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Článek v ČEŠTINĚ dole (Klikněte na “Read the rest …“)

It has been a long tradition that Czechs and Slovaks drink hot wine in the winter. They would tell you that Christmas is associated with this beverage. Everywhere you go you can smell the wonderful scent of cinnamon, cloves and red wine. How to prepare this drink? The recipe is very simple and I bet that you have all the ingredients at home.

Recipe for Czech and Slovak mulled wine:

Ingredients:
1 bottle of red wine (Merlot, Shiraz, or what you like)
1 cinnamon bark (you can also use ground cinnamon, but add in small quantities according to taste)
1 teaspoon of cloves (you can also use ground cloves, but add in small quantities according to taste)
Sugar (white or brown) or honey
Lemon or lemon peel to for decoration

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Clanek v CESTINE dole (Kliknete na “Read the rest …”)

Czechs love potato salads. They use it to make special sandwiches called “chlebicky,” but also just as a side to main dishes. A typical Christmas dinner includes a fish or pea soup and potato salad with fried carp or schnitzel.  It is hard to find a potato salad that tastes like the one from home. The recipe below truly represents the real potato salad you can find in the Czech Republic. Its great taste will really make you famous amongst Czech communities.

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Clanek v CESTINE dole (Kliknete na “Read the rest …”)

If you look at this picture, you would say: “Oh, just another picture of Czech Christmas Cookies,” but you would overlook a significant detail. These cookies are crocheted out of wool and are only used for decoration! This great idea was accepted by many Czechs since they have a great opportunity to decorate their tables or trees without worrying about gaining extra pounds/kilograms during this calorie-enriched holiday season.

Renata Kuczerova, a businesswoman from Ostrava, started with a few pieces at first but her four children really loved them and inspired her to create this amazing collection. On the other hand, her husband was not very pleased. The cookies are also soaked in different fabric softeners (vanilla, coconut and others) to give them their original and mouth-watering scents.

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Clanek v CESTINE dole (Kliknete na “Read the rest …”)

*** Czech and Slovak Food & Much More *** LINKS BELOW

*** Ceske a Slovenske Jidlo a Mnohem Vice *** ODKAZY DOLE

It has already been a tradition for many years that every Czech and Slovak family buys a “Christmas Chocolate Collection” (CCC) or “Christmas Set,” with which they decorate their Christmas trees. It is a colorful pallet of figurines and other decorative ornaments made of chocolate. Some of them are hollow and others have a creamy filling (vanilla, nuts, caramel, milk, punch, and more). The sets can be either in milk, dark or white chocolate or a mix of all of them. Each candy is wrapped in a shiny paper with colorful details.

Many people don’t keep their CCC on their trees for a long time. They are so delicious that they become a target of adult or child “thieves.” Some of these thieves are so brilliant that they manage to remove the candy and keep the wrapping expanded looking like there is still something in there. They can also fill it with something else to give it the weight and form back. As you can imagine, Czech and Slovak Christmas can be about more than just giving and receiving. This is just a fun part of this wonderful holiday.

If you miss this delicious treat or other Czech and Slovak sweets, please visit our partner websites below. They offer more than just traditional Czech and Slovak food. They became our partners about two months ago and we did not have a chance to introduce them to you yet. We hope, however, that their links in our sidebar caught your eyes and you have visited their sites already.

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Clanek v CESTINE dole (Kliknete na “Read the rest …”)

Czechs and Slovaks don’t prepare turkey the same way as it is typically done in the United States, but that does not mean that they don’t cook turkey at all. One of the interesting facts is that most kitchen appliances in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are not large enough to prepare large turkeys, as it is practiced in the United States. Most grocery stores in Europe also sell turkey breasts only, since they are the most favorite. Even the turkey breasts can be stuffed and maybe this recipe could remind you the traditional Thanksgiving Day meal.

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Clanek v CESTINE dole   (Kliknete na “Read the rest of this entry”)

Today, we will begin directly with a recipe for my favorite soup. My mother cooked it whenever I asked her, because it was very simple to prepare and all of the ingredients were always at home.

