Fan Tailed Chinese Shrimp with Cabbage

Ingredients
makes 2 servings
1 Tbl seasoned rice vinegar
1 Tbl soy sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 # shrimp with tails on
1 tsp lime juice
1 medium cabbage
oil for saute
salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
Combine vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes in a bowl.
Peel and devein the shrimp.
Add shrimp to the marinade and refrigerate for 1 hour. Shred the cabbage.
Cook shrimp over medium heat, turning once, add the lime juice. Then add the cabbage, and season with salt and pepper.
Stir a few times, when shrimp change color and the cabbage is soften, it can be served.

Walnut Cake- Chec cu Nuci

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 lemon zest
3 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups walnuts, chopped
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the pan.
Cream the melted butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each. Add the milk, lemon zest, and vanilla, and mix thoroughly.
Mix the flour, baking powder, and walnuts. Mix this with the wet ingredients.
Bake about 1 hour, until a stick comes out clean.
Optional- after the loaves are cool, dust with powder sugar.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Ingredients
25 perfectly ripened strawberries, green caps intact
5 oz sweet dark/white chocolate chips.
Preparation
Place chocolate chips in a bowl, then microwave it on defrost. This will melt the chocolate. When you dipped the strawberries, shake it when you take it out from chocolate, this will leave an even line of chocolate at the base. Cool covered strawberries on a sheet pan with wax paper. Try to dip them the same day you serve them.

Tomato Juice

Ingredients
10 large tomatoes - seeded & sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 1/4 cups chopped celery with leaves
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Preparation
Place tomatoes in crockpot. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until mixture is completely soupy, about 25 minutes.Press tomato mixture through a sieve. Add seasonings and chill.

How To Make A Really Good Milkshake

Ingredients
1 cup whole milk
3 scoops vanilla ice cream
3 spoons blackberry jam
Directions
Place the milk and jam in a blender or mixer, mix then add the ice cream and mix a little bit more. Serves 2.

Banana Bread/ Paine de Banane

Ingredients
1 cup mashed bananas
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 tsp lemon juice

Preparation
Preheat oven at 350F.
In a bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and almonds. Separately mixed mashed bananas, eggs, lemon juice and sugar then pour over the dry ingredients mix.
Coat the baking pan with butter and flour, place the mixture and bake for 50 minutes.
Let it cool down, slice and serve.

Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory. It shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the south.

The territory's recorded history includes periods of rule by Dacians, the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. As a nation-state, the country was formed by the merging of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 and it gained recognition of its independence in 1878. Later, in 1918, they were joined by Transylvania, Bukovina, and Bassarabia. At the end of World War II, parts of its territories (roughly the present day Moldova ) were occupied by the USSR and Romania became a member of the Warsaw Pact. With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, (December 1989 - a very violent fall of communism: national revolution and shooting the communist leader and his wife on Christmas day... we might not be vampires, but we surely are cruel) Romania started a series of political and economic reforms. After a decade of post-revolution economic problems, Romania made economic reforms such as low flat tax rates in 2005 and joined the European Union in January 1, 2007. While Romania's income level remains one of the lowest in the European Union, reforms have increased the growth speed. Romania is now an upper-middle income country economy.

Romania has the 9th largest territory and the 7th largest population (with 21.5 million people) among the European Union member states. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest (before the XXII, Bucharest was famous for being "the little Paris"), the 6th largest city in the EU with 1.9 million people. In 2007, Sibiu, a city in Transylvania, was chosen as a European Capital of Culture. Romania also joined NATO on March 29, 2004, and is also a member of Latin Union, of the Francophon of the OSCE and an associate member of the CPLP. Romania is a semi-presidential unitary state.

Famous Romanians: -just a few famous names
Literature: Emil Cioran, Mircea Eliade, Tristan Tzara (the founder of dadaism, which comes from the Romanian "da-da", meaning "yes-yes"), Eugene Ionesco
Art: Constantin Brancusi (sculptor), George Enescu (musician, check for "Ciocarlia"), Gheorghe Zamfir (musician, check the Kill Bill Soundtrack), Johnny Weismuller (actor, the famous Tarzan), Bela Lugosi (Romanian actor of Hungarian ethnicity, the famous Dracula), Alexandra Maria Lara (actress), Marcel Iures (actor), Michael Cretu (singer, band Enigma), Harvey Keitel (Dracula- half Romanian
Sports: Nadia Comaneci, Gheorghe Hagi, Ghita Muresan (the huge guy from "My Giant"), Helmuth Duckadam
Science: Nicolae Paulescu (the inventor of insulin), Henri Coanda (the inventor of the jet plane), Stefan Odobleja (the father of cybernetics).

Herman Oberth born in Transylvania- Romania was a great physicist, along with Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and American Robert H. Goddard, was one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics.

Linguists - Even surrounded by all those Slavonic countries, Romanians share the same religion with them, but not the same language origins. Romania is the only Latin Orthodox country, but is not 100% Latin, are still some Slavonic mixed in Romanian language.

Touristic Atractions

Dracula and Transylvania, The Merry Cemetery in Sapanta, the unique Maramures architecture, the unique style of the Bucovina medieval monasteries, the medieval looks of Transylvania, the Danube Delta, the Iron Gates on the Danube, gold and silver in Apuseni, muddy volcanoes and soooo on...

Nature
Romania is 33% mountains (lovely Carpathians), 33% hills, 33% plain lands. Also the Danube Delta and the Black Sea.

Architects
The Brancovenesc style and the Maramures style. Check the normal Romanian churches (Brancovenesc style) and the Northern Transylvanian churches & gates (Maramures). Also the Bucovina monasteries.