If you haven't noticed, Sarajevo isn't on the worlds' fastest growing cities list. People aren't pushing and shoving in the airport to get through immigration and settle down here.
Well, I am, at least for a little while.
I have been to Bosnia two times before. Now I have moved and settled in an apartment about 20 minutes from city center. It is a huge change, but not as big as you may think. It's just that, change.
I am learning here.
Of course I have an internship, working on finding a job and living in a country where the native language is completely different from my own. There is a lot of learning going on.
My kitchen is a brand new experience too. I am very lucky. I have a nice big fridge, an oven and a stove top. Things are good. The downside is that leaving London, I also left my kitchen that was stocked with flour, sugar, spices and the other basic ingredients any cook needs. With a new kitchen, I've had to rebuild, restock, re-organize.
Another change is that I don't have anyone to cook for, which, for lack of a better word, sucks. I love to cook for my friends, for my family. I am just one person and I cannot eat the food I cook for people all on my own. As a consequence, I have to plan a lot more. The food I cook has to be adaptable and can be used to make many different meals.
Last week, I roasted a chicken and two pounds of vegetables (onions, potatoes, carrots and mushrooms). From that roasted chicken and veggies, I made four different meals. First, I kept the drumsticks and made easy meals to pull out of the freezer. Just drumsticks and veggies. The second meal was a soup. I poured frozen peas, two cups of chicken broth, roasted veggies and shredded chicken into a plastic bowl. This is a pretty tasty soup to begin with, but you can add cream or a cheese once it is thawed for a little more flavor.
I also made corn and potato chowder. I chopped roasted carrots, potatoes and chicken and let it simmer with two cups of chicken broth, one cup of cream and a can of corn. I topped it with pan toasted croutons and parmesan cheese. Delicious!
Finally I put aside red onions and mushrooms to make my own creamy mushroom topping for my own version of mushroom bruschetta.
This is how I feed myself when I am living on my own. This is how I keep myself from eating out or out of a cereal box every night.
What's more. I have a pretty demanding palette. I like variety and spice and flavor. Bosnia has great food, but it doesn't live up to those standards and if I eat Bosnian food all the time, I'm going to have to buy new pants. All of this means that I will be learning how to make the foods I crave. Pad thai, why not. Coconut curry, sure. But I draw the line at Sushi. I don't trust myself with sushi.
If you have any tips or tricks or recipe suggestions, bring em on! This food blog is about to get interesting.
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