Interkitchenal Exchange

I moved to Gostivar a little over a month ago and things are great. One thing I love about my new place is my landlord and his family. 2 weeks ago my landlordess, Slavica (or is it new host mom?) and I made Peanut butter cookies. She and her daughter were fascinated by how simple the recipe was...and by the existence (and use) of Peanut butter (like most European countries, nutella-type hazelnut butter is far more popular than peanut butter). Here in Macedonia the desserts consist primarily of cakes made from "biscuits" which are like graham crackers, and variations of philo dough treats, like baklava.

My Landlordess really wants to learn English so we have been combining the baking sessions with some English instruction. She understands quite a bit of English and she knows how to write pretty well, but she just needs help speaking so when we bake she tells me everything she is doing in English. It's very cute.

Last week we made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies using my recipe from the Peace Corps "Jadi! Jadi!" Cookbook (Jadi! is the imperative command to "Eat!" in Macedonian. We all experienced the extreme pressure from our host families to "Eat! Eat!" during our home-stays). After we made the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies Slavica showed me how she makes a wonderful (yet simple) apple pie.

In this picture we are starting to mix in the oats.