Polži Snails

Ko je mami enkrat ali dvakrat ob kakšni zabavi pripravila polže, je morala za naju s sestro, takrat še majhnima deklicama, narediti kaj drugega, saj se nekako nisva mogli pripraviti do tega, da bi jih jedli.

No, včeraj, na odprtju prenovljenega bazena v Višnji Gori, katere simbol je prav polž, sem ga prvič v življenju poskusila. Celo dva! :)

When my mum once or twice had experimented and cooked snails, she had to prepare a different dish for my sister and me, little girls at the time, because we wouldn’t want to eat those.

Well, yesterday at the opening of restored 75 years old swimming pool in Višnja Gora town I did try one. Even two, since the town’s symbol is a snail. :)

Zadnje čase Lately

Opažam, da zadnje čase nisem bila preveč pridna (nenamerno) pri odgovarjanju na vaše prijazne komentarje, želim pa sporočiti, da preberem in cenim prav vsakega. Z njimi so dnevi še lepši!

Tako pač nanese. Včasih sem malce nedružabna in tudi čas, preživet pred raznoraznimi ekrani je že tako predolg, zato ga raje izkoristim za objavljanje svojih fotografij in pisanje, v tem neznansko uživam. Del tega časa pa namenim občudovanju vaših blogov, saj veste, katerih. Tako se napajam v vaših objavah, črpam navdih in se počutim del ene luštne skupnosti.

Tale rožica je za vse vas, v zameno za mojo občasno odsotnost. Upam, da mi je ne zamerite.

Pozdrav torej vsem, še posebej tistim zvestim obiskovalcem, dobrodošlico pa izrekam tudi nekaterim novim bralcem. Hvala!

I'm noticing lately that I haven’t been very good (unintentionally) at answering to your nice comments, but I want you to know that I read and cherish every single one of them. They make my days even brighter!

It just happens that way. Sometimes I don't feel like mingle around much and also the time we spend in front of all kinds of monitors is getting too long, so I rather use it to publish my photos and for writing, I really enjoy it. And an important part of this time I invest into admiring your blogs, you know who you are. So I’m feeding myself with your inspirational posts and I feel as a part of one wonderful community.

This flower is for all of you for my occasional absence. I hope you don’t hold it against me.

So, greeting to all of you, especially those regular visitors, and I say hi to some new ones. Hvala!

Kadar Whenever

Kadar je hladilnik prazen ali pa se mi ne ljubi pripravljati za jest,
so najpreprostejša in najokusnejša rešitev koščki kruha, ki jih pomakam v oljčno olje
(ki še posebej tekne, če je, tako kot to na zgornji sliki, domače, pridelano v primorskem delu razširjene družine).

Whenever the refrigerator is empty or I’m too lazy to prepare something to eat,
the simplest and the most delicious solution are bite-sized pieces of bread that I dip into olive oil
(which is especially tasty, if it’s home produced, from the coastal part
of our extended family, as the one in the picture above is).

In some Slovenian gostilnas you get this, as you wait to be served,
especially in the coastal, traditional olive growing area.

Zaplešimo s kulturo! Let's dance with culture!

Delček konca tedna sem z Mirom in mojimi starši preživela v Mariboru,
letošnji Evropski prestolnici kulture, kjer se je v petek pričel že 20. Festival Lent.

I spent a part of this weekend in Maribor with Miro and my parents.
It’s the European Capital of Culture 2012,
the city of The Old Vine (pictures 2 and 3), the oldest vine in the world,
and also the place where the Lent Festival started on Friday.

Spočiti se To relax

Rada sem sama, verjetno precej več časa potrebujem zase kot večina ljudi, vseeno pa nisem nek ljudomrznež. Nadvse rada imam posamezne človeške zgodbe, do solz me navdušuje človek sam zase ali v sožitju z drugimi, toliko ustvarjalnosti in dobrote se skriva v marsikomu, ne maram pa našega, slovenskega karakterja, če ga lahko gledam kot celoto.

Na predvečer praznika sem vam zato želela voščiti s šansonom Duše Počkaj, ki je umrla na današnji dan pred 30 leti. Lepa je zemlja slovenska mi je eden najljubših, ki si ga občasno tudi zavrtim, na spletu pa ga žal nisem našla, da bi ga delila z vami. Škoda, kot naročen bi bil, opeva namreč lepote slovenske pokrajine, tisto, kar je tudi meni najbolj všeč tu, Slovenija je zame v prvi vrsti čudovita narava.

Seveda k njej štejem tudi korenine, ki so globoko vraščene v to zemljo, trdoživ jezik, ki je preživel vse (dosedanje) viharje zgodovine, ter zapuščino rok in duha prednikov, ki se kažeta v umetnosti in naseljujeta vse kotičke dežele. Ja, bogat košček sveta je tole, nad ljudmi pa sem vse prevečkrat razočarana, ker tega ne cenijo.

