Seven years after moving to Prague, I’m wearing my first pair of Czech bought jeans today. Okay, so they were about double the price I would have spent in the U.S. for a pair of jeans. And one day post purchase, the decorative rivets have started to decorate our floors. But these jeans did come from a shop a mere block from our flat, were hemmed to just the right length and as a finishing touch, came with a beaded key chain, courtesy of the shop owner’s sister.
Most importantly, however, these jeans fit. They fit! After twelve weeks of counting the numbers in the food I eat, I have counted myself down to the size I was before I moved to Prague. This is mostly a good thing, but it means that I no longer fit into any of the clothes that hang in my closet, and I shuffle around walking like a rumpled penguin. Having to hitch up my trousers every five minutes almost made me revert back to eating cookies in the afternoon. Thus, the rivetless jeans.
The hardest part about all of this counting wasn’t telling myself I didn’t want to eat something but telling other people. You try explaining to your daughter’s grandmotherly baby sitter that, no you still think several slices of homemade gingerbread aren’t on the menu for you today, even if you stand up to eat them.
I seem to have finally persuaded her. Today, to celebrate the new pair of jeans, our sitter arrived carrying a giant paper bucket from KFC.
It was full of plums. Does anyone know a good recipe for plum jam? Or maybe a compote recipe would do. We've got about a hundred and fifty here ready to cook, at last count.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Plum days
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7 comments:
I don't have that problem with plums, or any good recipes, but can I send you some the tomatoes dropping in my garden? I'm swimming in them. Oh, and nice work on the jeans!
Would love some tomatoes! But at least post photos and we can enjoy the abundance from a distance.
From Mausi in Germany:
http://justcallmemausi.blogspot.com/2006/09/yes-my-little-dumplings-i-am-still.html
Wow, talk about a tasty sounding recipe! We've got plum dumplings in Prague too, but they are mostly wrapped in store-bought dough, and the stones left in them for your own careful extraction. Dipped in powdered sugar they aren't bad, but Mausi's recipe sounds like the winner for the remains of our bucket!
Plums are also great in pie. I basically chop up the plums, add a small amount of sugar, and throw in some flour and pieces of butter as thickener. Sometimes I've added an egg. In the US I used tapioca as thickener and followed the recipe on the box, but here I just guess, and it's always turned out well. If you have used up too many of the plums already, you can mix them with apples or some other kind of fruit.
I actually just received even more plums from the cottage, so I'm going to be able to try both recipes!
Wow, way to go fighting the Expat Fat. I don't think I could even get one leg into the jeans I was wearing when I moved to Europe.
Hope you managed to try the dumpling recipe before the plums ran out!
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