Cakes and Cooks!

Since I've been here it seems everyone I know in Romania has had a birthday so I've been to several parties. The focus of parties here is never gifts and decorations, but rather time spent with family and friends. Romanians take great pride in the food they prepare and here is a sampling of some of the yummy birthday cakes and desserts I've been able to sample...all are homemade!

Alex of Darius House turns 10!

This white cake was made to celebrate the birthday of a friend's grandaughter-- she lives in Florida but the family celebrates every year in Romania.  I think she turned 7 this year..

Mariana and Adina

This is also the perfect time to introduce you to Adina and Mariana. They are the wonderful cooks for the Sunshine School. Both work tirelessly each day to provide delicious food for snack times and lunch for the special needs students of our Sunshine School.

Nicoletta of RCE's financial office turns...???

There have been SOOOO many birthdays in the month of March in the RCE office alone. To the left are a cake and another dessert made for Nicoletta's birthday. She's the one who gave me the freshly laid doz eggs and ham/sausage she and her family prepared. Ovi keeps track of every RCE employee's birthday. He gives personal birthday greetings to all-- even if a birthday falls on the weekend!  Just the other day he was found in the RCE parking lot at 8AM singing happy birthday to one of the Sunshine School teachers as he arrived for work.


Imola's birthday picture is below. She was abandoned at a young age and later adopted into a family from RCE's Darius House through the efforts of Mimi and Carmen Bocsa's social team. She is doing very well in school and loves being a little sister and a daughter.

More to eat for Nicoletta- this is Cremes (crem-ish)

Imola turns 7! She was adopted thru RCE

Homemade dessert at a visit to the Maxim Family in the village of Ususau

Rice with milk= orez cu lapte (o-rez coo lop-tay)

preparing the fresh milk

Today is Saturday, so that means there's more time to eat!  I want to share with you what I've eaten today so far.  I had the privilege of being at Ovi and Doina's for BOTH breakfast and lunch.  For breakfast we had orez cu lapte (rice with milk). Doina says it is made when they have "extra" milk to spare. When we were out in the field last Thursday, one of the families gave Doina a bottle of fresh milk from their cow.  Before the milk is used, it's boiled and the solid part that rises to the top is skimmed off.  The rice is cooked and mixed with the milk. The dish is topped with chocolate.

Potatos= cartofi (car-toe-fee)

Salad= salata (sa-la-ta)

Then there was lunch..a feast shared with Ovi's two sisters and a friend. We had salad made with sugar, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper; potatos; bread; pork; chicken; and egg plant salad. Yummy!

Chicken= pui (poo-ey)

Pork= parc (pork)

Here is Ovi tending the grill..cooking up the pork, chicken and pork fat.

Egg plant salad= salata de vinete (sa-la-ta de veen-i-tay)

Pork= parc (pork)

I promise this is the last picture of  sweet little Toni ("Antonia") that I will put in my blog..but I was looking back on some of this weeks' pictures when I came across this one and it made me laugh.  Toni never stopped being suspicious of me/watching my every move, even as we took this picture. Despite the photographer's efforts to get her attention, she's staring intently at me as if to say..."how did this American lady get into my family picture?"  There are already plans for me to see Toni next time I'm in Romania. I'll either travel to her village (which is 3 hours from Arad) or her parents will bring her to see me. Either way, I look foward to the visit...

Toni, her Mom/Dad and... "Aunt Marti"?


Romanian Words of the Day.... are all the words highlighted above!