In kadar imam vsega dovolj, ko mi slovenceljske zdrahe začnejo presedati, je res tako, kot pravi pesem: kadar trudna je glava, kadar poln si skrbi, zbogom reci težavam, pojdi v naravo in se spočij.

(besedilo je spisal Janez Menart, uglasbil pa Mojmir Sepe)

I like to be alone, probably I need more time for myself than most, but it’s not that I don’t like people. I do like personal stories, I’m moved to my tears hearing about individuals and their creativity and goodness, but I don’t like our, Slovenian character, if I can define it as a whole.

What I like about my country is above all its beautiful landscapes and nature. The roots, deeply grown into the land are of course included, just like the rocklike language that has survived all storms of the history (so far) and the legacy of hands and spirit of our ancestors, manifesting in art that inhibits all corners of our land. Ja, this is a rich little corner of the world, but I’m often disappointed over people that don’t appreciate it.

It’s our country’s birthday tomorrow and when I have it up to here, when I have enough of this famous being-small-minded-little-slovenians and all our neverending quarrels, then I do it like the song of Duša Počkaj goes: when the head is tired, when you’re full of worries, say goodbye to troubles, go to the nature and relax.

(this is just my clumsy translation, in original it was written by Janez Menart and put into music by Mojmir Sepe)

I play it sometimes to myself, it’s a beautiful chanson, but unfortunately I haven’t found it on the internet to share it with you.

Umetnost okušanja The art of tasting

Ne vem, kako je pri vas, ampak jaz hrane ne okušam samo z brbončicami.

Kako ti lepo pripravljena hrana še bolj zbudi tek, je znano in seveda zelo zaželeno, včasih pa tudi precej nerodno, vsaj pri meni je tako, saj imam vedno lačne oči, ki jim želodec na žalost skoraj nikoli ne more slediti, zato velikokrat precenim svoje zmožnosti in sem zato lahka tarča posmeha tistih, ki me poznajo.

»Znao sam ja tebe, tico, kad si jaje bila!« je že znan Mirov stavek, ki ga dobim serviranega na koncu, ko potiho zamrmram »uf, še dobro, da me nisi poslušal«, kadar vnaprej samovoljno zreducira količine hrane, o katerih zanosno sanjam v stanju lakote. V nasprotnem primeru krožnik potuje v njegovo smer, pospremljen z osramočenim »a boš ti do konca?« :)

Mmmm, in kako mi vedno diši kava, vedno!, tudi kadar je ne pijem, ker mi takrat pač ni do nje in mi je dovolj le ena taka popajevska doza za pod nos, saj se spomnite?, ko je bil potreben le en snif špinače, da se je dečko omišičil. :)

(mimogrede, nisem se mogla nagledati tistih luštnih kavnih kompletkov, ki jih je sestra pred kratkim prinesla iz Carigrada)

In za ščepec soli h končnemu okusu pojedine poskrbi, vsaj ob vročih poletnih večerih je tako, še sončni zahod, ki vse obarva zláto.

Na, pa sem lačna!

[Slike so s sestrine rojstnodnevne zabave, ki je bila tudi tokrat kulinarična poezija; torto na prvi je naredila moja mami, kajpa!]

I don’t know how it is with you, but I don’t enjoy the food just with my taste buds.

It’s known and very much desirable that a nicely arranged food makes you want it even more, but sometimes it can also be quite embarrassing, at least in my case, because my eyes are always hungry and my stomach can’t follow this, so in most cases I overestimate my capabilities and am therefore an easy target to laugh at for those who know me well.

“I’ve known you, birdie, since you were an egg!” is the famous Croatian sentence that Miro uses and serves it to me at the end when I quietly mumble “uf, so good you didn’t listen to me”, when he cuts off in advance the amounts of food that I’m enthusiastically dreaming of in the state of hunger. Otherwise my plate travels in shame into his direction, accompanied with “will you finish it?” :)

Mmmm, and how I like to smell a coffee, always!, even when I don’t drink it, if I don’t feel to and all I need is just one Popeye kind of dose for my nose, remember?, when one spinach sniff was enough for that guy to became all musculy. :)

(by the way, I couldn’t take my eyes off of those cute coffee sets that my sister has recently brought from Istanbul)

And to top the feast off with a pinch of salt, at least at hot summer evenings, there was this beautiful sunset that coloured everything with gold.

Well, now I’m hungry!

[Pictures are from my sister’s birthday party, again a culinary poetry; the cake in the first one was made by my mum, what else!]

Po piranskih ulicah Through the streets of Piran

Z obiska na Obali prejšnji teden sem se ponovno vrnila
z goro fotografij Pirana. Brez tega pač ne gre!

(tukaj in tukaj sta še dva starejša sklopa)

Again, I made a big collection of Piran photographs

while visiting Obala, our coastline, last week. Just can’t go without this!

(here and here are two older sets)

Oskorjene klapavice Mussel gratin

Tale slastna pojedina je torej nastala iz drugega dela klapavic, ki sem jih zadnjič pritovorila domov.

