Easter brunch

Our Easter brunch today consisted, as usual of a mix of traditional Polish and Swedish dishes. First the cold table (above)

According to Swedish tradition we start with a few kinds of herring: (clockwise): dill herring, traditional Swedish and onion herring. It is seved with boiled young potates, caviarm sour cream and egg with caviar, wtrapped in a smoked salmon. After herring come two sorts of salmon: gravlax and smoked salmon with a selection of cheeses.

After that comes ham, fresh veggies and a few kinds of stuffed eggs.

When we were in Chicago two years ago, we visited Polish town there, where Disa found a profusely illustrated book of Polish cuisine. As far as I know she never cooked anything from this book by herself, but anytime I come to visit she picks up this book, points to (too many, in my opinion) pictures and asks: mom, could you do that? and that? and that?

So this Easter I made eggs filled with sausage and clover sprouts (jajka faszerowane masa z serdelka i rzerzucha), King's eggs (jajka po krolewsku), which are first filled with a ham and butter paste and topped with whipped cream with parmesan, and eggs with horseradish and sour cream wrapped in ham cornucopia (jajka z szynka i chrzanem). I though it was more than plenty, but turned out that I forgot to make eggs filled with roqueford and something, so I'll have to make them tomorrow.

Traditionally, after all that we were supposed to have a red beet soup, steamed asparagus, boiled kabanosy and debreciner sausages, and my daughter's favorite Polish dish: pan fried filled eggs (jajka faszerowane smazone), but we had more than enough food already, so a decision was made to serve the other part of Easter brunch for dinner, insted of lamb, that can be eaten tomorrow.

Happy and tasty Easter everybody!

Carribbean art bargain!

My virtual friend, Heather is an artist, living, painting and gardening in Grenada. Heather is a very talented painter with one flaw typical of idealistic dreamers - she does not price her work nowhere near their real value.

Or what would you say of her willing to part with the painting above for US$10??? I bid $ 50 for it and would consider it a bargain if I actually ended getting it for that price.... since you are welcome to outbid me... or bid on any other of her paintings, the images of which you can see browsing through her blog.

Wouldn't you like to have an authentic piece of art, which is also a cheerful reminder of the balmy Caribbean, hanging somewhere in your place???

And to be able to acquire it at a bargain price? What could be better in this gloomy time of economic crisis?

Good Friday

A sashimi plate at Hashiguchi

In Poland, where I grew up, Good Friday was called Great Friday (Wielki Piatek), but as a child I used to call it a Long Friday, as the day, due to a religious catholic tradition was a severe fast day, with practically only one meal served all day (dinner) and with only fish served: usually herring with some boiled potatoes. It really seamed like a very, very looooooong - and hungry as well as gloomy - Friday.

But now, a fish lover that I have become, I use Good Friday as an opportunity to eat fish both for lunch and dinner.

To make my daughter happy, however, I made healthy eggs benedict for breakfast: toasted English muffins, wilted spinach with garlic, poached eggs, canadian bacon... but NO Hollandaise sauce.


But for lunch we went to - according to my daughter's Japanese friends - the best sushi place in greater Atlanta: Hashiguchi in Marietta, an Atlanta suburb (although there is now a Hashiguchi Jr in downtown Atlanta).

Hashiguchi is a small, but very popular place: both among the local Japanese as with Atlantans at large.

There Mr Hashiguchi himself gets behind the sushi bar and prepares fresh sushi, sashimi, maki and norimaki for each and every client, while the kitchen - in the background - makes super fresh and super yummy tempura, miso soup and other delicacies. All the food there is to die for!

I had a combination plate of sushi and sashimi (above), while Disa had sahimi and an eel California roll, for which I traded a few of my sushi. All that with a green sallad with an Asian ginger dressing and a bowl of miso soup. Yuuummm! And for dinner at home we shall have grilled salmon with grilled baby bok choy and guinoa and a dill mousse:
However, not the traditional dill/cucumber version, but an experimental cold sauce, which I am inspired to make by a Polish photographer/graphic artist living now in London (but before living in the Caribbean) and an avid cook, who posted yesterday a recipe for a mint mousse/sauce, which I decided to try to make today using a bunch of fresh dill instead of mint.

Now, that's a Great Friday in my book! Hapy Easter, everybody!

Brrr...

It is unusually cold for an April in Atlanta.

It takes guts - and warm clothes - to sit outdoors even for a short moment.
Yet the cats - imported from tropical Puerto Rico - are happy. They are indoors.
Enjoying their new digs: Disa's sofa and soft, warm pillows and blankets... as she has not yet have the time to change her decor from winter to spring.

More orchids ... and an orchid sale

Early this morning Atlanta Botanical Garden held an orchid sale from the Orchid Daze exhibition - for members only. You could buy fantastic specimens at $10 (and up), so a lot of members showed up to take advantage of this event.

Above is what I brought home, and below some other beauties from the exhibition.

Orchid Daze: gorgeous meets glass

On Sunday I managed to catch the last day of an orchid and glass art exhibition at Atlanta Botanical Garden. Fuqua Orchid Center at the Garden has the largest collection of orchids in America, consisting of over 10 000 species!

At the annual Orchid Daze exhibitions Fuqua conservatory showcases its own - and borrowed - orchids intermingled with gorgeous glass art pieces.

This year the glass art is the work of 11 different artists.

The relationship of art and natural beauty is both dazzling and whimsical. Let's take a stroll through the exhibition, Shall we?













Let's take a break now and continue tomorrow, as there are many, many gorgeous orchids left to see.

Another stop at my life's merry go round

Atlanta's skyline from Buckhead -

photo by coka-koehler

When I arrived in Atlanta on Wednesday, I have been asked to stay here for at least 2-3 months, if not longer, and I agreed: Florida can wait for me a while.

Instead, in the nearest future, this vibrant, modern metropolis of South East USA will be my new - and old, as I lived here before, twice - temporary home.

Lenox Drive in Buckhead - a street by which I now live.

I won't live downtown, however, but uptown, in Buckhead, nicknamed Atlanta's Beverly Hills, as it is partially a very fashionable part of the city, full of mega-mansions hidden on large wooded lots on very quaint streets, but also of much more modest townhouses and condos on streets ranging from semi-quaint to busy, as Buckhead is also a shopping and entertainment district.

Of course I'll have to do my best to explore the big city lifestyle: its art scene, intellectual (and quasi intellectual) scene, social scene and - last but not least - the great outdoors.

Since yesterday I have been revisiting my previous memberships: my gym, my art, book, film, discussion and outdoor clubs and picked so far only one - or two - of each and - in addition - signed up as a volunteer with Atlanta Botanical Garden, Piedmont Park Conservancy and Atlanta Community Food Bank.

As I also retained some work commitments (part time, fortunately, no more than 20 hrs per week) I expect to be fairly busy.... and have tons of fun, while living in Atlanta again, for a while. :-)))