Day of the Dead - Macedonia

Halloween, something my nephews in the US are dressing up for as we speak, is not celebrated here in Macedonia. Tomorrow, however, is observed and is known as the "Day of the Dead" (aka. "All Soul's Day"). On this day families will go to the grave sites of their departed loved ones, clean the headstone, clear away debris, light candles for prayer, place flowers and have a meal. It's believed that the person's spirit is able to come and partake with them.

It's interesting to me the many traditions that are associated with the death of a loved one. I read on Wikipedia that in Orthodox tradition it's believed that from the moment of death that the person can visit the living for 40 days. Then on that 40th day the family again goes to the grave site and serves the same traditional meal items that were served graveside the day of the funeral (bread, wine/drink of some sort, something sweet, etc.). Again, it's believed the loved one's spirit partakes with them one last time before heading away from the living and into the afterlife.

As I ponder these traditions my thoughts go to those who are still in or just ending that 40-day period... I imagine this time is especially difficult for them, and I wonder if the traditions are as well, like tomorrow and the"Day of the Dead." I lost my own father several years ago and can keenly identify with the heart-ache of losing someone you love. Yet, there is a Hope that comforts us in our loss far more than anything else ever could. The hope of eternal life found in the One who has triumphed over death and its sting. As I consider this "holiday" and what meaning it may hold for so many, my heart is tugged to pray for them. Will you join me?

Recipe: Old World Apple Cake

I've always thought that October is the best month in which to have a birthday. The air is crisp but still carries hints of the summer gone by. The trees, parks and wooded paths are colored in various shades of greens, yellows, oranges and browns. Тhen there are the numerous seasonal items like squash, sweet potatoes and, of course, apples. And with apples comes the best game ever for a kid's birthday party: apple dunking (or bobbing)!

For those who aren't familiar with this, imagine a big barrel or ivar-making-tanger (танџер) filled with water and dozens of bright red harvest apples bobbing on the surface. Then the children hold their hands behind their back and try to pick up an apple with just their mouth. :::giggle:::


[Apple-dunking picture source:
http://www.borehamwoodtimes.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/apple_day/ ]

Unless there's a decent stem, the participants will end up dunking their entire heads all the way in to wedge an apple against the bottom and sink their teeth in. Coming up they send splashes of water onto everyone within a 5 foot radius. They are soaking wet from head to torso but with a triumphant apple-filled smile. Ahhh... memories. :) (My Macedonian friends are probably cringing at this moment at the image of children being outside with wet hair in October.)

Now a days I don't go dunking for apples anymore (though the kid in me would love to!) instead I bake. And that's just what I did this weekend with the big bag of organic apples that a friend gave to me on my birthday last week. It's an old family favorite of mine and a gem I thought worth sharing. It's from my Mom's well-worn and loved 1966 copy of the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery (Vol. 1, Fawcett Publications, Inc., New York, 1966, pg. 102).

Old World Apple Cake

Ingredients for Filling
3 Pounds cooking apples
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 slices of lemon

Ingredients for Pastry
2 Cups sifted all-purpose flour (sift before you measure)
1-1/3 cups sugar (about)
1-1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 egg yolks (room temperature)

Method

Peel and slice apples. Cook with sugar, water and lemon until tender but not mushy. Drain and cool. Remove lemon slices.

Mix flour, 1-1/4 cups sugar and baking powder. Cut in 1/2 cup butter with pastry blender or work in with fingers until mixture is crumbly. Mix in egg yolks. Reserve 1 cup four mixtrue for top. Pat remainder on bottom and sides of greased 9-inch spring-form pan. Fill with apples; sprinkle with reserved topping; dot with 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake in preheated moderate oven (350F) for 1 hour. Serve warm or cold. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

OK, now for my Macedonian friends who have asked me for this recipe...сега ке пробам да ви го кажам рецептот на Македонски (благодарам на моите учителки кои што ме помогнаат со овој рецепт).

за полнење
3 кила јаболка за печење
1/3 шолја шеќер
1/2 шолја обична вода
2 парчиња лимон

Излупете ги и сечете ги јаболката. Ги варете сите парчиња со шеќерот и лимонот ċе додека не омекнат. Исушете ги и се изладете ги. Вадете ги парчињата од лимон.

процедно (за тесто)
2 шолји приближно брашно
1-1/3 шолји шеќер (околу)
1-1/4 мала лажица пециво (прашок за печиво)
2/3 чаша путер или маргарин (околу)
2 жолтчки (соба темпетура)

Загрејте ја рерната на 177°с.

