It was my turn to have our book group meet here this month. We read a terrific novel, “The Girls” by Lori Lansens. (Brenda BGE suggested this one to me)
The book has a strong Slovakian theme so I researched the food from that area. Plascinta are crepe-like pancakes–actually a little heavier than crepes. Usually they are served rolled with jam inside but what I did was fill them with local fresh blackberries, plain yogurt and a bit of honey. I also made a fritatta (nothing Slovakian about that) with spinach, bacon and lots of carmelized onions. We had a nice green salad which included arugala and grape tomatoes , I got at the farmer’s market and some cheeses and pumpernickel bread. The star of the meal was the apple strudel, tough.

I used a recipe from Cooks Illustrated Magazine which used filo dough–so much easier than making the dough. I used less butter than the redipe called for and a little bit more apples. I was suspicious about using butter bread crumbs in the filling but it really worked to keep the liquid runnineww under control. Using half Granny Smiths and half Golden Delicious worked well for flavor and sweetness. The strudel somehow disappeared completely!
We drank a few mimosas and tons of coffee and had a wonderful long discussion about the book. Really only one of our group didn’t love it.
Happy birthday to my friend Rosen, if he’s reading this.