Miro and I made this delicious dish out of the second half of the mussels I brought home the other day.

Izbrala sem tale recept. (ker nisva imela belega vina, sva ga nadomestila kar z rdečim, od tod tudi barva nadeva)

Mimogrede: v SSKJ-ju sem prebrala, da je slovenski izraz za gratinirati oskórjiti (ej, všeč mi je!), torej oskorjene klapavice. :)

We took the meat out of cooked mussels, spread butter on better looking shell-halves and put the meat back on each. Then we mixed together grated parmesan, crumbs, wine, salt, pepper, chopped parsley and a bit of water left from cooking the mussels. We covered each with this stuffing and put them in the oven for ten minutes. (the red colour is because of red wine we used, since we ran out of white)

Školjkarska dogodivščina Shellfish adventure

Prejšnji teden sva imeli s prijateljico možnost, da pobližje spoznava školjkarstvo. Pod vodstvom enega prav simpatično zgovornega školjkarja. :)

Pera Mikša je tiste vrste gospod, ki se mi zdi, da mu ni najljubše, če ga ogovoriš z gospodom, ne zaradi lažne skromnosti ali občutka nevrednosti, saj je v njem več gospoda kot v marsikaterem običajnem gospodu, ampak ker najbrž ve, da je to ena najbolj precenjenih besed v današnjem času, hja, je pač izgubila pomen.

Na začetku sva se mu verjetno zdeli dve fini Ljubljančanki (o, kako ne maram tega, da nekdo dobi tak vtis o meni, kar tako, stereotipno, vnaprej), pa smo hitro našli skupno besedo, koneckoncev je celo priznal, da je v bistvu Šiškar. :)

Popeljal naju je torej s svojo barko po sečoveljskih vodah in nama razkazal svoje delo ter podrobno in s takim zanosom razlagal o vseh podrobnostih nama dokaj neznanega področja.

Mislim, uau! Kako ne bi človek postal navdušen tudi sam, ko vidi to ljubezen do dela, to preprostost, ki je takole za ekranom nikakor ne moremo doživeti. Stik z zemljo. Z morjem. Poseješ, žanješ, prodaš, kupiš. Pa spet poseješ itd. To je to. Zelo zemeljsko in oprijemljivo, ne neko ukvarjanje z navideznimi števili in virtualno gradnjo sveta.

Vem, da táko življenje ni tako preprosto in vem, da je v moji glavi vse skupaj čisto preveč romantično, pa kaj naj? – naključje je hotelo, da tudi tokrat naletim na enega takega posrečenega morskega mačka, ki te moje predstave pač ni ovrgel, saj tudi on svoj način sobivanja z naravo čuti kot poezijo.

Skratka, bili sva popolnoma očarani, kajpavem, morda je k temu malo pripomoglo tudi dejstvo, da nama je obema od nekdaj že tako ali tako zelo všeč morje, ja, celo zelo. Tisti vonj, veter, okus, šúmi, barve, pozibavanje, tisti nek neopisljiv občutek svobode in da je vse mogoče, predvsem pa mi je všeč, ker odplavajo vse skrbi.

In v tem primeru še kup školjk za domov! :) (en del moje polovice je še isti večer končal takole, drugi pa že pripravljen čaka na objavo)

My friend and I, we had an opportunity last week to get to know shellfish-growing business a bit. Under guidance of one cleverly chatable shellfish grower, quite a character! :)

Pera Mikša is that kind of gospod, mister, for whom I suspect does not like to be called gospod, not because of false modesty or the feeling of unworthiness, as there is much more gospod in him than in many of the ordinary gospods, but because he probably knows that this word is so overrated these days, well, it has lost its meaning.

At the beginning he probably thought we’re some fancy ladies from the capital (oh, how I don’t like it when people get that kind of stereotypical impression about me, just like that in advance), but very soon we were in the same team and after all he admitted he’s actually from Ljubljana, too! :)

So, he took us with his boat across the waters of Sečovlje and showed us his work and was explaining us with such an enthusiasm every little detail of this work of which we’ve hardly knew little about.

I mean, wow! How could one not be enthusiastic, too, when one sees all the love put into the work, the simplicity that one cannot experience by sitting behind a screen. A contact with a soil. With a sea. You sow, you reap, you sell, you buy. And then you sow again. This is it. Very earthy and tangible, not like dealing with imaginary numbers and with virtual constructing of the world.

I’m aware that this kind of life is not simple and I know that in my head it is way too much romantic, but what can I do? – the coincidence wanted me to once again bump into one witty old sea dog that couldn’t negate my opinion at all, as he also feels his coexistence with nature is like a poetry.

Anyway, we were totally impressed, I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that both of us have been in love with the sea from ever anyway, even very much. That smell, the wind, sounds, colours, swaying and that indescribable feeling of the infinitive possibilities and freedom, but most of all I like that all the worries swim away.

Plus in this case a bunch of mussels to take home! :) (one part of my half ended like that the very same evening and the other is already waiting to be posted)