Во среден сад го мешате брашното, 1-1/4 чаши од шеќерот и пецивото. Само 1/2 чаши од путерот го сечете заедно во смесата со вилушка. Додадете ги жолтчките во садот со смесата и мешајте дури не стане хомогена смеса. Ставете една чаша од смесата на страна и ставете го другиот во една тава. Ставете ги јаболките или овошјете од ваш избор и на крајот ставете ја смесата на врвот на обошјето. Сега, со голема лажица, ставете го шеќерот на врвот. Печете ја тортата на 177°с за еден саат.

Prijаtno јадење! And have an enjoyable and color-filled fall season! :)

A Haunted House, Church and Fellowship

This Sunday, after an extra hour of sleep (yipee!), we arrived to find the school where we meet bedecked with a scarecrow and several school childrens' uniquely carved pumpkins. Saturday night had been the schools annual Fall Festival and inside the gym the left-overs from the haunted house needed to be cleared before we could set up for service. No worries because we had several extra helping hands thanks to the "fall back" time change! :)

As usual worship practice was full of last-minute tweaking, laughter over silly little things, vocal warm-ups, guitar tuning, sound-checks and proofing of slides on "One Note." Even with the necessary detail that is "practice", it was an especially nice practice as it seemed this Sunday we got past the logistics more quickly than usual and entered purely into worship, focusing on the One for Whom we sang.

Come beginning of service, the gym that had been a haunted house the night before was transformed into a hallowed house as we prayed, worshipped through song and received a message on Jesus' resurrection and faith. As summer is now fading into memory the seats are fuller each week as expats from all over find there way here, finding a church home. After service the fellowship, laughter and deep and light conversation continues next door in the schools cafeteria that is more like a delightfully quaint cafe.


In breaks between my own conversations I simply took in the sights of candid moments:

• two ladies engaged in light conversation about their week and how their children are doing
• three little girls sitting around a small table, legs swinging in joy as they sipped their milk or juice and mused little girl musings
• a little munchkin perched on the bar (coffee) totally amused by the barrista making silly faces for her
• the box of homemade ginger-snaps disappearing with each blink of the eye
• discussions and planning for the weeks homegroup meetings: when, where and open invite to new attendees
• a ladies easy laughter a something her husband said
• two men in deep discussion of theological import
• a proud father holding his little baby who squeals in pure delight in his daddy
• the group of adults crowded around the counter ordering macciato's, cappuccino's or "sour water" (aka. bubbly mineral water)
• children scampering around and through the adults legs, playing in the school yard or on the schools Foosball table
• people from literally all over the world drinking coffee, eating cookies and enjoying one another's company and fellowship, forging friendships

Little by little the groups disbursed to head home, to other points of ministry, or to continue the conversations over lunch. For myself I walked out with a couple friends to the main street where we mused about the detour down the road and if it was for the motorcycle race and yes we'll see you at class. Bidding them farewell I decided to enjoy the day and walk home rather than hailing a taxi. Just around the corner I ran into one of the people from church who invited me to join their family for a скара lunch (aka. grilled meat... something Macedonia does awesomely). What a lovely time we had talking about all sorts of things (including a little cheer for Liverpool's win over Chelsey)!

Several full and delightful hours later when I set out for home, it was darker than I'd expected for 5:30pm, but then again a time-change will do that. The streets were quiet and colored with fall leaves, the night air a bit chilly... but my heart was full. Yesterday was a great day. A day that started with church in what had been haunted house the night before, and ended with full and candid fellowship moments.

A Night at the Symphony

When I was a little girl my parents used to drag me to the symphony each week... inevitably I'd curl up in my chair and sleep, too young to appreciate the experience. Now almost 30 years later, living in Skopje, I enjoy going to the symphony and I can assure you that there is no sleeping--especially last night.

The Macedonia Philharmonic opened the season with a night of Beethoven's Fives: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5 and, my all-time favorite, the famous Symphony No. 5 in C-Minor (aka. Dah dah dah daaaaahhh.... or "fate knocking at the door."). It was a wonderful concert! Of course it was even more fun because one of my friends is one of the musicians (though I confess I'm a little envious that she gets to be literally in the middle of the music.) :)

The pianist featured for the Concerto was Tzimon Barto of the US. He didn't look like a typical pianist... in fact we thought he looked a bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger... and the way he played! He was on fire pounding away at the ivories with such force that I thoroughly expected to see strings fly! (And apparently they did in practice!) Yet at the times his touch was so light and flowing it was as if the piano whispered... amazing. Bravo.

