Palace Ostromecko

Isn't the view of Palace Ostromecko beautiful?

Few weeks ago my husband and I had to attend a social for his work.  Let me tell you it was rough having to put on a nice dress, do my hair, eat someone else’s cooking and finally meeting a few of my  husband’s work buddies.  But the best part was where this social was held at.  It was held in one of the oldest buildings in this area, Palace Ostrecko, which is just outside of Bydgoszcz about 3 kilometers.

This is my first palace in Poland that I have been to and it did not disappoint me!  As you can see by the pictures below that place is AMAZING!  We were told by several people that we needed to go there and now I can see why.

The palace was built in 1832-1848.  Over the years many rooms where added to it by different owners.  There are actually 2 palaces on this location along with a magnificent park with lots of greenery.  Throughout time Polish freedom fighters, Napoleon’s Army and the Prussion Army have all used the main palace at one time or another.  Today it is owned by the city of Bydgoszcz.  During the spring and summer is hosts music concerts, open-air events, exhibitions and many other activities.  The palace also has a restaurant and 22 hotel rooms.

I can’t wait until the weather gets better so we can what it looks like when everything is green!

A lot of dutch came to the is area and here are the tiles to prove it on the fireplace.

The desert area, need I say more?

The dining room.

A private dining room and the only real quite spot once the social started.

Another hall with more food.

Yes, I liked the ceiling and the light fixtures in place.

Another hall.

The non-alcoholic beverage area. Needless to say Jim and I had plenty of options to choose from!

Now if you were a wine drinker you weren’t short any options that night!

Aren’t the ceiling neat?

One of the halls with GREAT food and music for us!

Isn’t the view of Palace Ostromecko beautiful?

Time to cook….Borscht

One of the foods that I LOVE here in Poland is the Beet Soup or as they say call it Barszcz.  We have eaten this at a few different places and well each place makes it different, no two have been exactly the same.  And if search for recipes you will bring up hundreds all cooked just a bit differently.

So here is just one way to make it….

Ingredients: 2 or 3 mushrooms, 1 lb beets, 4c vegetable stock or fish stock, 1 lg apple, 1-2 c beet sour, 1 clove garlic, 1/4 c dry red wine, salt, pepper, lemon juice.

Slice mushrooms.

Next, peel and chop the apple.

Now, peel the beets and grate them or if you have this AMAZING Tupperware chopper like you, you put them in it and start turning. REMEMBER beets do stain things if you are careful!

I turned my 5 times and this is what I had. Perfectly grated beets!

Mix the grated beets, chopped apple and mushrooms with the 4 cups of stock in a big pot.

Mix together. Yes, I forgot to add the bouillon to the water before I poured it in, so that is what the brown sugar looking stuff is. Mix in beet sour. Don't have beet sour then just add more water and more grated beets!

Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes.

Add crashed garlic, and red wine and simmer for 2 more minutes. You don't have too but I wanted to make sure the alcohol was cooked out.

After simmering you are going to stain the soup so it is now a broth.

Lastly, add salt, pepper and lemon juice until you achieve just the right tangy taste you like!

AND if you want to make it more of a meal add some little ravioli's (uszka).

The soup with the ravioli’s feed about 4 people.

So what is your favorite soup to eat?  

BUT  wait if you going to cook you are going to an apron just like this right….

YOU FOUND IT! We are giving this Southern Seam Apron away in Mays Cooking Explosion!

Hurry leave a post message and head back to Kim and link back to me HERE!

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St. Patrick’s Day Polish Style

Well tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and that probably means CORNED BEEF and Cabbage. WRONG!! I am going to celebrate my Irish roots Polish style with Gołąbki. I can’t get Corned Beef here (I have looked!) but cabbage is everywhere so I am going to make this recipe instead.

We will however have some green sugar cookies shaped in shamrocks for some Irish good luck!

I know I shared this recipe a few weeks ago but this is too good not to share again in honor of St. Patrick’s Day!