MILLION SOUP (pronounce “MEELEEOHNOVAH POLEHVKAH”)

Ingredients:
Chicken or vegetable bouillon (cubes)
1 spoon of butter
1 egg (optional)
5 spoons of cream of wheat
Carrots (finely grated)
Root vegetables (optional - may also be finely grated or cut)
Green parsley or chives (optional)
Salt
Pepper
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Clanek v CESTINE dole.

We hope you all have tried the Czech bread recipe from our last posting. You can always make it more suitable to your taste by adding other ingredients, such as cheese, garlic, or even chocolate as a filling. Just let us know how it went by posting your comments to our articles.

And here is a little bit more information about Czech cuisine. Czechs love soup. We believe it is because of the cold weather. Almost every restaurant offers a garlic soup (Cesnecka “CHESSNAYCHKAH”) or onion soup (Cibulacka “TSIBULLACHKAH”); however, we would like to introduce to you a more exotic soup called Drstkova polevka “DIRCHKOVAH POLEHVKAH” (tripe soup). We did not like it in the beginning but we got used to it later on. Czechs are one of the nations that try to use all resources to make food, thus, they are accustomed to making Tripe Soup.

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In my last blog I mentioned Czech cuisine origins. What I did not mention yet is that Czech food is very heavy and filling. Starch and flour are widely used to make thick sauces. Czechs mostly eat chicken and pork but beef and rabbit are also favored. Fresh produce is available throughout the year now but salads are usually popular in the summer. The rest of the year Czechs eat potatoes and other seasonal vegetables but also canned fruits and vegetables. Moreover, every Czech family has pickles, sauerkraut and dry mushrooms. In the summer, they like to go to the beautiful public forests to pick mushrooms, which they use immediately or dry them and use for the rest of the year.

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Anyone who has tried Czech food knows that it consists of lots of sauces, dumplings, sausages, potatoes and more. The list of Czech dishes is long and not very healthy but this does not stop anybody from eating it. Czech food is not actually very original and you can find similar ingredients or whole menus in other European countries.

The Czech cuisine was influenced by countries that dominated the country throughout its history. Germans brought to the country sauerkraut, dumplings or roasted goose, Hungarians introduced goulash, and Austrians inspired Czechs to incorporate schnitzels in their diet.

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Some of the things that every Czech person living in America misses are the bread and mustard from the home country. The standard bread in the US leaves something to be desired and there just doesn’t seem to be any mustard quite like the “Kremska Horcice.” I have been in search of something even remotely similar to these Czech products but am always disappointed. I finally discovered two products that are remarkably close. Panera Bread (http://www.panerabread.com) sells bread called Stone-Milled Rye that is unbelievably like Czech bread. The only problem is that most places only bake three loafs per night so call ahead or go early if you want to get some. Mustard was more of a challenge and after buying at least 25 different types of mustards over the last 10 years I have finally found a product by Emeril called “Kicked Up Horseradish” mustard. I have some Kremska Horcice at home still from my last visit to Czech so I was able to compare them. I have to say that this is the closest I have found (but a little more sour) and I think you will not be disappointed. This mustard is sold in most grocery stores. Enjoy!

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Clanek v CESTINE dole.

The current list of Czech and Slovak Meetup can be found HERE (Aktualni seznam Ceskych a Slovenskych Meetupu ZDE).

There are many ways to network with other Czechs and Slovaks but one of the most popular is through the web. One of the resources you can use is Meetup (www.meetup.com). This online social networking portal connects people around the world that share the same interests. It allows members to find and join different groups (language, computer games, movies, books, politics, health, pets, or careers). So why won’t you try it too? Czech/Slovak Meetups welcome anybody - Czechs, Slovaks, Czech/Slovak-Americans, or even Americans! Join to learn more about Czech and Slovak culture, language, food, traditions and much more.

Here is the most recent list of Czech and Slovak Meetups as of September 2008 (scroll below):

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