And as far as Beethoven's Symphony No. 5?? Words escape me. Bravo seems too inadequate. The conductor, Janush Pshibilski of Poland, was quite enjoyable and did a wonderful job. And what a joy it was to finally hear my favorite symphony live! I got chills and caught my breath several times!! And by the final movement I wanted to jump to my feet and cheer! Alas, I held back my ovation until the end, joining many others. :)

After the concert some friends and I went to the local Mexican restaurant, Amigo's, and enjoyed a great meal with great company. :) Ah, such was a wonderful night spent with friends at the symphony.

Recipe: Ljutenitsa or Pinjur... though not exactly ;)

Yesterday I gave a jar of Ajvar as a gift to a baba I know while describing Day-3 of our Ajvar-making weekend. I said we'd made another local specialty called Љутеница but she said that we didn't add hot (lute) peppers so it couldn't really be called lutenitsa. She suggested that it was more like Пинџур (pinjer) but since we didn't add tomatoes it wasn't exactly that either. Oh the dilema! So I teasingly suggest that we call it a combo of the two, something like, pinjenitsa (пинџеница). ;) No matter what name it goes by, the end product spread on bread with some creamy feta was delish!

From the 75 kilos of peppers we set aside about 15 that we cut up instead of ground. Same goes for a couple eggplant. Together with several cloves of garlic, fresh chopped parsley, 1 liter-ish oil, 1/4th-ish liter vinegar, and decent helpings of salt and sugar to taste made up our pinjenitsa.

Throw it all in a tanjer (голем танџер) and put on the stove over a roaring fire. Cook for about 2 hours stirring constantly with a big wooden spoon until broken down and flavor-filled but not completely smooshy like Ajvar. Or you can do what we did and ask a neighbor-lady if it was done yet. :)

Our batch yielded about 12 small jars of this delectible spread... there were a few more but we (7 of us) ate it for lunch while it was still warm. ;)

The Great Pepper Debate

One of the big debates that we had while making Ajvar was whether or not to core and de-seed the peppers before or after roasting. Talking to locals you find a wide range of passionate opinions as to the "correct way" to do it. We each had experience doing it both ways and since we had 75 kilos of peppers to work with over two days, we decided to do a compare and contrast. So here's what we found out, and at the end is the verdict and an opportunity for you to throw in your two-denars.


Day 1: We cored and de-seeded the peppers before roasting.
Coring wasn't so bad if you had fingernails as you could simply push the nail in at the base of the stem and pull it out. The seeds are then easily shaken out by tapping against the side of a bowl.
Roasting was a little tricky as it was harder at times to grab hold of the peppers in order to turn them. Additionally, it seemed to take a long time to roast the pepper until it was peel-able (meaning black).... more often than not the burn would extend beyond the skin and into the "meat" of the pepper.
Peeling was very difficult as we'd left them in the plastic bags overnight. The upside was that there were few if any seeds to deal with, and the peppers stayed drier (a key thing is to keep the water level down for cooking)



Day 2: We washed the peppers and placed them directly on the stove to roast complete with stems attached (and seeds inside).
Roasting was much nicer as the stems made for good handles in turning. Additionally, as the steam built up inside the peppers they were easier to smoosh down with tongs to obtain a more even burning of the skin. Finally, the peppers seemed to cook faster and so there was less burnage and loss of the meat (unlike on day 1 where several peppers simply disintegrated in our hands from overcooking/burning).
Peeling was by far much easier when the peppers were still warm. We let them sweat in plastic bags for at least 2 hours before beginning peeling and the peels simply slid off! The downside were the numerous seeds that seemed to get everywhere. People resorted to dipping the peppers in water to get rid of the seeds (a big NO NO according to every Macedonian domakinka). I found the scissor method worked quite well (put the meat between your fingers and simply slide down, removing any seeds).

The Verdict: Having to deal with the seeds after roasting was headache enough that the general concensus was to core/de-seed before roasting, but to peel while still warm.

Personally, I agreed that dealing with the seeds was a big pain, but in my opinion the benefits of roasting with the stem on far outweighs the seedy inconvenience. It has everything to do with the steam held inside the pepper with the stem on.

1. The peppers plump while you cook them
2. The meat benefits from the flavor of the seeds (according to one of the Macedonian babas)
3. The meat says thick and flavorful as it's steamed rather than baked (the steam builds up inside the pepper)
4. The pepper cooks faster thanks to the benefit of the steam
5. The peel comes off more easily also because of the benefits of the steam
6. Less blackened pepper makes it into the final mix because less meat is burned

At this point I'd like to open up the comment section of this blog to hear from all my Balkan friends or others who have made Ajvar. Do you prefer to core and de-seed the peppers before roasting or after??

