I am sick

I am sick of my work.
I am sick of paleo.
I am sick of my "last kilos".
I am sick of my clothes.
I am sick of my hair.
I am sick of my problematic skin.
I am sick of having to plan my future.
I am sick of waiting for my boyfriend to ask me to marry him.
I am sick of EVERYBODY asking me when will I get married and have children.
I am sick of my biological clock.
I am sick of all the responsibility.
I am sick of saving money.
I am sick of spending money.
I am sick of reading love stories.
I am sick of ballet.
I am sick of working and doing everything alone.
I am sick of making important decisions EVERY SINGLE DAY.
I am sick of myself to do more, to learn more, to earn more, to be more and feeling guilty if I don't.
I am sick of planning to live my life instead of actually living it.

And now I would like to hit a RESET button and start from the scratch.
Because most of all I am sick of being an ungrateful whining bitch.

It's just fruit

Russia may be the land of vodka, Scotland the land of whiskey, France the land of wine, but Central Europe is definitely a land of  fruit distillates. Slivovica, hruškovica, malinovica, etc. You take plums, pears, raspberries, apricots, any fruit, you name it... and I bet that people in here can AND WILL turn it into an alcohol. Alcohol production is a fairly typical part of our lives (yep, never the truest words did I say before). I actually never met a Slovak whose family didn't produce their own wine or distillate (if not every year then at least once in their lives). My family was big on wine and as a kid I spent every September grape picking. The tradition lives now with my cousins (and luckily for me no grape picking anymore). Yep, my laziness is talking for me, again.
So what I am trying to say - yesterday I had an opportunity to attend a tasting of fantastic R.Jelinek Moravian fruit distillates. Unfortunately I didn't grab my camera so I'll try to improvise.
The line up looked like this:

Plum, Pear, Cherry, Raspberry, Strawberry and Apricot
Yes, we call them as we call the fruits they are made of. It always sounds nice (and innocent) to drink pear or plum, doesn't it? But these puppies pack a punch, holy moly 40%.

We all got empty little glasses and glasses of water and I started to pray that I will not get drunk TOO QUICKLY. First we tasted bare distillates and then we moved on to cocktails. I preferred the taste of cherry, while Mary liked pear and Jarush liked plum. We all agreed that raspberry and strawberry tasted kind of fake. And of the cocktails - the ginger, elderberry with pear was the best one!
After the tasting we proceeded to have a serious discussion about Apple and Android. - Yep, we started to have a serious argument. You know, first world problems. So I decided to change the topic to cars and let me tell you, after about 30 minutes of us (me and the guys) showing each other the videos of BMWs and Audis and Maseratis, the girls were none too happy about it.
So we decided to move on to Wine-bar in the centre of Nitra where a friend of Jarush is working. It's a perfect little cozy place.

And we continued to do our tasting of Slovak alcohol - with a lovely Devin wine from Repa Winery. The four of us - me, Mary, Jarush and Marek (I don't know why but we always end up like this - the four of us. But I like it veeery much). We polished of some plates of prosciutto and olives and sun-dried tomatoes as if we were starving. So I ordered another big plate of different cheeses and another prosciutto and olives. And let me tell you, even if I had my camera I wouldn't be able to take a picture of it. The food disappeared as if by magic. Good times.

The Cracklin' Chicken / Chrumkavé kurča

It's April FINALLY - all the taxes are done and my twelve hour workdays are over! To review - I finished 59 tax declarations, I haven't cooked, run, played the piano, attended ballet lesson, learned Italian, eaten Paleo, cleaned the house or done any laundry at all in the final weeks. My man put on 6 kilos and the only reason I haven't is that I rarely ate any dinner because I usually came at home after 8pm and exhausted fell into bed.
I feel like I have a serious case of PTSD. I am completely wrung out. And I am serious about changing my career. I have reached the point when I have only two options - to train to become a tax adviser and employ other accountants or train to become an auditor and work next five years for free as an assistant auditor. I have learned everything I could about accounting, I have established a successful company and I am sick of being responsible for other people's money. The stress is slowly killing me and this way I'll be gray haired by the time I'll be forty. It's time to move on.
And it's time to live again. My man took me to an amazing dinner to my favorite restaurant in my city - The Golden Key. And next time I promise to take my camera and take the pictures of all the delicious food we ate. My brother took me and my mom to an amazing lunch today - to another great restaurant - Palenica Jelsovce. Yet again no camera.

