Sweet blueberry marbled buns - Panini dolci marmorizzate ai mirtilli - Slatko mramorno pecivo s borovnicama

I like to capture memories of my time spent at home in Croatia and each time I come back to Italy, to my second home, I write down few words combined with a simple recipe and some pictures. Since some time all my efforts to put down some words were vain. There were other, more essential requirements in these last months that continue keeping me busy and there is a kind of psychological interruption inside of me. Probably my brain took a break trying to minimize all commitments me and Mr. M. are facing at present. Indeed my brain took a long break and it's still not giving signs of any kind of willpower to start running again. I’m afraid it will go on like this until all works in our home will be definitively over.

Yes, we will have bigger home and all our efforts will be rewarded! Now we are demolishing some walls, opening spaces and imagining how will it look like when all the dust and the dirt will disappear. Our tiny home is already full of light, can you imagine how much light will enter in our home when there will be three times more door windows!

GRADARAWORKSHOP STORY - July 2016

…nothing is real but the chance, wrote Paul Auster in the City of Glass and since the moment I read it, this incredible truth is following me in every single moment of my life. It happened for chance that I read about Gradaraworkshop, but I couldn’t have imagined how deep would this event remain in my memory and in my heart and how often would I go back to those fantastic moments.

Fearing for my inadequacy among those young and so talented Ladies, eventually I’ve grabbed this unique opportunity, because I couldn't lose the chance to meet Valentina, Betty or Zaira. Not this time! This time I was the lucky one and I was selfish enough to think only about what I wanted to do. Only a few words, I wrote a short message, but it was enough to express in the most pale way my desire to be part of this adventure. Nothing else, the rest occured as natural consequence of future events.

Nettle pancakes with wild strawberry and rose petals jam - Crepes all'ortica con confettura di fragoline di bosco e petali di rosa - Palačinke od kopriva sa slatkim od šumskih jagodica i ružinih latica

We always had in our garde-manger some medicinal herb my mother used to harvest in the meadow or in the bushes at the edge of the forest. I don’t remember we have ever used infusion bags to prepare a chamomile tea or other herbal teas, like lime or rose hip tea. My mother used to cook various dishes with first young spring herbs and she still does it, she knows very well when to collect different herbs and wild plants and how to dry them and preserve them in the best way. Our family loves the nature and every time we went somewhere for a picnic, we returned home with paper bags full of plants, fruits and flowers. If you picnic in the wild nature, you need to be well equipped, we never went picnicking without the pruning shears or  the knife,  or without the basket and paper bags. At that time plastic bags were not so common as they are today. Think about it, there was not all that dirt around and our land was not so polluted. Sometimes we got the baskets as present from my uncle, he used to do basketwork at home using the elastic willow branches he gathered from the trees that were growing between different lands and properties. Other times some neighbor brought us nice baskets as present. In all these years we have gathered a small collection of baskets. Once upon a time there were many people able to create these simple woody wonders...

Pistachio cake with apricots - Dolce al pistacchio con albicocche - Kolač od pistacija s marelicama

Sometimes I feel blocked inside and I can't find the words to express myself. It take days, or even weeks before the right moment arrives and I decide to fill the blank paper in front of me. I would need another me, more strong and daring to tell all those feelings that are captured inside of me. Instead, I continue taking pictures, baking, inventing recipes and experimenting...trying to imagine in advance new and even bizzare combinations of flavours and perfumes. The beauty of creativity gives me so much good vibes and even if I dissapear from the world for some time I'm usually back with new interesting experience. This life is so fast and I have already spent my best years in this world. This life sometime offers happiness, you only need to discover it. It happens each day. Happiness simply happens! Go ahead and search for it in any possible way and in every moment.
Sometime I miss my old memories, I miss people and events that made me as I am today. My birthplace is faraway from where I live now and every time I go back home I feel some kind of unrest, because eventually I will have to leave again and go back where I now belong. I have two homes, I have two families, all is duplex in my life. Although I like both places and I feel at home in both countries, I always miss something. That strange sense of not belonging to no place is my faithful fellow since many years. All I have left behind in my homeland is no more familiar to me, all I have in my new country is still unknown to me.
It's like discovering new flavours, but if you don't taste them, you will never know how good and inspiring they are.
Today I have some unwritten recipes and some new pictures and all those things can't be put aside for long time. But in last days I had an urgent idea to be transformed into this cake and some old recipes have to wait patiently another perfect moment to be discovered.

