Isn't this a great shot? No, not bragging, for this photo was not taken by yours truly. It's the work of my friend Nena's niece, Ema, who has just bought a Nikon D3100.
It's plum season on the outdoor markets here now. I photographed these beauties yesterday when we took a little excursion outside of town. (Yes, I picked some.....) In Serbian plums are called šlive (SCHLEE-vay) and in addition to eating them fresh, city women make plum jam, plum dumplings, and plum pies out of them. Village women make the same, while their husbands make something they prefer: šlivovica (SCHLEE-vo-veet-sa), a brandy whose alcohol content varies between 25 and 70%. It's interesting that the Serbian word for 'plum' is related to the Latin līvidus, or “bluish, bruise-colored,” from which we get livid, a word synonomous with our black-and-blue when used to describe the discoloration caused by a bruise. Pretty color anyway!
Yesterday it was bread, today it's cookies and little cakes. Some may look familiar to you, and rightly so, since half of these aren't typical Serbian fare. The reason? They're made by a Serbian man and his "Serbian-but-born-and-raised-in-the-US" wife, who brought her favorite American recipes along with her. In addition to the tiny cream puffs, known as 'princes krofne' (PRIN-cess KROF-nay) here, some chestnut cream cookies, and fig cookies stuffed with walnuts, you'll find an assortment of doughnuts, muffins, and chocolate chip cookies to tide US expats through a bout of culinary nostalgia.Please read the description under the photo! He's not an 'alien'! Definitely from Earth, and specifically, from Serbia!
