Kolaci

The title of this post is the serbian word for cakes. But not cake cakes, more like cookies or sweet breads... Lauren and I have been a little bored around Bar the last few days so we were determined to either go somewhere or make something, and the weather only permitted us to do the latter. We opted for some almond cookies.

The quest for the ingredients was pretty fun. We went to a "health food"store which has some specialty items, and we needed some almond extract. This store is known for herbal remedies, raw nuts, cake-baking supplies, grains etc. so we thought this was a great place to start. The lady did not know any english so we floundered with our serbian and the best thing we could come up with was ulje od badem, which translates to almond oil. Close enough, right? She totally understood us and began to explain in Serbian that we could only get this at an apoteka (pharmacy) and told us one that she knew for sure had it.

A little confused, we headed to the pharmacy and when we walked in it was obvious that this was like a Walgreens. Baby things, razors, nail polish with some other cosmetic things, and then a counter that could fill prescriptions as well as give out some multi-vitamins and other various things. Perfect! Our cashier lady knew english so we asked her for the same thing...oil of almonds. She brought it to us in a little bottle and told us how to use it. We (being the silly americans) only asked one question: "Can we eat it?!" She laughed and said no this was only for skin and for other superficial beauty needs. AWW MAN!! I think it was more like almond butter/beauty product made from almonds. Sadly we walked away without the bottle of oil and had to bake the recipe without.

After we were finished we went to Palma and gave the lady who serves us every day some cookies to share with her family and other people from the restaurant. She was a little confused when we gave them to her because she didn't realize they were for her. She pointed to her stomach and said "oh my, I don't need these, but thank you!" and then laughed a little. We went back today and had lunch with Nikola (which warrants its own post, but I don't have the blogging energy or willpower to rehash that one) and she told him that we made very good cakes. Mission accomplished!