Eating, Gardening & Living in Bulgaria

Natural Soap Making with WWOOF Bulgaria

2012-02-01T16:00:00.000+02:00

Every since my trip to Australia in 2009, I have been infatuated with natural soap. My friend Vanessa had these amazing bars of soap in her kitchen and baths. The aroma was intoxicating and I desperately wanted to get some for my house. The company that makes these amazing soaps is Corrynne's Natural Soaps. I brought a bunch home in my suitcase, but they have since run out. I hope to get a

Sidoniya - Lord of the Chefs

2012-01-31T09:00:00.000+02:00

I feel pretty good about this restaurant review because this restaurant is associated with a Bulgarian television show called Lord of the Chefs. Sidoniya was the winner of this program. Other than those two bits of information, I have never seen the show, so I have any opinion or prejudice towards her; I am writing about the food. I am not a fan of reality TV and despite what Bela magazine

Take a Cake Bakery

2012-01-30T12:22:00.000+02:00

I have long been a fan of cupcakes. When I first moved to Bulgaria back in 2006, I was looking for some way to engage myself. I found it difficult to find work in the film and television industry, so I suggested to my husband to be the first person to bring the American cupcake craze to Bulgaria. I had been reading articles about cupcake bakeries in the Middle East and other spots around the

Winterizing the Cherries

2011-11-04T09:00:00.001+02:00

Some of you might remember an old post about my cherry orchard. Of course I highlighted to joys of picking your own cherries straight from the tree, which is the end all reason for getting cherries in the first place in my opinion... but there needs to be some maintenance through out the year to keep those trees producing bountiful fruit. Our 250, soon to be 300 trees are on a hillside near the

Back in Bulgaria

2011-11-02T07:47:00.002+02:00

My adventure at the CIA has lead me back to Bulgaria. Despite my desire to inform readers every step of the way on my 30 week journey through freshman year, I failed to keep up with the workload that it required. I am about to begin an externship at the same place I completed my food service experience portion of the CIA admission process. They have offered me a position, which is really quite

Why Being a Foodie Has Always Been Considered Elitist

2011-07-21T23:10:00.000+03:00

This past April, Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and co-producer of Food Inc., wrote an article for the Washington Post titled “Why Being a Foodie isn’t Elitist”. I found this article particularly interesting, because within my own family, I constantly have to defend my love of food and devotion to local, organic or sustainable grown foods verses the commercial alternatives. I assumed

Nathan Myrhvald's 40lb Baby - Modernist Cuisine

2011-04-06T21:35:00.000+03:00

Before I get into the book, I want to pause and give thanks to the wonderful man who I've been married to for almost 11 years. Not many husband would support their wife, so completely that they consent to taking care of their two amazing children on another continent, while their wife pursues her passions for food. When taking stock of the experiences that I am having, I need to reflect on the

Ferran Adria comes to the CIA

2011-04-01T16:26:00.003+03:00

I think I should start out by saying I am not a huge fan of "molecular gastronomy". This is not to say that if someone offered me 2 seat at El Bulli, I wouldn't max out my credit cards and hop on the first flight to Barcelona. Absolutely! These chefs (Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal, Grant Achatz, Wylie Dufresne etc.) are redefining food and cuisine as we know it. They are pushing boundaries and

Week 4: How to Make Kombucha

2011-03-31T22:26:00.001+03:00

I am a bad blogger, but my sacrifice to my love of blogging is only because of my aptitude to succeed at the Culinary Institute of America. I would say that I am slightly obsessed with studying, while I am a nerd, I have this compulsive need to absorb as much information possible. Naturally, you would think my "over achieving" (a comment that has been derogatorily passed my way) would guarantee

Week 3: Getting our Chef Whites

2011-02-28T09:00:00.014+02:00

Reaching the half way mark on our journey through B block, brought about a gastronomy tasting and sniffing, a Tuscan wine tasting, and picking up my "whites". While these were some of the high points, they by no means encompassed the whole of the week. In our gastronomy course, we got to do another experiment in taste and also smell. I would have to say this was one of coolest things I have

American Bounty - Restaurant Review

2011-02-01T22:31:00.002+02:00

After eating the majority of my lunches and dinners at student run kitchens, I didn’t know what to expect from The Culinary Institute of America’s American Bounty Restaurant. It

Week 2: Getting Acclimated

2011-01-29T01:37:00.003+02:00

We were really just thrown into the fire. Our intensive orientation schedule catapulted us into a full-time class load. Even though it is a culinary school and most of us throughly enjoy the subject matter, there is still a lot of college level work that is required and we only have 6 weeks to complete four 3-credit courses. A normal semester, at a regular school, you have 15 weeks to complete a

Saturday Night Sips with Alice Waters

2011-01-25T06:00:00.003+02:00

First off, let me say, I love a spontaneously planned weekend and this was exactly what it was. On Tuesday afternoon, my friend Kate, also a student at the CIA, mentions to me before class that Alice Waters was going to be hosting an event in Washington DC over the weekend. Immediately the wheels started spinning and I knew come hell or high water I would not miss an opportunity to meet one of my

