Eating, Gardening & Living in Bulgaria

SkaraBar

2012-03-01T13:00:00.000+02:00

What I have found at SkaraBar is something completely different from any other establishments I have visited in Sofia or Bulgaria for that matter. To begin the place has a hip vibe that you would expect to find in a more cosmopolitan city, but the real gem for me is that the food and the concept is simple and well executed, grilled meat and seasonal salads made with the good ingredients and

Sushi Express

2012-02-29T10:00:00.000+02:00

After a long day of strolling and exploring the streets of Sofia... the idea of what to have for dinner was upon us... walking home through from Петте Кьошета (Five Corners) toward our apartment, we passed a new addition, well, new for me. My husband and I usually avoid sushi in Sofia and Bulgaria in general because the quality, price and availability of fresh fish is limited and sketchy to

Annette - Rocking the Casbah

2012-02-22T15:00:00.000+02:00

I have been to Annette on numerous occasions, but most of those visits were a few years ago. To be honest Annette wasn't my first choice for lunch, but due to some unlucky circumstances, it was a very pleasing alternative. Usually when I make plans to visit Sofia, I like to try some new restaurants or cafés. I had 3 places in mind that I was eager to try; Cosa Nostra Gangster Bar, Blue

Natural Pet Odor Carpet Powder

2012-02-21T15:00:00.000+02:00

Recently, my family decided to adopt a yellow labrador puppy. Being the fact that I was 5 months pregnant at the time, people thought we were a bit mad, to say the least. While small puppies are adorable and worthy of fawning over, they have an inevitable dark side, which is house training. My girls are in school all day and my husband is at work, so who is stuck with the constant monitoring

Growing Wintergreen for Teaberries

2012-02-14T10:49:00.000+02:00

I can tell you exactly where my love of teaberry started and probably pin down an approximate when; February 1996. I find that teaberry is not commonly known or appreciated, but for some reason it was popular where I went to high school in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. My memory can be a bit foggy. I am having a which came first the chicken or the egg moment. I am not sure if I had Clark's

Neem Oil Spray

2012-02-03T14:12:00.000+02:00

A few years ago, I had a hibiscus plant that I purchased at Metro, which after a year became infested with white fly, while I was over-wintering it inside my house. At first, I noticed that the leaves were yellowing and the over health of the plant was declining. I was still in my infancy when it came to growing and caring for plants, so I referred to the internet as my main information

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

2012-02-02T16:30:00.100+02:00

The tough thing about knowing how to cook and bake is that come your birthday you know exactly what kind of cake you want, but for me, unfortunately, I don't know of anyone to bake me a cake and I certainly don't want some store bought crap. I like baking. The precise nature of it is soothing. I love to meticulously prepare my mise en place, wait for my butter to soften at room temperature,

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