Orchard Festival

As it turns out we missed the Harvest Festival (Dożynki) last week because we were visiting a friend. We go to Dożynki every year, so we could stand to skip it this year. What we could not skip was a visit to Bolesławiec on the way to our friends. We have just about everything you can buy from the Polish pottery Mecca, but I did find a few things our collection was missing.

They have a whole basket, if anyone is interested.

We started our Orchard Festival Sunday with a bike ride. I've just returned to cycling after years, so the plan is to build up my distance each week. Because we go on bike paths through the forest, we get a whole body workout - or at least that's how it feels this morning. I could definitely see the signs of autumn on our ride. The morning breeze was crisp, and some leaves have already fallen. 

After that we headed off by car to the festival. We started from a musical performance by the local school kids. Na Straganie is really funny when each vegetable is acted out by another kid.

Then we hit the stands to buy some apples and grab something to eat. There were so many people buying fruit I couldn't even get a picture.

Autumn is everywhere even at home.

I love autumn in Poland so be prepared for more unnecessary and repetitive autumn posts.

Co zrobić z dynią?

Placek dyniowy!



Jak sprawdzałam przepisy po polsku na dynie większość była na dania mięsne albo pikantne ale nie słodkie. Jak już przejdę przez ten cały czasochłonny proces od dyni do ugotowanego puree, chcę potem ugotować/upiec coś lepszego niż pikantny sos do makaronu albo krem z dyni. Ja chcę deser! Mój ulubiony deser - pumpkin pie! To jest przepis mojej mamy na pumpkin pie - wersja bez spodu. Jeszcze udoskonaliłam go troszeczke i zmniejszyłam ilość cukru do norm Europejskich - nie na smak przeciętnego Amerykanina. Smacznego.

Przepis na placek dyniowy Chris –

Składniki

1 szklanka mąki

1 ½ łyżeczki proszku do pieczenia

1/8 łyżeczki soli

przyprawy do smaku (cynamon, imbir, gałka)

½ kostki masła

¾ szklanki cukru (biały lub brązowy)

2 jajka

½ łyżeczka ekstraktu waniliowego

1 puszka niesłodzonego skondensowanego mleka

3 szklanki miąższu dyni (gotowane i zmiksowane)

Sposób przyrządzania

1. Podgrzać piekarnik do 180°C. Smarować naczynie masłem (boki i dno) i odstawić na bok.

1. Zmieszać razem mąkę, proszek do pieczenia, sól i przyprawy.

1. W dużej misce ubić razem cukier i masło (lekko zmiękczone). Wbić 2 jajka.

1. Dodać suche składniki i wanilię. Zmieszać.

1. Dodać dynię i zmieszać.

1. Dodać mleko i zmieszać łyżką.

1. Wlać do naczynia. Piec w temp. 180°C przez ok. 45 min – 1 godz. Ostudzić przed podaniem.

In English...

Chris’s Pumpkin Pie Recipe – The no-crust version

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

spices to taste (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg)

½ square butter

¾ cup sugar (white or brown)

2 eggs

½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 can evaporated milk (non-sweetened)

3 cups pumpkin (cooked and mixed)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease one glass pie pan with butter (bottom and sides) and set aside.

1. Sift or mix together flour, baking powder, salt and spices.

1. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and butter (slightly softened). Beat in 2 eggs.

1. Add dry ingredients and vanilla. Mix.

1. Add pumpkin and mix.

1. Add milk and stir with a spoon.

1. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 180°C for about 1 hour. Let cool before cutting.

1 cup=235 ml
tsp.=teaspoon
1 tsp.=5ml

Enjoy!

Exposed Beams and other stuff

Here are some pictures for Olivia who is a fan of exposed beams. She and her family are also planning a move from Texas to Poland next year. Olivia, these beams are for you :)

Sorry about the crookedness. I was lounging on the coach just right and couldn’t be bothered to adjust ;)

We’ve kept the original doors so far, neither stripped nor re-painted. The pine beams are not stained. We only cleaned them and sprayed them with some anti-insect treatment.

This picture is upstairs where I was thrilled to find recently that the beams have numbers etched into them from when the house was built. Misiu noticed those etchings about 5 years ago. I’m very observant.

Everything is painted white until we figure out what we want to do with this house.

A little attic at the very top.

