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Connections, Love, and Death.

There is a theme that has been running through my head and my heart recently: connections and community. It started last year when a particularly grisly case was discovered in Slovakia. The only...

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Chicken Paprikash

Quick and cozy, chicken paprikash is a dish commonly made in Slovakia, though originally from Hungry, of chicken cooked in a creamy paprika sauce and served over pasta of some sort. This version is...

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Explore the Elements

Wherever we travel in the world, the four elements are there in some form. Thomas Cook is having a photo contest with each of the four elements as a topic: earth, fire, air, and water. I couldn’t help...

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Bone Broth Slovak Sunday Soup

  This soup makes an appearance every Sunday at my mother in law’s, and now at my house. The clear broth is made with bones, but there is a secret to making sure that the broth stays clear and not...

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How to Cook Brains: Slovak Mozgy

When at a Slovak zabijačka (za-bee-yach-ka), a family pig slaughtering, the first food to be cooked is lunch. Without fail, my mother in law makes mozgy, a dish containing the brains and spinal cord....

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Winter Hike up McKirdy Mountain, Valemount, Canada

I wasn’t expecting to get to Canada this year, but in February I made a quick unplanned visit to be together with my extended family. Given that it takes two days to travel one way from Slovakia to the...

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Rice and Offal Sausages: Slovak Jaterničky

Next of the products made from a traditional Slovak pig butchering is jaterničky (ya-ter-nich-ky), sausages stuffed with rice, offal, and various herbs. The idea of eating offal is hard for many to...

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Hiking in Slovakia: Cierna Skala

  Before Easter I joined with a friend and the wordsmith Julie for a first hike of the season, from Smolenice to Cierna Skala (chi-air-na), a 20km hike through oak and beech forest just starting to...

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A Slovak Goulash Cook-off

The air was thick with the smell of cooking stew, the buzz of a crowd’s conversations, and a tinge of wood smoke, as contending teams vied for the coveted ‘best goulash’ award. The other weekend we...

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My Love Affair with Folklore (and a Slovak folklore concert)

If I had to guess, I would say that my love of all things related to traditional cultures started in my grandparent’s living room. Our fairly frequent family gatherings would often involve some...

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Children’s Civil Defence Education

For a couple days my second daughter was excitingly looking forward to “CO” (tse-oh) and finally on the morning of  I asked my husband what “CO” meant. CO stands for civilna ochrana, literally civil...

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June 2015 Photos

I’m starting a new series with photos from the month that didn’t warrant a whole post but that I wanted to share anyway. I’ve shared some on Instagram but my new phone requires more work to put up a...

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A Slovak Party: lots and lots and lots of food

This last weekend my mother in law celebrated her 70th birthday. It was a big event, due to generous family sizes. We  set for 70 people, including children. At a Slovak celebration, there must be...

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July Photos

I started a monthly series where I share photos from the month that didn’t garner their own post. June was the first month, here is the second. An example of concrete telephone/electrical poles....

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Kremnica, Slovakia: a town of gold

On our recent trip to the Vysoke Tatry (High Tatra mountains), we stopped in Kremnica, where one of the oldest permanently producing mint factories in the world is located. Gold was discovered as early...

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Cream of Zucchini Soup with Dill

This super easy creamy soup is a delicious way to eat abundant zucchini, even for those who don’t like it! I’m a terrible food blogger. I made this soup a while ago but didn’t write down how much of...

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August Photos: mostly from the road on our vacation

We had two weeks of holiday in August and the first week was spent at the end of the Vysoke Tatry, the highest mountain range in Slovakia. I’ve got a number of posts coming up about different places we...

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Lendak, Slovakia: a mix of old and new

  I’m so excited to share my favourite village in Slovakia with you. There are many other similar villages, I am sure, but this is the one that I know. At the eastern end of the Vysoke Tatry (the High...

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Hody: the modern take on a religious medieval festival

Every town, every church in fact, in Slovakia has a festival called ‘hody’. Each church is named/dedicated to a particular saint or feast, and when that annual feast day rolls around it’s party time....

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Chata M.R.Štefánika: a chalet in the Low Tatra mountains

Nestled in the side of the hill under Ďumbier, the highest mountain in the Low Tatra (Nizke Tatry) mountains, Chata Štefánika is full of charm, comfort, and convenience. Last week we celebrated our...

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