Cooking in Bosnia

Written on 9/21:

First of all, I want to thank all of you who sent me emails about life back in the US.  Keep ‘em coming! I really like hearing from everyone, and it makes me feel like I’m back home when I read them.

I’ve been in so many rehearsals over the past two days that I haven’t had time to write until tonight.  On Monday night we had a four-hour rehearsal.  Then, yesterday we had a three-hour rehearsal in the morning, and awkwardly long break in the afternoon (not quite enough time to go home and come back), and then another rehearsal yesterday evening.  Then we rehearsed again for four hours this morning!

It continues to be frustrating to play with colleagues who talk during rehearsals, and who often don’t listen to each other when they’re playing.  However, it has been an exciting week because the conductor has demanded that the orchestra improve both their playing and their behavior.  I really enjoy hearing how much better we sound at each rehearsal, and hope that the concert tomorrow night will go very well.

As I start settling into a routine here, rather than giving a play-by-play of each day, I will try to talk about specific topics relevant to my life here.  To start, I will write about my most favorite topic of all—food. J

Cooking in Bosnia:

Although a lot of the food here is very fresh and delicious, there fewer choices of things to buy and cook, especially being vegetarian.  I think that as time goes on I might have to be pretty creative if I want a varied diet.  Otherwise, I’d end up eating bread and cheese for every meal. (Not that I don’t love bread and cheese, but it can get a little boring.)  Since I love cooking, I am actually looking forward to the challenge of trying to cook new meals with a fixed set of ingredient and only an electric stove/oven.  So far I have “invented” two dishes.  I will share the recipes because I’m proud of how simple they are but how good they taste:

“Megan’s Bosnian Salad”:

-1 red bell pepper chopped (sorry folks, but it won’t taste as good with American peppers)

-1 large tomato chopped

-2 small cucumbers chopped (probably 1 American cucumber would be plenty.  They are much smaller here.)

-1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled or chopped

-Lemon Wedge

-Olive Oil

-Salt and Pepper

Mix vegetables in large bowl.  Squeeze the lemon wedge over the salad.  Add olive oil, salt, pepper and feta.  Toss.

“Pasta Sauce” (Now that I figured out how to boil water and found a place that sells Italian pasta, I can make yummy pasta.  Score.  However, Bosnian pasta sauce tastes a little funky, so I made my own.)

-2 large tomatoes, chopped

-½ small onion, chopped

-Olive Oil

-Salt

Heat olive oil.  Add onions and cook until slightly tender.  Add tomatoes and cook until carmelized.  Add salt to taste.  I’m sure garlic would be excellent in this too, I just didn’t have any on hand.  Next time.