Our still empty bedroom.

Current view from our still empty bedroom. Yeah, that’s our land. Respect!

No beams, just bathtub. Crazy-expensive bathtub. Crazy-expensive, heavy, heat-sucking bathtub that I insisted on.

A view to the barn. Did I mention that it is hard to find sober workers in the Village?

Our glorious barn.

We have a door in the fence between our house and our neighbor’s. Isn’t that quaint? We hardly ever use the door because the last time we did, the neighbor’s dog bit Misiu and now the kids are afraid to even go near the door.

It also might have something to do with the neighbor’s annual baby scarecrow hanging. Here is this year’s presentation.

Here’s our house. Just stop at the local shop and ask where “Lucy” lives.

A pit-stop on the way from Babcia’s to our place.

We’ve picked the last apples from the tree. Time to prepare an apple crisp. Autumn is here.

Autumn is coming!

How do I know? A few reasons…

We had to wear jackets in our yard for the first time since Spring. Luckily, we were prepared.

We could only hunt out a handful of wild strawberries in our strawberry patch instead of the usual weekly bowlful. I recommend a wild strawberry patch for anyone with children. It’s is so much fun to see them happily stuffing their faces with juicy little berries.

Our crazy wild rose bush behind the barn has fruit on it. This rose bush is taller than most trees and has managed to foil all my attempts at taming it.

Our red apples have ripened (the yellow ones ripened last month) and it is cool enough to use the oven for apple pie without overheating the house.

Lastly, we took our annual Autumn trip to the city of Bolesławiec to buy some Polish pottery.

Every year in Autumn, we go to the city of Bolesławiec in South-West Poland and stock up on our Polish pottery. Why is it that we go every Autumn? It is for a simple reason. The city has a very nice festival celebrating ceramics-making every year in August and every year we miss it and then say that we should go soon. Soon means September and Autumn.

I fell in love with this pottery the first time I came to Poland and saw it in a department store all stacked up making a beautiful display. Knowing how I am, I walked around the display in a huge arc not wanting to risk bumping into the dishes and having them crash down like in the old Mr. Whipple-Charmin toilet paper commercials. Later, after marrying and moving back to Poland I decided to start my own collection.

I have visited almost all the pottery shops in Bolesławiec but I have to say I am partial to the Factory Store on Kościuszki 11. That’s where I tend to buy the most and they are open on Sundays too. It is also very popular with German tourists (they were full up this time with a bus on the way to Wrocław) and also with Americans from the military base in Germany. Hey, if I could get the military shipping rate which I suppose is free, I would stock up, too. Sometimes those Americans can get a little rowdy in there so we prefer to speak Polish then and listen to the staff gossip about them after they’ve gone. Once, I tried to reach around an American shopper to take one small cup from the shelf. I was curtly ordered to drop it as she used her body to guard the shelf from further invasion. She was planning to buy everything and I mean everything from the shelves. “Sorry, but it’s my pattern,” she explained practically chewing my hand off.

inside the shop - all the German tourists are standing in line to pay

my girls who did not break anything, thank goodness

Check out their webpage in Polish, German or English. It is really interesting.

http://www.ceramicboleslawiec.com.pl/

We purposely do not buy everything we need so that we have a reason to come back. We also use the tableware everyday so something always gets broken and that gives us another reason to go back. (I am not into having good dishes and everyday dishes. Whatever I have, I use and suffer the consequences.) Also purposely, we mix the patterns. We could never decide what to buy, so we just started buying a little of this and a little of that. I like the effect.

Here’s what I bought.

Here’s what Lizzie bought ;)

a closer look

new things with an old purchase, my favorite coffee mug

This pottery sucks the heat right out of your coffee and soon you are left with a warm cup and lukewarm coffee. Pre-heat your cup with hot water then pour it out and add your hot coffee.

Another part of our annual Autumn pilgrimage to Bolesławiec is going to the restaurant Opałkowa Chata. http://opalkowachata.pl/boleslawiec/

It’s a quaint family restaurant with traditional dishes. The dishes are very colorfully described in Polish in the menu, so much so that I have to check the much simpler English translation to figure out what to order.

The kids of course didn’t want to eat anything after they discovered there is a playground around back but I managed to stuff some pierogi into them. They were good and tired for the car ride home.

What are your Autumn traditions?