Pita bread, the story about trees and wheat - Pane pitta, la storia di alberi e di grano - Pita, priča o drveću i žitu

Long time ago, when I was a child, I went with my family to a journey. We have traveled from the northern Croatian cost, through the nearest mountainous hinterland up to the biggest and most important city in Croatia - Zagreb, but we have traveled ahead through the beautiful countryside where my grandparents lived in a quiet village so similar to thousends of small villages scattered tidily in the flat and rich Croatian countryside. It was so, so long time ago, when hours didn't ran so fast and there were time for everything. Life was simple and easy, people were never late and knew how to enjoyed the life!

So we stopped for a visit to my grandparents only for few days before we went away and continued our journey to Belgrade, the capital city of what once has been my homeland - beautiful, united and proud ex-homeland. Years ago this country tragically disappeared...but this is another long and very complicated story to tell.

Our journey was long, but nothing forced us to arrive to our destination too quickly...and we offten stopped for a break. In those days the high-way was not so fast and crowded, it was a bit larger and straight then the ordinary roads and we have traveled slowly and relaxed.

We gradually entered into the region of Slavonia and we traveled in the shade of big, awesome oak trees. This was the majestic Spačva forest. Suddenly we stopped at this lovely motel surrounded by the barrel-shaped bungalows and the image of those small round huts with sloping roofs remained fixed in my memory. The forest is still there, full of those ancient trees hiding stories of yesteryear!
If you speak about hardwood in my country, you don't have to mention its name, it always comes to the oak wood! Oak wood for enormous wine barrels and small brandy kegs. Oak wood for parquet and furniture. All that need to be lasting and strong was build from the oak wood...in the past and nowadays.
Few months ago I remembered again this journey we did together long time ago, it happened that I've discovered twelve-dots.com  and their beautiful and so essential design. And when my new cuttingboard arrived it was natural to write few words about majestic Croatian woods and oak trees and to bake some sort of bread. Oak trees and golden wheat are the essence of the vast region of Slavonia. Art and crafts are coming back to their old origins offering the beauty to the world!

Sweet cinnamon buns - Panini dolci alla cannella - Slatko pecivo s cimetom

During those days the sky was so crystal clear and high like in Nordic. It was full of big, foamy and white clouds traveling fast towards ovest...After the rain the nature appears neat and pure and I adore feeling the perfume of wet ground and roads vanishing in the air. The best thing to do during long and wet summer days is to bake some soft and flavourful buns, like the ones I did and very similar to "Kanelbullar". When I prepare my kanelbullar I feel in heaven. I like to touch the soft and perfumed dough..

These small buns are full of flavours, you can hardly resist to the temptation to devour some until still warm.  Last time I've baked sweet buns was few weeks ago and I was at home in Croatia with my parents. My mother continued saying that she was never able to do the dough like I do it. She forgot that I should have probably learned this art from her...so I smiled and continued making my buns without speaking. I wanted them to be nice, almost perfect, better then usually, I wanted my mother to be proud of both of us! It's so good to be at home!

Each time I want to bake something I use the same recipe. After reading so many cookbooks and magazins I've decided that my basic recipe is the one I like most of all other recipes I've ever tried. From time to time I only change some spices to get the dough with slightly different taste, but only when I desire something particularly flavourful...and it's almost always!

Tarte tatin with pears and cardamom - Tarte tatin di pere e cardamomo - Tarte tatin s kruškama i kardamomom

I'm still craving for winter flavours! Because I love winter and I love when it’s raining in summertime. I love the nostalgic atmosphere during summer storms and the perfume of water all around in the air and evaporating from the moist ground.

These last days were absolutely crazy, no rest, no breath, no sense of time passing by. The only thing that remained in my mind are powerful storms and heavy rain and thunders. It always happen so suddenly, the sky gets grey and blurry. No time to search for the shelter, only the desire to run away!

Now I’ve finally finished what I’ve started few weeks ago. Even if I’ve promised to myself to slow down, I’m not keeping my promise, I’m still exaggeratedly fast, but I must admit that I feel the weakness and fatigue. Thanks to heaven it’s weekend again and I will recover, because I need time, more time to be alone with myself!

Tarte tatin is my favourite cake, I bake it often, me and Mr.M. enjoy its spicy taste. This time I’ve changed completely the recipe, I wanted to try something new, fresh and full of flavours.

