Yesterday, I was invited to take part in a Romanian tradition. I spent the day cooking zacusca, which is an eggplant/pepper relish that is a Romanian favorite. It is usually served with bread. I was at the home of the director of the film studio. His wife invited me over to take part in the making and canning of the zacusca. I arrived at about 11:00am and cooked until 7:00pm. I was wearing an apron with Traditional red, black and white embroidery, and a babushka on my head. I worked along side Csilla (the wife) and two other older women who were directing the event. We ate ciorba (sour soup) and chuckled as I tried to speak in Romanian. Csilla’s two little girls were running about playing with the extra vegetables. Csilla kept laughing and hollering sase femeii (which means 6 women). I had a good time and got a glimpse into the world of village women. Cooking and sewing is really their only time to socialize because once they are married and spit out some crumb-snatchers…life pretty much ends. If they work outside the home, they must have breakfast ready and on the table when the men wake up and lazily sit down to eat. After work, they race back around 3 or 4, depending on when they finish the shopping, to cook lunch for the family. Then they do the laundry and/or cleaning, and finish the evening off with cooking dinner. Of course, the dishes are left on the table and they clean up between each course (usually three for each meal) and after. The men usually sit around eating, belching, and drinking. What a wonderful life????? Needless to say, I won’t be dating any men in this country. Besides the rotting teeth, bad breath, greasy hair, and tight clothing, the attitudes are for the birds. I need to start planning trips to neighboring areas where the meat isn’t so dirty and/or blue before I’ll even think about feasting. This is going to be a dry two years. Did I tell you about the washing machine installation? Well, after it was installed, I tested it before the man left and it blew a fuse in my apartment. He was kind enough to replace the wires in the fuse (don’t ask, I think they are tester fuses from the dark ages). Well, to do so, he had to stand on a chair to reach them. Btw, all Romanian men are about five feet, eight inches tall or shorter. He took his shoes off to step on the chair and the aroma was something that I had never smelled before. It was like entering the entrails of Beelzebub. My eyes watered and my stomach felt like I was about to get the dry heaves. my mouth got that soury, cottony collection of saliva under the tongue that happens just before puking. Oh god it was hell, but I didn’t know how to fix the fuse so I had to stand there and choke in that…wet garbagey funk. When he finally left, I had to open every window in my home to air it out. That’s all I have to report. I need to get the ciorba recipe b/c it was really tasty. When I do, I will share it with you. Here is the recipe for zacusca if you want to cook enough for the winter: 10 kg eggplant8 kg red pepper4 kg mushroom3 kg onion2 kg carrots1 liter tomato juice2 liter oilsalt, pepper & bay leaves put each of the following ingredients separately through a meat grinder : eggplant (after it’s been baked, peeled and drained), red peppers (after they have been roasted and peeled), carrots, and mushrooms. Keep each ingredient separate after grinding. Chop the onions. In a large pot:fry onions in oil and salt,add the carrots and stir,add the peppers and stir,add the eggplant and stir,add the mushrooms and stir,add the tomato juice and stir,add salt and pepper (whole and ground) to taste, and add bay leaves. Bring to a boil. It must simmer for at least four hours while constantly stirring. It is finished when the oil floats to the top and isa reddish color. It was suggested that after the mixture comes to a boil to cook it for the 4 hours in the oven, but who has an oven big enough to fit a tub????? After it has finished cooking, divide into jars with lids. Put a large cloth in a pot large enough to boil the jars. Put the jars in the pot on top of the cloth and fold the sides of the cloth over the jars to cover. Pour water in the pot and boil the jars of zacusca in water for 20 minutes to create the vacuum seal. There you have it. I am sure all of you a racing out to buy the ingredients. The relish is very good and I look forward to making my own batch next year. This was truly a sase femeii (6 women) experience.