Szmingus Dingus

Happy Easter Monday! Here in Eastern Europe, today is a National Holiday as it is the second day of Easter! In Poland, it's called Szmingus Dingus and on this day, everyone throws buckets of water at each other. I'm not really sure about the history behind this but I know that when we spent Easter in Poland (when I was a kid), it was one of the most fun days ever! My sister and I and all of our neighbors in our Grandparents little village ran around like crazy filling buckets in the well and soaking one another. We had to change a million times but it was a blast. I love this tradition, as crazy as it is! Today, it's a little too cold for a proper Szmingus Dingus in Zagreb. At least it's sunny though!

Easter weekend has been really great!

My Traditions:

 

 

 These pictures are blurry but I love this girl too much not to post them. And the only reason they're so blurry is because we were getting our Rihanna on so hard! Thank you to the cafe/bar Kic for being so friendly and welcoming to us crazy girls!

T-Slav was talking about baking our own bread for our Easter basket but instead I went for these butter biscuits that remind me of one of my old college roommates who is a great cook and baker!

 

 My Carrot Ginger Soup was requested by Tomislav to be at Easter Sunday dinner so his family could try it. It was a huge hit, even with his Dad (!!) who officially gave me his blessing after realizing that I really can cook! Thank you T for doing all the peeling ;)

 

So excited to be making my first ham!

 

Pretty little hammy

 

 Beer and pineapples - the best thing to ever happen to ham! It came out absolutely PERFECT, so juicy and delicious! (T was SO thrilled to be eating meat again!)

Croatian Traditions:

 

 Dying eggs by putting onion skins in the boiling water so they get a nice red color

Most of mine stayed pretty brown but some of them looked redder!

 The Easter basket is both of our traditions since our Polish custom is to get our Easter baskets blessed on Saturday before Easter. The Croatian way is to have plenty of green onions and radishes on Easter Sunday. We also had the biscuits, eggs, salt and pepper, some of the freshly baked ham, and chocolate eggs. The blessed food is the first thing you eat on Sunday morning.

At Tomislav's parents house we had these baked potatoes and cabbage salads

 

Of course, more green onions and radishes!

 

Lamb

 

And finally these awesome glasses that Tomislav's parents both got 2 pairs of (each) recently!

They are the glasses you get for free (with insurance) and in true Croatian fashion, once I get health insurance, I'm totally trying to get a pair. They're cuuuute! T's parents look adorable in them!

  

So if you're somewhere warm today, I encourage you to throw a water balloon, or even just a splash of water on someone in honor of Szmingus Dingus :D I know how I'll be waking T up today!

Meatless Monday!

We're officially in the homestrech of our Vegetarian Lent! This Sunday is Easter Sunday so it's our last week of being meat free. I feel very comfortable with our new meat free lifestyle. It honestly hasn't been that difficult and I've made so many new dishes that I've absolutely loved! Tomislav on the other hand definitely misses meat and even though he won't be eating it every day like he used to, he'll be indulging every so often. It was a great challenge for us and I think I will (probably) continue with a vegetarian diet. I'm not completely opposed to eating meat, so like if we're at someone's house, I won't make a fuss and will just try to eat as much as I can and if there is meat, then I'll partake but if I can help it, I'll try to stick to no meat.

So this is one of the best meals I've made during Lent. I started to make dinner and kept getting inspired to add more to almost make it like a tapas style meal. This was my delicious Middle Eastern/Mediteranian Spread!

Our Delicious Dinner!

I started out with the idea of making falafel because a co-worker had told me how easy and delicious it was. I remembered that spreading some hummus with the falafel is totally delectable so I decided to whip up some hummus quickly too. In my magic bullet went:

1 Can of Chickpeas (plus about 1/4 of the chickpea water from the can)

1-2 Cloves of crushed and minced raw garlic

1 tsp Sesame oil

1/2 tsp Soy sauce

1/2 Lemon (juiced)

2 (or more) Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil

You can season it some more if you'd like, but I just mixed this up and you can process it until it's smooth or if you like it chunkier, you can just pulse it a couple of times. It's so quick and easy if you have some kind of a food processer! Yum!

Mmmm homemade hummus and sweet, juicy yellow peppers!

Falafel with hummus, pickles, and a bit of the tomato cucumber salad on top. We ate it on something like a kaiser roll because we didn't have pita bread.

Couscous with apricots and nuts yum!

I heated up 1 1/2 cups of vegetable stock to pour over 1 cup of couscous. I covered the couscous with a lid for 5 minutes. Then I added the apricot pieces and nuts in the couscous which I fluffed up with a fork. I left it in for another minute with the lid covered. I seasoned it with salt and pepper,a little bit of olive oil and lemon juice and the secret ingredient which made it our favorite couscous recipe to date - curry powder!. Simple and so so tasty!

I love Euro Pickles

Frying up the Falafel

For the Falafel:

1 Can Chickpeas, drained

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped

2 tablespoons flour

Salt and Pepper to taste

oil for frying (I used sunflower)

 

I combined chickpeas, garlic, onion,  salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Add flour and combine well. Then, I mashed the chickpeas with the back of a fork and mixed all the ingredients together very well. Take the mixture and form it into small balls and then slightly flattened them. After heating the oil in a pan, I fried them up for about 3 minutes on each side until they stick together well and are slightly browned.


It came out a bit messy but it tasted delicious!

Fresh and tasty cucumber, tomato, and scallion salad!

This salad is so good and refreshing and the dressing is very easy! I just diced up 2 medium sized tomatos, one large cucumber, and 3-4 green onions. For the dressing I combined:

about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar

about 1/4 cup of water

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Cover the salad and refrigerate it for at least an hour (up to four hours) - it is so perfectly delicious!

This spread is really easy to make and it's fun to eat a bunch of different little dishes that all go really well together. Try it out! Make it your vegetarian meal of the week ;)