Sirup od cvjetova bazge - Elderflower syrup - Sciroppo si fiori di sambuco

Friday evening I went out from the office very late, but the sun was still high in the sky, shining warm and bright. The air was warm and I felt it! Linden perfume arrived to me mild and hardly perceptible, but I felt it, I know it so well, I like to so much. This spring is changing perfumes in so short time. Each of them is so special and announces new surprises. I like to immerse my face in the scents of plants and flowers. Smelling the flowers strongly tickles my nose and the perfume stays impressed in my mind for long time. It’s a beautiful feeling.
Extracting essences from flowers and plants is so fascinating. It’s incredible how some flavours and scents remain unchanged after preservation. Some of them get even stronger and more intense. Elderflowers have very intense fresh perfume and are full of pollen. When I came back from foraging few days ago, the seams of my jacket were yellow and some tiny flowers were hidden in my hear. It’s such a fun wandering in the fields and foraging herbs and flowers. When I start foraging, nothing can stop me and I always bring home too much stuff. It happened again with elderflowers…now I’m drying some flowers for a tisane too. The baking pan is in the oven full of flowers. This is the only space I have in my small kitchen away from dust, light and humidity - all you need to get quality elderflower tisane.
I’ll keep dried flowers in the glass vase for the winter and I’ve used fresh flowers to prepare this flavourful and refreshing beverage for hot summer days! If it’s well preserved it can last few months in the refrigerator.
Enjoy foraging elderflowers, but you need to go away from the city and the traffic. Flowers must be clean and without small black bugs that sometime hide in the hart of most beautiful flowers!

Cream soup with green peas and spring onion - Vellutata di piselli e cipollotti - Krem juha od graška i mladog luka

Who doesn’t like the surprise?! It’s something mysterious and fresh, something that touch our curiosity! Like a thick pod of green peas. You never know how many peas are hidden in it. Will the peas be big and solid, or small and flat…how many questions about a vegetable? Nevertheless I love shelling peas and hunting some fast and cheeky peas all around the kitchen table. When the green peas appear in the market, it’s time to put definitively away dark, winter coats. The nature is already fully awake and multicoloured. Except some rainy days, the spring is shining and green branches full of leafs are moving slowly following the rhythm of the air. It’s called light breeze and I find it adorable.

Didn’t you noticed so many green peas soup recipes all over the blogosphere? I did and I couldn’t resist from cooking this dense and creamy soup that warms us a bit in these cool and humid spring days.

Asparagus frittata in gluten-free crust - Frittata di asparagi in crosta senza glutine - Fritaja sa šparogama u bez glutenskoj kori

My kitchen is not big and my kitchen shelves are full, but so, so full that I’m building skyscrapers with my dishes and pots to optimize the space. Every single piece has its precise position and all is neatly fitted in the shelves. Nothing get lost in my kitchen, there is only small risk to brake some ceramic bowl or glass cover when I need a pot that is not in the very first skyscraper!
Nevertheless I always need some new pots, or dishes, or…and then starts this bizarre game of seduction. Each time I notice an new kitchen attraction, the culinary center of my brain start to pulse and get enchanted by the novelty. And I start to observe it first and start to think about its utility. If it won’t be useful in the kitchen, for sure it will be useful for the photo session, or maybe not…
The clever voice is whispering: “Run away from it, there is no space for it at home, neither in the closed on the balcony!”
And I must obey, because that’s true. If I buy it, something else will have to leave…for the garbage dump.
Each time I look at the shop window and I see my desired kitchen tool waiting for me, I must at least take it in my hands and admire it for a while…waiting for the right moment to…buy it or to leave it to someone else who desire it more then me!

Gluten free tartlets with strawberries - Tortine senza glutine con le fragole - Bezglutenske tortice s jagodama

This is the story about a kettle full of wild strawberries and the forest near to my grandparent's house. I still remember the perfume of ripe wild strawberries fluttering in the air and the light green kettle hung on my grandpa's belt. We often went for a walk in the forest, we only needed to cross the road and the big and shadowy forest embraced us in all its beauty. And we walked and walked until the stream, we crossed the stream and continued till the large meadow in the heart of the forest. The grass was so green and the flowers so white and yellow. The air was hot and mild wind was moving rhythmically big oak's leafs . Beneath these big trees and all around in the meadow small, bright, red fruits were waiting for us...Ohhh what a joy, ohhh what a splendor, I will never forget these feelings. I craved all these tiny fruit and suddenly I found myself with the mouth full of sweet strawberry flavour! I couldn't go back home walking, I was too tired and too sated. My grandpa used to carry me on his strong and scrawny shoulders and I was almost touching first tree branches with my head. Grandma was waiting for us on on the doorstep and lukewarm smell of fresh baked bread was tempting me. The bread was ready to spread on it some fresh strawberry mash.
I stil adore strawberries and the sensations of lights and shadows I've met in that forest.  Forest is the place I'm searching for wherever I am.

