The greatest mushroom picking ever!

This summer was not really summer full of sun and hot temperatures. But thanks to quite a lot of rain, it was the summer of mushrooms. I have never seen so many mushrooms in my life. And I have never experienced such a mushroom picking season. We were picking all kinds of edible mushrooms in every feet of the woods. We ended up with several bags of them and spent the rest of the day cutting them and finding trays and spaces to let them dry. The next day we limited ourselves to pick the one and only best mushroom around, summer boletus. We still ended with two more bags! And another evening spent with cutting! On the third day, we skipped the walk in the woods. We were not able to store any more mushrooms and it was impossible to go there without finding them and not taking them with us :-) .

Toto leto síce nebolo plné slnka a horúcich letných dní... ALE! Vďaka dažďu to bolo leto hubové. Nikdy v živote som nevidela toľko húb. A nikdy som nezažila takú hubársku sezónu!  Zbierali sme nekonečné množstvo jedlých húb na každom metri v lete. Vliekli sme niekoľko tašiek a zvyšok dňa sme trávili ich krájaním a hľadaním voľného miesta na sušenie. Druhý deň sme si povedali, že berieme už len dubáky, nič iné. A aj tak sme prišli s dvomi taškami. A zas sme celý večer len krájali a spracovávali. Na tretí deň sme jednoducho nešli do lesa. Nemali sme už kde dať viac húb a zas ak by sme ich našli, nedalo by nám to :-) .

 

 

Sweet as cherries bride

Last year, I met a sweet and beautiful young lady, planning a wedding for June 2014. I was very lucky that she picked me as her wedding photographer. We scouted locations, talked about her ideas, planned and prayed for a nice weather. I knew she wanted it to be a perfect day and worked long hours on DIY details.
The day arrived and here I was, looking at one of the most beautiful brides I had a pleasure to photograph. Sweet and beautiful as the cherries  in her kitchen. And that is how our wedding shooting began - with a bowl of cherries.
It really was a perfect day.

Minulý rok som stretla milú a krásnu mladú dámu, ktorá plánovala svoju svadbu na jún 2014. mal som to šťastie, že si ma vybrala za svoju svdobnú fotografku. Spolu sme hľadali tie správne miesta, hovorili o jej predstavách, plánovali a modlili sa za dobré počasie. Chcela aby to bol perfektný deň a strávila dlhé hodiny vyrábaním detailov. 
A zrazu tu bol ten deň a ja som sa pozeala na jednu z najkrajších neviest, aké som mala česť fotiť. Sladkú a krásnu ako čerešne u nej v kuchyni. A tak začalo aj naše fotenie - s miskou čerešní.
Bol to nakoniec naozaj skvelý deň.

Pre-x-mas wedding

One week before Christmas, when everyone around was chasing after presents, I was invited to shoot a small family wedding. It was an honor to sit down for a dinner  with just the close members of two lovely families, creating now one new.

I have known the bride since my childhood, and our moms were very good friends since their school years. We even lived close to each other until they moved out of the country for several years. But, somehow we kept in touch, and, here I am, shooting Janka as a bride. I spent the whole afternoon in her house, while she was getting ready, having a chat with her mom and sister. We did some pictures on the balcony of their beautiful apartment with the best view in town. It was freezing cold but they were bravely smiling in the camera. The official ceremony was followed by a family dinner. And let me tell you, it was one of the best evening I had lately. First of all I have to mention the company. I had such a great time with bride's sister and the others there, that I understand completely the advantages of such a small family wedding. It was so private, you could talk to everyone face to face and keep the conversation going, not to worry about other guests not getting enough attention.... Just lovely! Second, the pre - christmas atmosphere there made it a very special moment. And last but not least, great food and wine.

I would surely love to have such a great night every Saturday!

Making of ... meat products

Ok, I know the slaughter part was brutal, but I had to post it in order you know the whole story...
This part is much nicer. It is about preparing all that yummy meat products. Basically, you need the meat, lot of garlic, paprika and different seasonings. Plus you need cleaned intestines to make sausages and headcheese.

And you need some machines like a meat grinder and a sausage machine of course...


I told you, lot of paprika...


You have to make a knot at one side of the intestine so the filling stays in.


You can wrap the meat with some fat parts to give it better taste while roasting.


This is how you fill the intestine with the mixture.


You put the sausages in hot water (not a boiling one) for like 7 minutes and they are ready for a future preparation.



It begins with cooking not so atractive parts of pig´s meat, and ends with a headcheese.


And here are the happy boys cheering to a good work:

The Slaughter

So here is that bloody process. As I mentioned last time, this post is about pig slaughter in order to prepare the meat for you to eat.
The process starts with one fast shot. You wait till the animal is bled out.
Next thing to do is to crozzle (burn) the whole body of the pig, to get rid of its bristles. The pis is all black after the process. (click on pictures to enlarge)

After that comes cleaning. You take brush and water and clean the skin very carefuly, so all the burn is removed. Our boys did the cleaning, the butcher prepared his knives meanwhile.

Then you put the animal on some kind of lattice-work or something that the pig is not on the ground. And here comes the main part for the butcher - cutting the animal into meat parts. It is a presise knife -work and if the meat is not hanging down as in a regular abatoir, the help of more people is required. Soon there is two exact parts of a huge piece of meat, the pig intestines are removed. With the help of a hose and water, you get rid of the remaining blood.

In a few minutes, the butcher lays down on the table all the meat parts. Some are put aside to become smoked ham or cutlets or ribs later, and some are going to be processed right away.

To see some of the next process, please come back for the next post.

Chestnuts

I know the season for these is over, but it is such a big part of my fall, that I have to make a post about them. We have a huge chestnut tree next to our house, actually is like a half tree, because it´s next to the wall so it is growing on one side only. Every single year it produces a pretty big ammount of chestnuts, which we are not able to consume ourselves. So we distribute them to our friends and family, but still eat baked chestnuts almost every night. I cut them and put in the cold water for some time. them I preheat oven for 180 ° C and let it bake for 40 minutes. Then we just peel them and eat them :-). My mom used to make a chestnut purée, but it it so much work I gave up for now. Maybe when I become more skillful cook...