Homemade Sausage Egg McMuffins!

I have been thinking about and daydreaming about breakfast sandwiches basically since moving to Croatia. The main breakfast food in Croatia is anything you can buy at the bakery. That means dry wannabe muffins, greasy burek, or even a bakery slice of pizza. Yuck. I'm not a fan. I just can't get into the breakfast thing here at all. Plus, I wake up so early that I don't get hungry until I'm at work an hour and a half later. So, the best thing in the world for me would be if there were a food truck here in Zagreb that served amazing breakfast sandwiches and wraps (*note* I want to be the one to start and run that food truck here! Hello to any investors out there!). The next best thing would be the ability to get breakfast food at the only fast food joint in Zg, McDonald's (KFC doesn't count because there aren't any drive-thru's of it here). And can you believe they don't serve breakfast?!

Needless to say, I have had a huge craving for a Sausage Egg McMuffin and I've been working up the courage to make it. I just didn't think I would be able to make my own english muffins. It seemed impossible! I did a lot of research of other peoples' versions of english muffins and what not and I found a lot of them used ingredients I couldn't find here (like evaporated milk). I came up with my own recipes for it and let me tell you, I am so freaking proud of myself. They came out AMAZING! My own version of healthy, whole wheat english muffins, with all the nooks and crannies you hope for!

Take some time on the weekend to prepare this and you will have amazing (not to mention FREEZABLE!) breakfasts for every day of the week! And if you live in a country where you can buy English muffins...all the better! But I do suggest you try to make homemade ones at least once in your life because they came out so freaking delicious. Oh yum, I need to make them again like now.

Croatian Style

Slowly getting back into the swing of things Croatian style. First of all, I can't believe I've been here over a year already. That is just crazy to me! I really can't believe that. I didn't know at this point last year that I'd be staying this long but that's life and I've certainly gotten used to certain aspects of Croatian life. Since we were traveling with our family and friends, some Croatian habits were made so much more noticeable to me around other people. Tomislav (and I have to admit I'm also guilty of this) drinks his coffee "Croatian style" which means leisurely and at a very relaxed pace so that one espresso lasts an entire hour long break. I've gotten so used to the coffee here (which I used to complain about!) but I love that I don't have to drink a huge ass mug to get my caffeine fix, just one, bitter but delicious espresso does the trick! Since we came back to hot hot heated up Zagreb last week, we decided to settle back in the Croatian way, which obviously means a weekend trip to the seaside!

The beautiful island of Krk - the perfect place for romantic strolls

Yesterday I was driving to the supermarket and listening to the radio. Well, really I was half listening because I usually don't concentrate enough to try to understand what the radio DJs are saying in Croatian, but I got interested upon hearing "zaručnik" and "vjenčanje" obvi (which mean fiance and wedding) and realized that they were talking about the movie "The 5 Year Engagement." I wanted to see the movie so I started really trying to concentrate and I realized it was some kind of a movie ticket giveaway so I heard you had to send a text to nula-šest-dva-dva-pet and I can't match the actual numbers to the words right away in my head so I kept repeating nula-šest-dva-dva-pet, nula-šest-dva-dva-pet to myself until I got to the supermarket. I texted the number and I won the free tickets! We saw it last night and it was so funny! It made T-Slav and I realize that maybe we should play some more of those kinds of SMS games/giveaways. He won a year's supply of Fisherman's Friend candy a year or two ago because of one of those contests. Oh yeah Cro Cro, what up small population = bigger chances of winning!

Finally, check out my kulinarskoj mudrosti (culinary wisdom) over here on Mrkva.hr's blog! I wrote about the recipe you thought you knew, but you didn't a while back after Tomislav urged me to share the way I make hard boiled eggs. Something so simple, but many people don't know the simple and perfect way to make eggs every single time. Translated into Croatian! So neat! I will have to show my mother-in-law that one :)

The Best Recipe You Thought You Knew, But You Don't!

Tomislav begged me to share this with you all because it literally has changed our lives in the kitchen. It seems so basic and simple but most people go the wrong way about it. Here is how you can make PERFECT hard boiled eggs, every single time.

You want them perfect, not rubbery, delicious and gorgeously yellow? Of course you do! Follow these simple instructions and I SWEAR you will be eating hard boiled eggs all the time! Here's what you need to do:

Step 1: Put the eggs in a pot and fill with cold water just an inch above the eggs.
Step 2: Bring to a boil.
Step 3: After it's at a rolling boil, TURN OFF THE HEAT and set the timer for 17 min!
Step 4: Leave the eggs

After 17 minutes are up, drain the water and either put the eggs in an ice bath to stop cooking or just pour cold water over the eggs and you will literally have the best eggs ever! They are so perfect for breakfast, or slice them up for sandwiches, or chop them for salads! Amazingly perfect eggs, every single time!

My egg wasn't sliced the best way, but you can see I made a fantastic Euro-style open faced sandwich with cheese, cold cuts, cucumbers, and my amazing hard boiled eggs! Look at how orange the yolks are - doesn't get better than that!

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!