Pumpkin dumplings with ricotta cheese - Polpette di zucca con ricotta - Okruglice od buče sa ricotta sirom

I've stored one green kabocha pumpkin in the pantry on my balcony for few months and I even forgot about it until last week when I decided that it was time to use it, because the season is definitively changing and I need more space for new and fresh vegetables! The fact is that I always have the pantry full of fruits and vegetables and not too much time to cook all these stuff so quickly! When I see nice vegetables I immediately start thinking about some new dishes and I hardly resist from buying them all...This happened with my pumpkin too, I wanted to bake something months ago and I finished to cook it only last weekend. Fortunately pumpkin can be stored for long time and it will remain fresh and tasty. I still have some more baked pumpkin in my deep-freezer and I think I will have to prepare a good and creamy risotto in next days...or maybe a cake...

Torta sa sjemenkama buče - Cake with pumpkin seeds - Torta con semi di zucca

I’m so proud I did this cake that tastes a bit special. I was little skeptical when I first saw it. Last winter my mum and me, we were watching a culinary program on Croatian television about a pastry chef visiting different regions and villages in Croatian countryside exchanging experiences and recipes with local women and I wrote down the recipe. I was courious to find out its taste and texture. It’s made with plenty of pumpkin seeds, some walnuts and the original recipe says to add some bred crumbles. I have replaced  bred crumbles with fine corn flour, so my cake is completely gluten free. I have reduced a bit the quantity of sugar and also replaced lemon juice with the water and didn’t added lemon zest at all. I’m note sure that our grandmothers in flat lands of Croatian’s countryside often purchased lemons, so I eliminated those two ingredients from my version of this recipe to get more rustic cake. I was not sure that the cake will raise, because the mixture of all those seeds is pretty  dense and I was surprised when I saw in the oven my cake was getting higher and higher. And the sweet smell fluctuated in my kitchen…

You can keep it for several days covered with transparent film. It will still remain soft and friable. If you like rustic flavours, you will love this cake. I’m convinced that the taste of this cake is pretty similar to the antique and traditional flavours our grandparents once ate and this is what I wanted to produce.

Arugula and walnuts pesto - Pesto di rucola e noci - Pesto od rukole i oraha

Since some months I began to change our eating habits, I have reduced the consumption of cheese and meat. I have not totally eliminated these ingredients from our diet, because we like to eat some good cheese, salami or steak, but I’m trying to avoid fat cheese and especially preserved meat. It’s good to avoid to many salt, artificial spices and preservatives in our food. Luckily we both (me and Mr.M) adore vegetables, cooked or uncooked, and it’s not strange to see us finishing a big bowl of salate and some other boiled vegetables for dinner.

I don’t intend to become vegetarian or vegan, because I like meat and other ingredients of animal origin. But when I think about the pollution caused by breeding animals and how those animals are fed, I’m even more convinced that I made good decision in changing our diet. For me it’s impossible to exclude all “bad” ingredients from our diet, but I’ll at least try to reduce the consumption of all ingredients that are not so good for our bodies! Some exemptions are accepted, because we need to feed our soul too!

Let’s start this new season with something healthy, tasty and very light! If you like arugula and its slightly bitter taste, you will love this pesto. I prepared it without cheese, I even did’t added cheese to my pasta and it was good and tasty anyway. I think that some crumbled walnuts have well replaced parmesan cheese.

New colour for my Easter eggs - Nuovo colore per le uova di Pasqua - Nova boja za Uskrsne pisanice

Io mi espongo poco. Preferiscovo stare nell'ombra!

Però, mi dico anche, se non ti fai vedere, nessuno ti vedrà.

Se non conosci le persone, nessuno conoscerà te.

Se non prendi l'iniziativa, arriverai sempre tardi, troppo tardi.

Amo i numeri dispari, ma l'anno scorso che era dispari!!! e che aspettavo con entusiasmo perché doveva finalmente portare le cose e fatti migliori, si è dimostrato un vero disastro. E così da un giorno all'altro ero entrata in una dimensione tutta nuova, meno felice, con molte più preoccupazioni e senza la tranquillità nell'anima e nel corpo. Già, il corpo, che tutto d’un tratto cede e ha bisogno d’aiuto per ricominciare a funzionare come si deve. Ora ho bisogno e voglia di buttare fuori queste emozioni che mi sono tenuta dentro per mesi. Mi chiedo di continuo perché non si cambia prima che accadono le cose che ci scuotono profondamente? Perché ci perdiamo nel tempo per poi rincorrere il tempro (questa è molto alla "Marzullo"!)