A few weeks ago, I spent the day learning to cook this AMAZING polish dish Gołąbki with my dear friends Ewa and Kornilia. They remember cooking these with their grandma’s.  So what are Gołąbki’s? They remind me of stuffed cabbage that my grandmother made just she didn’t cook the meat ahead of time she but the casserole dish in the oven to cook. Just that these polish version has a sweet tomato sauce on top.  It took about 3 hours for us to make them.

So off we go to make them!  

Ingredients: 4 cabbage heads, 1/2 kg of bacon, 2 kg ground pork, 2 onions, 2 bag of instant rice (not in the picture).

Finely chop onions and bacon.

Boil cabbage heads.

Fry bacon till partially cooked then add onions and cook until translucent.

Next, make sure the kids are entertained as it makes cooking much easier and faster!

Fry ground pork until no longer pink.

Cabbage leaves are cooked when they peal right off. They will cook layer by layer.

Cut off the core part of leaves.

Boil 2 bags of instant rice and then add to meat mixture.

Combine all the ingredients and add spices. (Marjome, salt, pepper, no measurements just to your tasting)

Spoon mixture onto the center of the leaf.

Fold the leaves in and then roll up.

Make sure ends of leaves are rolled in and then your done!

Once rolled put them in a casserole dish.

We finally rolled all 60 of them.

Melt a nice chunk of butter to fry the cabbage rolls.

Fry cabbage rolls until nicely browned.

Ingrediants for tomato sauce. Water, tomato sauce, butter and sour cream.

Melt another nice chunk of butter.

Stir in tomato paste (we used 1/2 of medium sized jar) and a nice dollop of sour cream.

Add just dab of water and stir.

And we are done and TIME TO EAT!!!

So what special thing are you going to do for St. Patricks Day?

If you are visiting from Home Maid Simple make you sure subscribe to my email list, my Twitter or “like” me on Facebook to learn more about Poland and the great food that is made here!

Wordless Wednesday

Sometimes there is no reason for words, just let the picture do the talking.

So here is my week in Poland in pictures!

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So anything exciting happen to you this week?

Pizza Hut Gift Card Giveaway!… 3 Winner’s will be drawn!

I am sorry for the second post about a giveaway but I forgot to post this yesterday during my Freebie Friday but I LOVE Pizza Hut and here is a chance for you to win a Pizza Hut gift certificate.  Yes, we do have them over here in Poland so I still get me fix of American pizza.

Just and FYI for my Polish readers,  Pizza Hut here is has a great deal going on for 22zt($7) they have a basically an all you can eat pizza deal.  We ate there on Thursday night and they were bring all sorts of different types of pizza’s around filling up your empty plate!

Now for my American readers.  A fellow blogger, Been There Done that with Kat, is hosting a giveaway to celebrate her new business with Blessings Unlimited.   Click the picture below to go to her site to enter.

Good Luck!

Valentine’s Party Time!

I know Valentines was almost a week ago but on Saturday at our church we had a Valentine’s Party for the adults.  It was small but the nice thing about small parties you really get to have great conversations.   BUT the bad thing about small parties is there is LOTS of food leftover.  Needless to say, my American cupcakes were a hit with the Polish but then all the food was a hit because they were not used to American cooking.  I cooked ham in my crock-pots with a bit of apple juice (which is not eaten over here very often) and another American who is serving a mission for our church here cooked funeral potato’s and corn. Then we played picture Valentine Bingo so there wouldn’t be a language barrier (remember we don’t speak any real Polish yet!), made love coupons, and then played the Newlywed game. If you have never seen the TV version (70’s & early 80’s) of this game you need to Youtube is it is hilarious to watch and even better to play with friends.  Yes I got the question wrong of what my husband’s favorite food was.  I said pierogi’s when I should have said cheesecake (which is the first word he learned in Polish).   But I did know where his dream vacation would be….Australia!   It was a great night to send it with our new Polish family that has so graciously welcomed us with open arms to make us feel at home.

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The next party I need to plan for church is the Easter party.   So what American traditions should I bring to it?

It’s Paczki Day (aka jelly doughnut day)!

Much like the French Fat Tuesday, Polish Fat Thursday is a day dedicated to big eating. It marks the start of the final week of pre-Lent celebrations. This year, Fat Thursday is Feb. 16.  While I am not Catholic who cares!  Any excuse to eat a doughnut is good enough for me.

