure that everything went well. So take that Internet stuff with a large grain of salt!
Problem #2:
We have a high-efficiency furnace and AC system that has already needed maintenance twice since we have moved in. TWO pieces of good news - they have finally diagnosed the most recent problem and everything is working well; also in this process we found out that the contractor that built the place took out a 10-year parts and maintenance plan (a $1500 value) so we are good for eight more years! A pleasant surprise as there has been a lot more money going out of our pockets than into them recently.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Good-Bye Tink
Well there has been another passing in our family - at least it feels like family. Last night Tinkerbell, our friends Robert and Diane's cat, had a stroke and they had to have him put to sleep.
Tink was a gentle soul, and like many pets, brought out elements of our personalities that sometimes get hidden under the stress and strain of our everyday lives.
We will miss him, but there are a lot of great memories that remain and I'm sure that in the near future some lucky cat will find a caring home with Robert and Diane.
Tink was a gentle soul, and like many pets, brought out elements of our personalities that sometimes get hidden under the stress and strain of our everyday lives.
We will miss him, but there are a lot of great memories that remain and I'm sure that in the near future some lucky cat will find a caring home with Robert and Diane.
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