Merry Christmas to you all.

Thank you Katarina...
I enjoy seeing you and your photos on GoY and look forward to more in 2012. Merry Christmas. :o)

that is beautiful katarina, i hope you have a really happy christmas

do you celebrate mostly on christmas eve or the 25th in your country?

I wholeheartedly agree with you Gattina! Thank you and wishing you the same!
Lovely pic.

That is lovely,Katarina..and wishing you all the best for Christmas and the New Year,too...:o)

Lilcrawford, you joker, how are you doing? My name is Katarina, Gattina is somebody else...

Oh crap!! My apologies KATARINA!! Been trying to catch up a bit while trying to prepare dinner.
Though I got your name wrong, I still meant it for you K :)

@Stickitoffee, we all in Eastern Europe celebrate on the 24th December, that is on X-mas Eve. Fasting whole day (cheating, as usually), then Protestants have mass in the afternoon, Catholics in the midnight (cause they are witches, my Protestant Grandfather used to say) and we all share our gifts in the evening.
Traditional food is "kapustnica" (that is thick cabbage soup with cabbage, mushrooms, dried plums, meat, paprika and a spoon or two of honey), fish and salad.
As a desert we make special dumplings. Before the first meal is served we brake special fragile sweet bread and give piece to each other´s plate.

thank you katarina, its so interesting to learn of others customs. sounds a very special feast.

Thank you Katarina. I hope you have a lovely time aswell :o) x

Happy Christmas and a great 2012 Katarina.

A Happy , peaceful Christmas Katarina .......... GattArina... Lol Lil, so you are not a multi-tasker then ?

Katarina thank you for sharing your lovely stories. I still like the snail story very much. Now I don't know if this is a good recipe or not, but I found this one for Kapustnica in English Sticki.

http://www.52insk.com/footnotes-to-slovak-culture/kapustnica-recipe/

thats fascinating ~ thanks pimpernel!

its great to learn about things like that.

that fragile sweet bread sounds really good too.

might have a rest from cooking tomorrow [for a change] been cooking for about 4 days solid!!

Pimpernel, thank you very much. I like your multiculture add :). Yes, this evangelical school has been well known for it was the first grammar school in the capital of Slovakia with native English language teaching. That is why lot of former communists in nineties put their children there. My coleague´s son from Afghanistan wasn´t proper enough for them. We intervened for him in vain. Now he is studying mathematics in Oxford... very nice boy.

Sounds little bit strange that marjoram in kapustnica, I asked mom, who is the boss of the kitchen at home, and she said she never heard about this spice to be suitable for the kapustnica. The secret of a good kapustnica is well cut fermented cabbage, good pork/smoked meat (3:2 ratio), onion, half of apple, adequate quantity of plums and mushrooms. The only spices allowed are garlic, laurel bay and caraway. And everyone will tell you, that kapaustnica is the best on the other or the third day.

What is Ash homebird, I've made plenty of stews but haven't heard of ash.

HB I have proper Oxtail once a month at least, I would have it more often but it costs so much. Cooked for 8 hours in the slow cooker...Lovely.

Thank you HB, mmmmmm oxtail used to love that in soup, haven't had it for ages.

You are welcome, Homebird. Where are you from in the UK? We might have similar traditions if you come from old Celtic region, as many traditions in Slovakia have Celtic roots. Celts had lived here for centuries and they founded present capital, developed smithery and created monetary system (famous are so called Celtic silver biatecs, coins coming from this region).

All my family from Yorkshire called it Ash,..but it hadn't much meat in,as too expensive..usually stewing steak..nowadays,every one calls it stew..and still same meat but more of it..much nicer made the day before you eat it..Not many seem to make the traditional suet Dumplings with it now,although there is a vegetable alternative..We usually have big Yorkshire puddings with ours,or crusty bread..:o))

Thank you Katarina and a Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you and your family ,I love the card :o))

And to you and your family Katarina........x x

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Merry Christmas to you Katarina:) Your Christmas dishes sound a bit different from my country - and we are so close neighbours...:)

Kasia, do not say you do not know kapustnica. The whole Zakopane eat it.

well - I know something similar - it's made of sour cabbage (sourcraft) with bits of beef and sausages, some spices - the best on next day, lol. We call it 'bigos'. I thing there is a lot of Celtic history here in Wales where I currently live:)

Merry Christmas to you Katarina and your family!

thank you, Uma, the same to you.

That is a very pretty picture, Katarina ... I hope you have a very happy Christmas ... :o)

K, I like the new name Gattarina - maybe we should join forces in the new Year!

New trademark "Gattina&Gattarina". Costs a lot!

what a lovely photo:-))