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janina

Assistant Cook
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
Messages
27
Location
New England
Hi All! I'm new to the forum, and stumbled upon this site by chance. As a military child and now wife, I have travelled and lived in many places. I love cooking all kinds of cuisines, and love to bring my love to the table. It's exciting to see the range of recipes and cooks. I can't wait to browse further and get some inspiration from your posts. Cheers! :)
 
North Wales?!? Sigh....I drove through Southern Wales en route to Pembroke to take a ferry to Ireland, and it has never left my mind how beautiful that drive was. I have promised myself to revisit Wales and explore her more--I think she is a well-kept secret! Thanks again for the tartiflette recipe. Today is a bit of an overcast day in New England, and it is the perfect "comfort" dish to bring a smile to all. I guess the Reblochon cheese isn't hard for you to find--jealous! BTW, I saw your post of what's for dinner---sounds great! I love Indian food so I hope you will post your recipes. Have a happy Thursday, and Bon Appetit!
 
Purple.alien.giraffe,

I do believe your name has made my day! I am so excited to have stumbled upon this site; thanks for the welcome. Well, P.a.g., I have lived in Texas, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Sicily and The Netherlands, and find myself now in Rhode Island. I have been to all but 6 states in the Good Ol' U.S.of A, and my American dishes near and dear to my heart that I cook routinely include: Mexican food, (Californian and Texan, mostly), Southern comfort, Cajun, and some New England dishes. When I lived in Virginia, I lived next door to a wonderful lady from Corinth, Greece. She taught me how to make mousaka, spanikopita, tyropita, Greek Meatball soup, tzaziki, dolmades, and a few others. To this day, whenever I cook Greek food, I think of Eva. I love that about cooking--how you can almost conjure up images of the people and places you were with or were when you first were introduced.

While living overseas, I visited Austria, Germany, Malta, Egypt, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, The Ukraine, Luxembourg, France, England, Ireland, Switzerland (got a lovely speeding ticket there!), and Belgium. More on the food later...

While living in Sicily, I took several cooking classesat restaurants, and stood side by side with my neighbors in their kitchens as they each taught me how to make the "perfect" caponata, tomato sauce, fish, salads, antipasti, egg plant parmigiana (Sicilian and Anconan), limoncello, etc. Funny, they were so competitive with each other--each touting the authenticity and age of the recipe , as well as lineage. I love Italians, and I love cooking their food. I routinely make all of the above, except limoncello--I'm having a hard time finding the organic lemons. I also love to make bolognese--it is a family favorite.

After Sicily we moved to the Netherlands for a 4 year tour with NATO. We lived about 20 minutes away from Germany and Belgium in the southern region of the country. So I developed a love of cooking more of those foods. The NATO organization had a wives' club, and it had a gourmet cooking club where each country's participants took turns featuring how to make nice meals representative of their country. I learned how to make many cuisines, but my favorite were either the French dishes or the Turkish, although I like to shake things up.

Favorite dishes/meals: Papperdelle with wild boar sauce-Tuscany, I really like the food of Bavaria, although I only know how to make few dishes, French food, sigh, too many favorites, too many pounds to prove it, Belgian Fries--oh my!, and Dutch asparagus and potato dishes. How about you???
 
Welcome to DC, Janina. I hope you enjoy yourself while you are here and we get to learn and teach.
 
BTW, Michele from Pisa's recipe on this site for the papperdelle with wild boar sauce looks WONDERFUL.
 
janina said:
Purple.alien.giraffe,

I do believe your name has made my day! I am so excited to have stumbled upon this site; thanks for the welcome. Well, P.a.g., I have lived in Texas, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Sicily and The Netherlands, and find myself now in Rhode Island. I have been to all but 6 states in the Good Ol' U.S.of A, and my American dishes near and dear to my heart that I cook routinely include: Mexican food, (Californian and Texan, mostly), Southern comfort, Cajun, and some New England dishes. When I lived in Virginia, I lived next door to a wonderful lady from Corinth, Greece. She taught me how to make mousaka, spanikopita, tyropita, Greek Meatball soup, tzaziki, dolmades, and a few others. To this day, whenever I cook Greek food, I think of Eva. I love that about cooking--how you can almost conjure up images of the people and places you were with or were when you first were introduced.

While living overseas, I visited Austria, Germany, Malta, Egypt, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, The Ukraine, Luxembourg, France, England, Ireland, Switzerland (got a lovely speeding ticket there!), and Belgium. More on the food later...

While living in Sicily, I took several cooking classesat restaurants, and stood side by side with my neighbors in their kitchens as they each taught me how to make the "perfect" caponata, tomato sauce, fish, salads, antipasti, egg plant parmigiana (Sicilian and Anconan), limoncello, etc. Funny, they were so competitive with each other--each touting the authenticity and age of the recipe , as well as lineage. I love Italians, and I love cooking their food. I routinely make all of the above, except limoncello--I'm having a hard time finding the organic lemons. I also love to make bolognese--it is a family favorite.

After Sicily we moved to the Netherlands for a 4 year tour with NATO. We lived about 20 minutes away from Germany and Belgium in the southern region of the country. So I developed a love of cooking more of those foods. The NATO organization had a wives' club, and it had a gourmet cooking club where each country's participants took turns featuring how to make nice meals representative of their country. I learned how to make many cuisines, but my favorite were either the French dishes or the Turkish, although I like to shake things up.