E solo quando mi è accaduto il fattaccio, mi sono resa conto di quanta poca importanza in questi ultimi anni avevo dato a tutto quello che mi faceva davvero stare bene. Correvo verso gli obbiettivi irragionevoli che prima di me raggiungeva sempre qualcun altro e io non ci arrivavo mai.

Stop, ho fermato la mente, ho cominciato a riprogrammarla (ci sto ancora lavorando), ho stravolto la persona che ero. Ammetto che non mi è facile dire basta alle vecchie abitudini, sono una dura io! Però ora ho voglia della leggerezze e della sincerità, in tutto e in ogni momento. Forse ero più sognatrice allora e sono più ragionevole ora? Credo proprio di si.

Ecco, mi sono "molto" esposta, ma ora sono felice così!

Plumcake with yogurt and lemon - Plumcake co yogurt e limone - Plumcake s jogurtom i limunom

Each cake has its typical shape and sometime the experiment to change cake's shape doesn't give the perfect result! I'm not totally satisfied with the look of spheric plumcake, it's similar to a volcano that starts to erupt, but its taste was really good and very lemony. At the end it was a funny change. To be honest,  I've decided to bake this plumcake in a spheric baking pan, because I like cakes with spheric shape and I wanted to see how would the typical plumcake chaps look like in a spheric form. It means that I need to re-cake this plumcake in its natural shape to get less coloured cake too,  because it took around 20 minutes more time of baking in a spheric baking pan. So if you look for the perfect "cut", bake your plumcake in rectangular baking pan!
The idea was to decorate the cake with candied lemons I have prepared too, but I will use them for another cake!
This recipe is not a copy of somebody's recipe, but my interpretation of what I've found in the web.
There are so many recipes for plumcake with lemon juice and other citrus fruits in the web. I red so many of them and did a combination of few and best recipes, at least those that mostly inspired me. 

Broccoli dumplings with ricotta cheese - Polpette di broccoli con ricotta - Okruglice od brokule s ricotta sirom

This recipe is part of the contest Kuvarigrice, our host for February 2016 is Kata

I adore kale, cabbage and broccoli, but I hate cauliflower! Isn't it strange?

Cauliflower is one of the very few things that I don't like. More then its flavour I don't like its texture. I have always compared broccoli to cauliflower and I was hesitant to tast it. First time I ever ate broccoli was in Sweden, in December! I know what are you thinking: why should you make all those kilometers to taste broccoli for the first time...in Sweden?! But during our travels in North European countries, me and Mr.M., we used to walk and walk and we often got so hungry that I would have eaten cauliflower too, mhhh....no, cauliflower would  be still there, all alone  on the dish! In that occasion I have ordered my dish, it was main course dish with meat and vegetables and broccoli! Firstly I continued to look at those green blooms, then Mr.M. described its flavour and texture and at the end I smelled them (I was very discreet in doing it). I gathered all my courage and I ate my first small piece of broccoli. It was surprisingly sweet and solid, not mealy at all and I liked it! So I "cleaned" my dish completely and from that moment I started to thing about broccoli as a tasty and perfect winter vegetable. 

Now I often use broccoli as side dish, I prepare the soup and pasta with it, but it's my first time preparing dumplings with broccoli. During last February days I was thinking about something else to offer to my friend Kata for our contest and I'm very satisfied with the result. I hope you will also love it, especially because it is very easy, healthy and so seasonal!
To make this dish even more healthy I've decided to avoid frying the dumplings, so I baked them in the oven with very, very little olive oil.

Frittata with borage and walnuts - Frittata con borragine e noci - Fritaja s boražinom i orasima

I always saw these strange and hairy plants growing scattered around in leafless winter garden, but I never ate borage before. I was hesitant to taste it! But at the end my curiosity has won and during one of our evening chats with my mother I suddenly opened my heart to this wild plant.

It taste better then spinach, you don't need to boil it too long and despite plenty of hair on its leafs this plant is so tender and delicate. I like quick and easy dishes and I immediately thought about early spring frittata with some crumbled walnuts. Sounds good, right? And it really is...so if you are lucky and you find this wild plant, don't escape from it. It can be cooked in so many ways and it is very healthy too.

