Superbly Simple Sweets - part 2

And so continues my no-bake recipes. The eastern part of Croatia is well known for its desserts. One, the madgarica, is a small "cake" bar cookie that if made domestically and totally from scratch consists of 7 thin layers of white biscuit and 6 layers of chocolate filling, topped with a dark chocolate "glaze". When made completely from scratch - it is a bit more time consuming but very yummy. This shortcut version was taught to me by one of my grannies. It tastes and looks just as good but is made in a quarter of the time.

Easy Croatian Madgarica

1 or 2 boxes of graham crackers or tea biscuits - preferably square

Chocolate pudding or custard filling - the more chocolaty the better. When you prepare the custard, make it more liquidy than normal (for an extra zip and to add that more homemade touch - try adding a tablespoon of liquor to the mix-works best if you have the stove top pudding mix so the alcohol cooks out).

2 bars (200 grams) dark chocolate

Butter

milk

Prepare the pudding as directed on the box. Take a 9x12 pan and line the bottom with the cookies. Apply a generous portion of the custard and smooth evenly over the cookie layer. repeat this process 4 - 5 times till you reach the top of the pan - you should have at least 4 and maybe 5 layers of cookie and your very last layer will be a cookie layer. If your pudding mix was a stove top mix, put it the pan in the fridge to cool. Take the chocolate bars and melt on the stove in a double boiler, adding a small bit of milk and butter to make the mixture more spreadable. Remove the pan from the fridge and spread the chocolate glaze over the top. To finish- try to spread the chocolate as smooth as possible - or take a fork and make straight lines down the length of the pan. Refrigerate overnight. Cut into thin, finger length pieces and serve.

Superbly Simple Sweets - part 1

With the heat - and no air conditioning - I decided to make a no-bake lemon cookie recipe that a friend gave me while in Northern Ireland (Thanks M!). I served them with this and the whole meal was easy and a hit. ( I really wanted to make this but Alister said it was too strange for Ukrainian guests - I'm making it tonight for us ;->)

So I decided to share my collection of four super delicious no-bake desserts that I've picked up on my travels. To come: Costa Rican Galletas de Coco, Easy Croatian Madjarica, and Ukrainian Chocolate Sausage.

No-Bake Frosted Lemon Bars - via Northern Ireland

For a 9x12 pan
1/2 cup (100 grams) butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 lemon, juiced and zested (may add more juice and zest if more zip is desired)
1 1/2 cups (250 grams) crushed cookies (Graham crackers, tea biscuits, or animal cookies)
1 cup flaked coconut ** optional - but add more cookies if you leave out

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt together butter and sweetened condensed milk, stirring frequently until smooth. Stir in crushed biscuits, lemon juice and zest, and coconut (if desired); mix well. Press evenly into pan and refrigerate overnight.

Frosting:
1/2 cup (100 grams) butter (softened)
250 grams powdered sugar
lemon juice

Mix powdered sugar and butter together - add lemon juice to make it into a smooth, spreadable consistency - spread on top of cookie bars. Slice and serve. Store in the refrigerator.

Books

Currently listening to Jamie Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. You know you're enjoying a book when it sends you to look up the author or some info about the story. (A Golden Age - interestingly another debute book - also sent me seeking info).

Hotel was a very pleasant surprise - some books with a lot of hype are just here today gone tomorrow - I haven't finished this yet - but it seems to surpass that. But - maybe I'm just biased because the story is set in Seattle :- )

Weather Update

The weather here continues to be hot and awful. We also have smog and smoke - but nothing like what you might be reading about for Moscow. Still, today I woke at 4:30 to a sky that should have been dawning but was instead dense with smoke. We closed all the windows and sweated through the rest of the morning - we learned later that it was from fires in the exclusion zone. Great. The sky still looks gray - but I don't smell smoke anymore and my nose is has stopped sneezing and running - so we opened the windows. i don't know what it will do to any crops - but i'm personally praying for rain just to break the heat and clean all this noxious stuff out of the air.

Pistachio Ice Cream

During my pregnancy - I didn't really have a lot of cravings. On a normal day I have cravings, so I'm not sure that pregnancy really affected me much in that way. As with most cravings that I have, there actually isn't much I can do about it - as we live in Ukraine - except put it on my list of things to have in back in the states. Currently this includes eating a Reuben sandwich, having a regular roast beef sandwich with Arby's sauce from Arby's and consuming a pint of Ben& Jerry's "Pistachio Pistachio" Ice Cream.

Even during our trip to the UK, i stayed alert and checked out each and every freezer section and Ben & Jerry's ice cream machine we passed in the airport - hoping that Pistachio might be among its number. Alas, it was not to be.

BUT . . . The Ukrainian frozen food company, The 3 Bears, must have cued in

on my craving as they have just released a new flavor - Pistachio. While the flavor is not as richly intense and zingy as the Ben& Jerry's - the ie cream is incredibly creamy and delicious. Three bears was already a winner for their tasty "royal sherbert" (vanilla ice cream with chocolate flakes and your choice of dried cherry or apricot bits) - but adding pistachio makes them a definite winner for pint ice cream. Rud still wins on individual cones - especially their Empire Series featuring the Tortufo and Apricot yogurt cones.

While there aren't really ice cream parlors here - (and the ones that are here feature Italian style ice cream) the prefabricated cones are delicious (always advertising that they are made with real milk (what other type of milk is there???? they never fail to be extra creamy), accessible (every street corner in the summer) - and affordable (less than a dollar for the Empire cones - but a plain vanilla or Chocolate will only put you out 25 cents) Summer in Ukraine is HOT but yummy.