But I finally cooked a dinner tonight and I managed to snap some pictures.
The recipe is from nomnompaleo - The Cracklin' Chicken. And it is DELICIOUS. And so EASY to make. And super FAST.

Buy bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. Take some kitchen scissors and remove the bones.

Flatten the meat with your fists a little bit. Put some salt on the skin side and salt and spice of your choice on the meat size.

Heat ghee on your pan. Fry your skin side for 7 to 10 minutes until it's golden and crunchy. Cover with splatter screen.

Turn the meat and cook for three more minutes. And you're done.
I tossed a quick salad to compliment the meat - mangold, lamb's lettuce, pear, blueberries, almonds, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Enjoy.

SK: Apríl, konečne! Všetky daňové priznania sú hotové a moje dvanásťhodinové pracovné dni sú za mnou. Bilancia - 59 hotových priznaní, osledné týždne som nič nevarila, nebola som behať, nehrala som na klavír, nechodila som na balet, neučila som sa po taliansky, nejedla som Paleo, neupratovala som a neprala som. Môj muž pribral šesť kíl a jediný dôvod prečo som JA nepribrala je ten, že keď som zvyčajne po ôsmej večer prišla domov z práce, vôbec som nevečerala a len som vyčerpaná padla do postele.
Cítim sa ako vojak, ktorý sa práve vrátil z vojny, myslím, že mám seriózny post-traumatický stresový syndróm. Som úplne vyšťavená. A seriózne zvažujem zmenu kariéry. Dostala som sa do bodu, kde mám len dve možnosti -  buď sa stanem daňovým poradcom a začnem zamestnávať alebo sa stanem audítorom a nasledujúcich päť rokov makám takmer zadarmo ako pomocný audítor. Naučila som sa o účtovníctve všetko, čo sa dalo, rozbehla som úspešne biznis a som už chorá z toho, že som zodpovedná za peniaze cudzích ľudí. Stres ma pomaly zabíja a týmto spôsobom života bude v štyridsiatke šedivá. Prišiel čas pohnúť sa ďalej.
A prišiel čas opäť žiť. Môj muž ma zobral na úžasnú večeru do mojej obľúbenej reštaurácie v našom meste - do Zlatého kľúčika. A sľubujem, že nabudúce si zoberiem so sebou aj fotoaparát a odfotím všetky skvelé jedlá, čo sme jedli. Môj bráško zobral mňa a mamičku dnes na úžasný obed - do ďalšej skvelej reštaurácie - Pálenica Jelšovce. A zase som so sebou nevzala foťák.
ALE dnes som konečne po dlhom čase navarila večeru a dokonca som bola schopná odfotiť pár záberov. Recept je od nomnompaleo - Chrumkavé kuracie stehná. A je fakt CHUTNÝ. A vážne JEDNODUCHÝ. A super RÝCHLY.
Kúpime horné kuracie stehná s kožou aj kosťami. Kuchynskými nožnicami odstránime kosti. Mäso na doske trochu päsťami zarovnáme na rovnakú hrúbku. Posolíme stranu s kožou. Posolíme a okoreníme stranu s mäsom. Rozpálime na panvici ghee a opečieme asi 7 až 10 tú stranu s kožou. Prikryjeme mriežkou proti prskaniu. Keď je koža zlatá a chrumkavá, mäso otočíme a dopečieme asi 3 minúty. Voila - je to hotové.
Ako prílohu som narýchlo urobila šalát - mangold, valeriánka, hruška, čučoriedky, mandľové plátky, olivový olej a balzamikový ocot.
Dobrú chuť.