FACT: Bears Eat Beets. Bears. Beets.

Fact: I have made blueberry pancakes the last two days in a row. I ran out of baking powder after day one, so day two I used my sister's gluten free pancake mix and it was awesome! This was also the first time I ever made pancakes "from scratch" before which seems so ridiculous to me now. I've made crepes many times but pancakes, I always went for the Bisquick. I will never go back! So easy!

Mmm!

Fact: Being on vacation means having free time to watch adorable tutorials on cool braided hairdo's. I recently found this tutorial from Barefoot Blonde and tried the braided half-up do and it looked so cute. 2012 is so the year of the braid. I'm determined to figure out how to recreate my wedding hair updo that my very talented hairstylist did for me. Anyway, I'm happy my hair is 'long' enough to do fun braid styles. It's just so so so hot everyday so I think braids are just the perfect thing.

Fact: Last night's dinner was a GREAT success and I'm so happy for it. My sauce wasn't exactly like the restaurant from the seaside but it was really good. I think their homemade pasta might also do the trick. My MIL wants me to teach her how to make a balsamic reduction and the bread was the big hit of the night. Yay! Also we all got a little wine/Polish beer happy and were making plans with my brother-in-law, Ivan, about coming (home) to America with us for Christmas! So excited already!

Fact: My brother-in-law rocks! You may remember our amazing engagement pictures that my wonderful friends at Genius Creators took for us in Philly (especially because it was both me and Tomislav's Facebook profile pics forever). The pics are so fun and city-like which I just love. Well, check out the wedding present we got from Tomislav's brother!

It's us! 

 Painting based off this photo - how cool is that?

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you like my new blog makeover! It's a known fact that Polish women love redecorating (it's true, if you're a Polish woman or you know one, ask her if she rearranges her furniture every couple of weeks/months!), so I finally decided it was time to redecorate Dream of Home Tonight. And that's my last fact of the day :)

8 Stores, 40 Kuna Asparagus, & 2 In-Laws

I'm cooking for my in-laws tonight and I'm nervous!!! I don't know why I get so nervous to cook for them, maybe because my father-in-law is sometimes a picky eater and maybe it's because the last time I cooked for them, Tomislav ran out for bread just as soon as we sat down because his father doesn't like to eat dinner without bread (and of course I thought since we were having a Thai Chicken Stir-Fry with Rice, he wouldn't need bread. I was wrong, I now know better!), but most likely it's because Tomislav's Mom is a chef. And everyone loves her cooking. And I like my cooking and I know Tomislav likes my cooking but I like different things than the traditional Croatian norm. So I've planned this meal out and I'm really excited about it. But I'm super nervous that things will go wrong. It's requiring a lot of steps from me to make this happen but I'm willing to spend all day on it because I want it to be great and delicious!

I went to the biggest market in Zagreb this morning, Dolac, to hunt for asparagus. I know that asparagus grows wild on the seaside and I also know it's crazy expensive here but I could not believe that at this huge market with so many vendors selling their home grown veggies, no one had any asparagus! I started my search in center city and stopped at 7 more places (plus Tomislav checked one store near his work!) until I finally found good looking asparagus...for 40 Kuna. Yikes. That's some expensive asparagus, like almost $8!

Anyway, whatever, I'm glad I got it because I'm so excited about this dish. Back in April, when there was one day of nice weather, Tomi and I went to the island Krk for the day. We got lunch at this delicious and authentic seaside restaurant that was recommended to us. Local, fresh, and so so tasty. Tomislav got this homemade pasta with shrimp and asparagus in a creamy tomato sauce. Oh my gosh. It was unbelievable how good this dish was! The flavors were so bold and fresh and totally unexpected. It blew my mind and I quickly asked the waiter to confirm the ingredients with me, tomatoes, garlic, white wine, cooking cream...but there's something so special there. There's something to it that gives it that extra delicious and flavorful taste and today I'm gonna try to figure out what it is! I hope Tomislav will be surprised because I haven't told him the menu and I really hope it tastes at least half as good as this place.

 So unassuming, but this pasta - oh, this pasta sure packs a punch. You will gobble this up so fast and afterward be like, "What is that, that makes it taste so amazing?!"