Paczki’s are the Polish version of jelly filled doughnuts.  They are a bit lighter than the American version but just as tasty!  The reasoning(do we real need a reason to eat these?) is it is said that if you eat one you will have good luck for the rest of the year.  So I am wandering, if I eat 2 or 3 what would happen?

The best way to really tell you more about this interesting holiday is from one of my favorite American TV shows, “Sunday Morning”.  Here is a clip that talking more about it… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P5t9M6vIRs

or if you are feeling really amphibious and what to make them yourself, here is another great Youtube clip showing how to…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSMqZvDUUEY

Well off I go to the local bakery and get our share of paczki’s!  Remember the saying, when in Poland do as the Polish.  I think this might be tradition that we have to partake in!!

 

Valentine’s Polish Style

Well today is the day of love!  One of the things we loved about living in the states is the Melting Pot restaurant.  When living in the St. Louis area, Jim and I ate more than our share of special days there.  Unfortunately the closest Melting Pot is a little more than 4,000 miles from here, so it not like we can just hop in the car and go.  Several months ago I ordered the book “Dip Into Something Different: A Collection of Recipes from Our Fondue Pot to Yours.”  Which was written by the Melting Pot!!

So tonight we finally brought the Melting Pot to us.  We made a swiss cheese and a cheddar cheese fondue.  And of course we ate WAY to much and so we are letting our stomachs settle a bit and then we will make some chocolate fondue for dessert!

While it is not the Melting Pot fondue it is pretty darn close!  There are 152 pages of recipes of fondue, salads, dips and drinks!! So if you live to far from the Melting Pot like we do and crave some fondue, get this book!

AND…the best part of the book….the coupons for the restaurant!  There are 3 coupons.. $15 off, FREE Fondue Gift Pack , and FREE Desert.  Well I can’t use them, so you can have them.  If you want a chance at them, just leave a comment and I will pick one lucky winner and mail them to you.

I wasn’t paid or compensated for this review of the book.

 

I think I gained 5 pounds!

One of the things that has made the transition to Poland an easy easier move is our wonderful church.  As many of you are aware a great church family no matter where you move to can either make you or break you.  Well yesterday we went and spent half a day with one of ours.  They live about and hour and 15 minutes from us in a neat town called Torun.  The great thing about Artur and Kornelia is they are truly dedicated members of our because every Sunday they drive that same distance to come to church.

 

 

 

First polish housing is a bit different the American.  In big cities they tend to look like this.  I guess during the communism days these buildings were all gray with no color.  Can you image?

 

 

 

 

 

Then we were off to climb five stories of staircases.  All I can say this  would be my daily work out if this was our house. Then we finally got to their apartment, all chaos broke loose!  So what if between the 7 kids they don’t speak the same language, a toy is a toy, that and sign language works too!

 

 

 

 

 

Before long it was time to eat.  So I was thinking this simple little meal.  Boy was I wrong!!! Kornelia and Artur made this 5 course meal of traditional Polish food.  First up…..

Soup.  She had made both tomato and cabbage.  In Polish they are called Pomidorowa and Kapusniak.  All I can say, if this was just the first course we were in for trouble because this was AMAZING!!! As you can see Ella enjoyed every bite. Then it was on to the second course….. This was Mieso Wiepporzowe Schab. In english this was a pork loin rolled and stuffed with kielbaska and cucumber with gravy. She also made mashed potato’s and served beet pickle relish.   I think after eating this course Jim and I were ready for a nap.  But NO!  it was time for the next round of food…. Birthday cake!  Their littlest one turned 3 years old.  And yes, Kornelia made the cake too! Just when you think you should have worn your jogging pants instead of your jeans, out comes more food!  This time it was polish peach cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies.   Sorry I didn’t get a picture of these because I was in calorie overload by then. So right when I thought is was going to be time to go, out comes MORE food. This time I made sure I had room, because it was the famous Polish sausages!

We had a great time with Artur and Kornelia. So needless to say we are already working on dates when we can teach other how to cook our foods.  She wants me to teach her to cook chocolate cake, brownies and anything else American.

So what do you think I should teach her?