Week 1: Orientation and First Classes

2011-01-19T02:09:00.007+02:00

The last week has literally been a blur. I landed in New York's JFK airport on New Years Eve, which also happens to be my mother's birthday and she whisked me to Long Island for a girls weekend with my Aunt Jeanie, who prepared her famous Coconut Custard Pie! The weekend was filled with good food, family and a bit of pampering! I also managed to get in some shopping for some last minute school

The CIA Hyde Park Campus Tour

2011-01-09T23:54:00.002+02:00

I want start off by saying thank you to everyone for your kind comments and words of encouragement in response to my post Screw You Bourdain; I'm Going to Culinary School. I was really inspired by some of the personal notes and emails I received from chefs and other culinary professionals sharing their own experiences from joining the culinary world later in life. I even received a few job

Truffle Brownies: Monthly Mingle

2010-12-21T10:00:00.001+02:00

I really wanted to use this Monthly Mingle to attempt macarons for the first time, but as luck would have it making your own almond flour without a proper mill was a little harder than I thought. I still plan to make the macarons, but they will have to be for Santa. I did however make Truffle Brownies, which was the recipe for Mario's Weekend Cooking Challenge and very chocolatey, so a perfect

Steamed Persimmon Pudding: International Incident Party

2010-12-19T02:00:00.006+02:00

For December's International Incident Party, our lovely host Penny at Jeroxie: Addicting & Consuming asked us to focus on the colors (or colours) of our fares. Jeroxie's blog is out of Melbourne, Australia and for some of you that don't know (just kidding... all my readers are smart) Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, this means it is summer there right now, so everything is colorful. But

Screw You Bourdain; I'm Going To Culinary School!

2010-12-16T21:37:00.001+02:00

I had envisioned this post taking an entirely different direction, but last September I read an excerpt of Anthony Bourdain's newest book Medium Raw on Michael Ruhlman's blog post "So You Wanna Be a Chef". The excerpt basically says if you are 32 (actually, I am 31) and think you are too old to become a chef; Yes! You are too old! Bourdain then goes on to list numerous and I am sure valid reasons

Eggs Benedict with Homemade English Muffins: Daring Cooks Challenge

2010-12-14T12:43:00.000+02:00

December's Daring Kitchen challenge marks a series of firsts for me; the first time I have poached an egg and eaten a poached egg, the first time I've made English Muffins and the first time I've made Hollandaise Sauce, so I managed to cover many firsts in one post. Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chose Eggs Benedict

Wine Tasting Tips: With Cobb Wines!

2010-12-11T17:16:00.004+02:00

During my trip to California, in the beginning of November, I was quite fortunate to be able to spend time with my friends Cindy and Ross. Cindy and I met in Bulgaria a few years back, while we were working for a non-profit organization that helps disadvantaged youths learn filmmaking skills as a tool to express themselves. Through her friendship, I have been exposed to the world of winemaking

Post Thanksgiving: A Turkey Day Recap

2010-12-08T08:11:00.004+02:00

This post may seem a little untimely, but I left my computer cable Sofia and was unable to retrieved it till this weekend, so I apologize for my Thanksgiving re-cap post about 2 weeks late!Still full of Turkey Day spirit!I don't think the term shattered completely encompasses how I felt the day after Thanksgiving. The mass quantities of wine ingested during the course of dinner probably didn't

Free-Form Apple Tart: Monthly Mingle

2010-11-22T18:24:00.002+02:00

The Monthly Mingle was started by Meeta at What's for Lunch Honey. It is a monthly blogging event that I wish I participated in more frequently because it is nice to connect with European food bloggers! This month's Mingle was all about fruit in baking, which is really apropos to the Thanksgiving season. I have pies on the brain and with the abundance of harvest fruits, this seems like good fit

Salt-Baked Trout: International Incident Party

2010-11-21T17:00:00.002+02:00

For November’s International Incident Party, our fabulous host Jeroxie: Addictive and Consuming has challenged up yet again, but this time with Salt. For those of you who are familiar with her site, salt makes a regular appearance on her blog. She even held a giveaway for a fantastic book all about salt aptly named The Salt Book.I was a little stumped about what do do for this event. My mind

Foodbuzz Festival Collage

2010-11-19T13:08:00.002+02:00

Do you see yourself in this collage? If so, then you are one of the 200 + participants in my Foodbuzz Festival collage. Thank you to everyone who participated. If you you would like to order a poster for $26 (click here to see the layout), please email me at casey.angelova at gmail dot com Blog Roll: Click the blog to visit the site. Click the blogger's name to find them on Twitter ::steph

CIA Greystone Cooking Demonstration

2010-11-17T09:18:00.003+02:00

It had been 5 years since I had been in California, the last time was in Los Angeles, when Angel and I decided to move to Bulgaria. I had added additional days to my visit to incorporate the Foodbuzz Festival and a trip to wine country; Napa and Sonoma. About a month before my trip, I reserved a space for a cooking demo at The Culinary Institute of America's Greystone Campus. I had not