And I adore its blu indigo flowers that bloom during coldest moths and don't fear the frost. Actually this winter is the mildest we have had in last years and I hope it will not snow in March or April!

Pears preserved in lemon juice with honey - Pere conservate in succo di limone con miele - Kruške konzervirane u limunovom soku s modem

If you have a foodblog, you know how hard it is to resist from buying some...plenty of fresh and ripe seasonal fruits. Fruits are so inspiring and versatile. I've discovered that I not only like fresh fruits, but I adore all kind of preserves and deserts made of fruits and flavoured with different spices. Few weeks ago I made this preserved pears and I've added cloves into the syrup because I thougt that the intense flavour of cloves will give some more verve to the mild pear taste and because I needed  to make my "pear jar" more photogenic. But the real satisfaction and surprise arrived what I've opened the jar.

Have you ever smelt the scent of wintersweet Chimonanthus flowers? It's exactly the one I've felt in that precise instant. I couldn't imagine I would produce the same scent in the jar, moreover it is the edible one!

So, now I have my joung wintersweet Chimonanthus tree flourishing on the terrace and its perfume in a jar. And I didn't have to cut any of tree branches to enjoy its intense scent. Isn't it beautiful?

I love its pale yellow, almost transparent flowers with the bordeaux heart.

You can see first thiny flower buds already in August, hidden between the leaf and the branch. It continue growing and swelling all autumn long and the very first flowers open when the cold frost arrives. This is the extraordinary beauty of the nature.

Flavoured sugar with lemon zests - Zucchero aromatizzato con scorze di limone - Šećer aromatiziran koricom limuna

Even if nowaday everybody wants to eat healthy and organic food as much as possible, it's not so easy to find it in the market every day.

Even the most remote farmers sometimes use chemical substances to protect the harvest from insects and diseases.

Even if the quantity of chemical substances is very small and not harmful for our health, there are other bad substances that are arriving with the wind and water, so at the end we can't totaly escape from chemistry in our diet!

Even if there are so many natural ways to coltivate healty food, if the land is near to roads and big towns, can it be absolutely pure?

I have so many doubts in my head about real organic food, but I persist in searching and providing healthy, seasonal and organic food each time I can. We must preserve our health and the health and long life of our eart!

If you are lucky and you find nice pure organic lemons in the market, make a good supply of these seasonal fruits.

Citrus fruits, especially lemons can be conserved for long time in fresh places, even in refrigeratos.

And you can consume the whole fruit, if you find fruits with edible peel.

Last week I've purchased plenty ripe lemons with edible peel and while I was preparing some lemon cookies, I thought, why not preparing flavoured sugar with the lemon zest too? So I've prepared my homemade flavoured sugar and I keep it now in a jar in refrigerator. It's easy to do it and when you finish the work your hands will be perfumed and velvety soft, because the natural oils from lemon zest have beneficial effects on the skin.

My grandma's Vanilla Grencle - Grencle alla vaniglia di mia nonna - Vanil Grencle moje bake

I wanted the snow to fall, I wanted it so, so much, that it fall at last. It was quick and very wet, it melted in few hours, but I was so happy watching it falling. And I was at home! I adore the silent atmosphere all around and all the whiteness covering the ground and paralyzing all movements. Our garden was suddenly hiding its colours.
The snow disappeared as these vintage cookies did! Vintage cookies, because the recipe is so, so old. My grandma brought the recipe with her from "Old Yugoslavia" when she and her husband came back to Croatia from Belgrade during the second world war. It seams that I have migrant genes, I think all my family have them! And I have inherited these genes more then any other in my family, but most of all I have inherited the love for innovation and discovery. I like to give new life to good old traditions and experiences. I like to remember good old times too. So I wanted to remember this recipe that my grandma passed to my mum and my mum wrote it down in her notebook full of recipes that I like to read from time to time, because I always find something new in it!
We always call our cookies with their names, never just cookies, every single variety has its unique property and all of them deserve to be called by their names.
Vanilla Grencle are typical Christmas cookies, but are perfect with a cup of tea and it's a pity not to bake them more often. I think every family in ex Yugoslavia has its own recipe for this particular vanilla cookies, all these recipes are similar, but slightly  different, every lady pastry chef like to add the personal "secret" to the recipe that makes it special and family heritage. My mother and I usually use slightly sour jams do contrast plenty of icing sugar that covers the cookies. If you try to do your own cookies, I'm sure you will adjust the recipe too. This is the secret of every family tradition and recipe!