Playing in the kitchen

Since I have been in Warsaw, I started to cook:D Of course, in the first days, I went out more, I prefered to do this because it was easier, but soon I understood that eating out wasn't an ideal solution and that I could not do it forever:))). Being a student automatically means relying on your parents money, so you are a bit dependent to their will. 

My mother is a very contemporary kind of woman, altough she grew up in a traditional romanian type of life. She wouldn't have said no, if I had asked for more money, but I am aware that she has to work a lot for her paycheck, so it was time to learn to cook:)). 

My luck is that I have a wonderfull roommate, Giorgiana. She is a girl from my country and we have been living together for two years, this being our third year as co-inhabitants. I met her in my first year of studies, at my home university "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" from Iasi, one  of the most beautiful and full of life cities from Romania. 

We ended up in the same room and we liked staying with one another so much that in our second year we asked at the administration board, that deals with the hosting of all the students, to be put in the same room. They accepted, so me, Giorgiana, another great girl, Raluca and my childhood best friend, Maria were all in the same dorm and in the same room, 125 - also known as the "crazy room":))). 

But coming back to cooking, Giorgiana is a great chef. She can make anything from cookies, cakes, soups and other complicated meals, whereas I am a bit unskilled in this department. Back home, we have more than one big cafeteria where we can go and eat what ever we want at low prices, so we do not have to cook, plus our mothers send us, all the time, meals made by them. In short, life is easier:))).

How can you cook good meals with low amounts of money? Simple, you just have to find  store, buy the necessary ingredients and sail on:)). I will present some of the meals that we have made, all of them are really easy, so even the boys can do them. (I am sorry I do not have good quality pictures for all of them, but I am sure that if you follow the recepies, you will do great>:D<)

Chicken with vegetables and potatoes

What do you need? A "Biedronka" (a specific polish store, where food is cheap), a Carrefour or any other big shop with affordable prices. From here, you buy a mixture of vegetables and potatoes that is around 5 zloty and a chicken that is around 6-7 zloty. You get them home, you open the bag with the mixture, put it in a pan, wash it a bit, then boil it for 10 minutes, no more.

You wash the chicken and prepare a tray. Get the vegetables from the other pan, put all of them in the tray and throw it in the oven. Leave all the composition, there for 30 minutes. When you take it out, you just need a plate and, of course a glass of "piwo" (beer), water (woda) or juice (sok).

As an advice, if you are in Poland do not drink the water from the tap. All of the polish say that it has too much chlorine in it, I do not know if this is just a good "negative campaign" designed by the water supplying companies to sell their product or not, but, I for one drink only water from the store. Just to be safe, better that then feeling sorry after for not listening to the warnings!:D. Puls the water is very cheap, only 2 zloty  for the 5 litre bottle.

So, the first meal is done and it is rich in proteins, it looks like this: 

Soup

No menu is complete without a soup. So, we will make some mushroom soup for you, but not a polish one (they smash the mushrooms and it is more of a thick dish than a soup).
You buy some white mushrooms (we bought them at "Biedronka":D), they should cost around 4 zloty, a bottle of milk - 2 zloty, a small bag of flour - 3 (or 4) zloty and two onions (no more than 2 zloty).

You peel the mushrooms, cut them in half and wash them. You peel and cut the onions. You put oil in a pan, let it heat a bit and then put the onion with a a pinch of salt. After two minutes you add some water in the pan. Let it boil for five more minutes and add the mushrooms with another glass of water, this time a full one.

While the pan is "feeling good" on the stove. You put some flour in a bowl (two or three hands of flour), a bit of salt and add the milk. You mix untill you have a homogeneous composition. You add water in the main pan, untill it is nearly full and then you put the mixture of milk-flour over it. Let it boil for 30-40 minutes and "Bon apetite!".

Naturally, you eat the soup before the chicken with vegetables and potatoes. Heading to dessert.

 Chocolate cookie

You buy a big waffle (4 zloty), a black chocolate (3 zloty),  some siroup (you chose your favourite flavour - 3 zloty - 5 zloty), a lemon (1 zloty) and a bag of cocoa (3 zloty). 

You put the cocoa in a bowl, add a bit of milk and mix. You cut the lemon and squize it over the previous mixture. You put the content in a pan and put in on the stove. Here you let it boil, continuously mixting until you see it becomes thick, add some pieces of chocolate and mix some more. You will notice when it is done.
You get the waffle out of the bag, put in on a big plate, take the misture and put in on, add another waffle on top and so on. Let it cool down for 10 minutes and cut it into pieces, add the syrup on top and you have you delicious cookie!

Now you are done and you have a complete meal. Enjoy! 

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