Ajvar: Community Pepper Peeling

Oui! How is it that every muscle in my body hurts?! It's amazing how sore you get while making Ajvar.... between hunching over and peeling, peeling, peeling and four-hours of stirring, stirring, stirring it's no wonder! Our second day making the local specialty went really well and was full of fun. Here's a picture diary of our day which began with:

Roasting peppers until they're black and easy to peel... this time with the stems on in order to do a comparison of methods used by locals... more to come on the verdict in another blog...
Beginning the pepper-peeling process....

Prepare shish-kabob's for lunch

Quickly move everything inside because the previously sunny day disappeared in a torrent of rain!... and peel more peppers

Roast eggplant (aka "black tomatoes")

Pause for lunch under the once-again clear skies.... the carrots and cherry tomatoes in the salad were fresh from the garden!

Continue to peel peppers and now eggplant (eggplant is by far the hardest to peel btw)...

Begin to grind the peppers and eggplant... don't you just love the innovation of using a drill vs. hand-cranking!?! Zip zip! It went so fast!

Continue peeling and grinding while beginning to stir the mix on the stove... adding 1 liter (!) of oil to start...


Chop fresh parsley from the garden and garlic for the ajvar beginning to boil on the stove..

Short break for early blackberry birthday pie for Pattie and myself [thank you!!].... while still peeling!

More peeling!

Finished the peeling and now finishing up the grinding!!

Now the brewing begins! We needed to cook this mixture until it's 1/2 this size!

That means... four HOURS of stirring... and stirring... and stirring..... Once the mixture had cooked down, thickened and darkened, we brought it all upstairs to begin spooning into freshly sanitized, prepared jars...

It's hard to believe that 75 kilos of peppers and 20 of eggplant boiled down to 20 small jars and 5 large jars of Ivar! (Or as my brother and nephews teasingly pronounced... Ajuh-bep... the Englishification of the Cyrillic for Aye-var... Ајвар)

If you're counting jars in this picture you'll notice there's only 4 large jars... that's because we ate one while it was warm! It's so yummy to slather warm Ivar on bread and top it with some sirinje (a creamy feta-type cheese). MmmmMmmm...

By far, the best thing about making Ajvar, though, are the hours of fellowship, laughs, conversation and community-building among participants enjoying each other, the work and the day. :) Besides making Ajvar with colleagues, I've twice had the priviledge of making Ajvar with a Macedonian family from church. I loved sitting at the stove with the dad and chatting while monitoring the peppers process and adding more when others were done... or the laughter and conversation that happened with everyone around the pepper-peeling on a crisp autumn day. Making ajvar is one of those very special community activities and something I look forward to now each year.

Though I could go another year before I peel another pepper! lol ;)

Making Ajvar for a Team Meeting

Yesterday Christine and I drove down to Bitola to hang with some colleagues and to make a local specialty called Ajvar (pr.. "Aye-var"). When we left Skopje it was sunny with a kiss of warmth in the air, but halfway to Bitola the sky opened and it began to rain. And rain. And rain. I also realized it was high time I changed the windshield wipers as the harder it rained the harder it was to see!

Arriving in Bitola we got right to work on coring and roasting 75 kilos (aka 165 lbs!) of vibrant red peppers. Oh! Wish you could smell the wonderful fragrance that they make as they're sizzling on the stove. We enjoyed some great conversation and laughter under a patio umbrella as the rain continued to come down. (Cracking walnuts for roasting also in pic below).

Their landlords would pop in one and another at different times to say hello and to watch us Americans try our hand at a Balkan specialty. Mark let me take over roasting while he and his landlords son chatted over by the apple tree (while sampling a few fresh from the tree as well). I really enjoy roasting the peppers, though usually it's the men who do it. At one point I was roasting and Christine and Becky were coring as Mark brought us more peppers. I can only imagine how odd that must have looked to the locals! ;)

About 6:30 the gals and I left Mark to the roasting and headed to the church for women's bible study. Christine and I were put a little on the spot to lead the song-time... um.. in Macedonian. I must say that was a first for me. Usually I'm leading songs in English for the International Church, but this was a really great experience. Afterwards we all had some great discussion times about living our lives as lights to those around us. We ended with prayer for our families and then the gals and I returned home to find that Mark had just finished roasting the second bag of peppers.

Today we have 25 kilos left of peppers to roast as well as a bag of eggplant. This batch of peppers will be a bit different, though. You see, one of the discussions we had yesterday was if coring the peppers before roasting is better than leaving the stems on for roasting and coring and de-seeding afterwards. Every Macedonian will tell you something different (even about peeling... sweat the roasted peppers in a plastic bag but peel them while they're warm vs. sweat them overnight). Anyways, today we roast with stems and will compare our experience with yesterday. :)

Mark and Pattie are joining us today as well and we'll be having a team meeting while roasting and peeling peppers. I must say, this will be the funnest team meeting I think we've ever had. ;)