Favorite dishes/meals: Papperdelle with wild boar sauce-Tuscany, I really like the food of Bavaria, although I only know how to make few dishes, French food, sigh, too many favorites, too many pounds to prove it, Belgian Fries--oh my!, and Dutch asparagus and potato dishes. How about you???

I've lived in the U.S. my whole life. Started out in southern CA. Currently in the upper peninsula of MI right on the Canadian border. I've been to a few places in Ontario.

I haven't taken any cooking classes. Most of what I make is stuff that I've just played with or thrown together with whatever was available. I experiment a lot.

I love foods with lots of spices. There is a Thai place in town that has really good curry dishes and I love those. I love American-Italian food. I'm a big fan of soups and stews, veggie salads and comfort foods (bisquits and gravy, baked mac and cheese, dumplings and gravy, etc.). I love chili and mexican food and I'm a big fan of breakfast foods involving eggs.

I hope we get to learn from you. It sounds like you've had a rich cooking history.
 
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North Wales?!? Sigh....I drove through Southern Wales en route to Pembroke to take a ferry to Ireland, and it has never left my mind how beautiful that drive was. I have promised myself to revisit Wales and explore her more--I think she is a well-kept secret! Thanks again for the tartiflette recipe. Today is a bit of an overcast day in New England, and it is the perfect "comfort" dish to bring a smile to all. I guess the Reblochon cheese isn't hard for you to find--jealous! BTW, I saw your post of what's for dinner---sounds great! I love Indian food so I hope you will post your recipes. Have a happy Thursday, and Bon Appetit!
Thank you for the comments about Wales.Bhuna(english) Bhoona (Hindi) just means frying spices.I tend to cook Indian food UK restaurant style ie batch cooking.So its not really about the recipe but methods of cheating.
 

While living in Sicily, I took several cooking classesat restaurants, and stood side by side with my neighbors in their kitchens as they each taught me how to make the "perfect" caponata, tomato sauce, fish, salads, antipasti, egg plant parmigiana (Sicilian and Anconan), limoncello, etc. Funny, they were so competitive with each other--each touting the authenticity and age of the recipe , as well as lineage. I love Italians, and I love cooking their food. I routinely make all of the above, except limoncello--I'm having a hard time finding the organic lemons. I also love to make bolognese--it is a family favorite.

Favorite dishes/meals: Papperdelle with wild boar sauce-Tuscany…

Ciao Janina and Welcome to DC!
Yes, maybe the only thing in life we Italians take seriously is food... :LOL:
 
P.A.G,
I lived in San Diego for 5 years, Camarillo for a year, and Monterey for a year and a half. The weather is hard to beat, although I do like the seasons. I love Thai food, too! Indian and Thai foods seem to just have layer after layer of flavors--I love it!
Biscuits and gravy, mac and cheese, chicken and dumplings, and meatloaf are my comfort foods--cooler weather beckons me to make them. It's that time of the year, after all! We will have to share some Mexican breakfast dishes with each other--and chili--I love to make all kinds. Best wishes for a happy Friday from Rhode Island.
 
justplainbil,

Actually my name is Janine, and I am of French heritage, but I do have authentic Polish recipes from my NATO Polish friends I met while living in the Netherlands.
Sour Rye Soup (Zurek Polski), Ruskie Pierogi, Pierogi z Kapusta, Kopytka (Potato Dumplings), Sernik (Polish Cheese Cake), Paczki (Fried Pastries), and Szarlotka (Polish Apple Cake). Let me know if you are interested in any recipes. Best wishes! Oh, and to answer your question I love the sour Rye soup and pierogis, and the stuffed cabbage-yum! Smacznego!
 
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JPB--Happy to share! The Zurek Polski is a humble soup beloved by the Poles. It has an unusual taste, a bit sour, but I thought it was tasty and unique. I hope you enjoy it, too.

Sour Rye Soup (Zurek Polski)

5-6 days before making soup:

Ingredients for Barscz
1/4 pound dark rye flour
4 cups warm water

Directions:
Stir together the flour and water and cover with a kitchen towel and set it asdie in a warm place. Stir once a day. The mixture will begin to ferment and smell sour--just like when you are making a sour dough bread starter.

Time to make the soup!

Condiments per soup bowl:
1 slice of rye bread, torn into bits
1 hard boiled egg, sliced into nice pieces
slices of smoked kielbasa or other Polish sausage
a tad bit of horseradish, optional

Making the soup:
4 cups of water
1 egg
1 cup milk or buttermilk
1 cup of the Barscz- thoroughly mixed prior to measuring
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:

Bring the water to boil in a pot on med heat. Beat together egg and milk, and slowly stir it into the simmering water. Turn the heat up slightly, and allow the mixture to thicken. The consistency should be a thin pea soup. Season to taste with Salt and pepper.

Time to put it all together!

Assemble the soup bowls with the condiments and ladle the soup on top. Tangy and good; I bid you Smacznego!
 
Janina,

This sounds very good. Could you post it again in the Ethnic Foods in it's own thread. That will make it easier for others to Search it. Thanks!!
 
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