Last weekend, on our way back from Krk, we stopped by the same restaurant so we could have the dish again. It was even better than I remembered. I'm so motivated to recreate it today! Here's what I'm up to, right now I'm slow roasting cherry tomatoes a la Smitten Kitchen.  I can't believe how delicious these get after cooking low and slow in the oven. It's so low that it really doesn't heat up the apartment at all (thank God because it's been 100 degrees here everyday and we don't have AC!).

 

2 more hours and these babies will be perfect!

Anyway, I'm also roasting garlic and this is all for an idea I had to stuff ciabatta bread with garlic, sun dried tomatoes (which I can't find in Croatia, hence the slow roasting), and parsley in hopes that the bread will be a big hit with T-Slav's Dad! Then, I've got the pasta dish to make and finally I will put together some kind of a big, fresh salad to go with the rest of the meal. I have some veggies that my Mother-In-Law gave me from her garden so I think it'll go nicely with the rest of the meal.

If you have any suggestions for how I can make tonight's dinner even better, please let me know! Trying not to be concerned with table cloths and things like that right now but I'm totally in housewife-mode! And I really don't have a table cloth for tonight. Yikessssss!

Saturday Day Trip...to Austria!

Tomislav and I have been planning a trip to Ikea for the past couple of months. However, the closest Ikea to us is in Graz, Austria so we had to really plan the trip out in advance! The 2 hour drive was so worth it for us and I'm so happy we finally got to go, and it was even nicer because my future in-laws went with us. It was a great day we got to spend together. 

Our apartment that we rent came fully furnished, including all of the plates and cups and pots and pans and what not, however, I've been missing a few things big time and they are just so expensive here in Croatia! Some may think I am getting TOO excited over it, but I'm so thrilled for our new kitchen things that we bought because they make my life a little easier. Things like: roasting pans, a grater, and a large cutting board. Yay! Also, our place feels much more like a home now that we have new bedding complete with a new blanket and pillows. It's so great to have a down comforter, just like I have at home in the States. I love it!

 Adorable stuffed animals in the kids section of Ikea :)

 Tomislav always laugh when I tell him that someday when we have children, I, of course, will only feed them healthy foods...so much so that they will think of broccoli as dessert! In this case, the broccoli would be their cutie stuffed animal friend ;)

Since we were in Austria, there was no chance I was gonna miss eating some delicious Leberkäse! Mmmm, back during my exchange year in Bavaria, I used to eat Leberkäs Semmi's during Pause's (break/recess) at school, at home, and at my favorite restaurant in Viechtach, Iglhaut!

 T-Slav loves it too! The last time we were in Graz, he requested it for basically every meal.

 Not my most flattering photo, but it's just that good!

The other wonderful thing about our trip was doing some food shopping. We had to be quick because in Austria, all of the stores close by 6PM on Saturdays (and are closed all together on Sundays!). Now, I will admit that I'm a frugal kind of girl. I like to save money and not waste it on silly things. I'm not one for unncessary shopping trips, especially when it comes to clothes or things like that. But food, yes food, I will splurge on.

This past week, I really wanted to make Thai food since I brought Thai green curry paste back from the States to Croatia. I had almost everything I needed to make a delicious Thai (inspired) meal...besides the coconut milk. We had only bought it one time before and actually Tomislav had got in Slovenia after a business trip. Imagine my shock and surprise when I get to the grocery store and see that a can of coconut milk is 38 Kunas! That is $7! For one can! Ridiculous!!! I wasn't going to buy it because we're trying to save money and that is just ridiculous. But I knew how much better the meal would taste if we had the coconut milk so I thought, what the heck, this time I'll splurge. (It came out delicious, by the way)

My coworkers told me in Austria I could find coconut milk for around $2 so I knew I wanted to stock up.

I had such luck because the entire Asian foods section was on sale at the grocery store that day and the same coconut milk I had bought in Croatia, was on sale for 1 Euro!

We had a great time and I can't wait to visit Austria again. The country is beautiful, the people are so friendly, and I love hearing Austrians speaking German. It reminds me of Bavarian dialect and we all know, I love Bayern :) Next time we go to Austria, we have to get some Currywurst from one of the delicious street vendors (like in Graz!) Basically, sausage with a curry spiced ketchupy sauce. Yum!