Mother firmly believed that each member of the family should contribute to the household chores. While she attacked the majority of the monotonous, routine, everyday tasks by herself, she assigned cameo roles to all of us. Father was in charge of lugging home huge sacks of flour and sugar, cartons of oil, and flats of [...]
In October of 1982, Father stopped his orange Russian-made “Lada” in front of a New Belgrade skyscraper and let Mother and me exit, while he searched for a parking spot. My Aunt’s and Uncle’s two bedroom apartment on the eighth floor of the building would be my home for the first two years at the [...]
For a couple of years I have been keeping tabs on our monthly grocery-shopping expenditures. No, I do not employ Excel or use the computer in any way to facilitate this tedious task. After each trip to one of the stores we dutifully write the date, the name of the store, and the total on [...]
Growing up in Serbia, which was then a part of Yugoslavia, we never went hungry. But the lack of food was a reality for our parents’ generation and every generations preceding theirs. There were wars, there was re-building, more wars, more re-building. Being hungry most of the time was a part of life they accepted. [...]
I never cease marveling at the Internet and its magical powers to connect people from all over the world. That I still sometimes think there are elves living in computers performing all these complicated operations is another story. Looking at this thin laptop, though, it is obvious that the elves have been dieting. And I [...]
sarma simmering We grew up in the 60s and the 70s eating only locally grown and seasonal food. Not by choice. Real food was abundant and available. The “exotic” food still did not make its appearance at the grocery stores. We lived in the city and did not grow our own produce, but the market [...]
Father was in town at the time the younger Beastie, Natalia Zoe*, was born. As soon as my first contractions started (five minutes apart) I kissed my two daughters, grabbed the overnight bag, and hobbled to the car, accompanied by Father giving the last bits of advice and Husband trying not to panic, patting his [...]
My love affair with the chicken started later in my life. In the beginning of my gustatory adventures, I did not care for some amazing things: tomatoes, potatoes, all kinds of melons, smoked meats and chicken. But I did not have a lot of choice in expressing my reluctance to eating undesirables; our household definitely [...]
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