Vintage Friday: Romania 1963

I am excited and honored to present a special Vintage Friday for you written by friend and fellow author Carmen Stefanescu. Carmen lives in Dracula’s Country of Romania and is wonderfully informative on many topics, including literature, music, hidden mysteries, and mythology. She is sharing insights about her home country as it was in 1963 and a delicious vintage recipe that will leave your mouth watering all day. Carmen is the author of a remarkable novel, Shadows of the Past.  I enjoyed it immensely and if you haven’t read it yet, you are missing out on a moving experience. She is full of ideas and constantly writing to get more stories out for readers. Her website is a fountain of writing information, as is her Pinterest site, and her blog posts, including reviews, always leave me inspired. Please read on down to find out more about Shadows of the Past. Take it away, Carmen Stefanescu!

Romania 1963 by Carmen Stefanescu

Communist Romania,   including the 1963 year, was a long list of  “You aren’t allowed this!”

Meaning – we couldn’t  listen to American/British music and watch their films, speak about God, travel abroad, celebrate Christmas or Easter. It wasn’t allowed having your own business, owning foreign currency, listening to Radio Free Europe, speaking about Romanian monarchy, wearing jewelry and make up in high school. As I was a pupil at that time, I wasn’t aware of many things and interdictions. That  life was for me “normal”. I took things as granted.

In music it was the time of a famous Peruvian singer Ima Sumah  

Claudio Villa with his hit Un Tango Italiano 

or Adamo with “Tombe la neige/Tu ne viendras pas ce soir… 

Except Romanian songs,  all people could listen on the radio was Italian music mostly. That year Romanian Television started broadcasting The San Remo music festival.

The apparent thawing of the  political and social conditions brought the Latin American music, too, –  Trio Los Paraguayos with their beautiful Malaguenia    or   Besame mucho  

and the Cubanese bonbons shaped as little hearts and made of  sugarcane. And the twist. And a film artist that became favorite among Romanian people Sara Montiel   

 Carmen de la Ronda a great  movie hit of hers among Romanians. I especially enjoyed it, you can imagine, as the movie had my name.

My grandmother and mother took care that I wouldn’t miss anything and they rewarded my good marks in school with treats. One of them is, up to this day, a favorite – 

Cheese Pies

Here is the recipe. I will give you a pretty easy one. With ready made pastry – Phyllo (Filo)

Phyllo is a paper-thin pastry dough that is used in many layers. The phyllo is generally wrapped around a filling and brushed with butter before baking. These pastries are very delicate and flaky.

Filling:

Soft fresh cheese, half a kilogram or if you like it thicker you can add more cheese.

 4 spoons of sugar,

2 eggs,

Vanilla essence.

If you, like me, enjoy your pie a bit salty, you can grate a bit of sheep salted cheese and add it to the filling. All the above are mixed. (You can add some raisins too, but you have to keep them for 15 minutes in milk to get them soften.)

How you do it:

You grease a tin and place a first layer of pastry that is also brushed with oil. You divide the filling in two parts. Add a part of the filling  over the pastry and press softly with the spoon all over the surface. Then you add above 3 or 4 more layers of pastry. Each sheet must be brushed with oil. Add the rest of the filling and finish with the last sheets of pastry that you mustn’t forget to brush with oil.

Before introducing the tin in the preheat oven ( 30 minutes), rung gently a sharpened knife over the top to  form rows in the pie. So you can cut it easier into pieces after it’s ready.

Cook for about 20-30 minutes, until the first crust gets a yellowish color. Take the tin out using a pair of kitchen gloves and sprinkle the pie with a spoon or two of cold milk; then keep it covered for 15 minutes with a clean, wet towel. Then cut into portions  using the lines you cut earlier.  Before serving,  sprinkle the pieces of pie with powder sugar.

Enjoy!

Shadows of the Past by Carmen Stefanescu

Publisher: Wild Child Publishing
Genre: paranormal/light romance/light historical/light horror.
Blurb:
Anne’s relationship with her boyfriend Neil has disintegrated. After a two-year separation, they pack for a week vacation in hopes of reconciling. But fate has other plans for them.
The discovery of a bejeweled cross and ancient human bones opens a door to a new and frightening world–one where the ghost of a medieval nun named Genevieve will not let Anne rest. This new world threatens not only to ruin Anne and Neil’s vacation but to end all hopes of reconciliation as Anne feels compelled to help free Genevieve’s soul from its torment.
Can Anne save her relationship and help Genevieve find her eternal rest?
A touching, compelling story of tragedy, loss and the power of endless love and good magic.
The twists and turns in this paranormal tale keep the reader guessing up to the end and weave themselves together into a quest to rekindle love. Buy Link

Bio:

Carmen Stefanescu was born in Romania, the native country of the infamous vampire Count Dracula, but where, for about 50 years of communist dictatorship, just speaking about God, faith, reincarnation or paranormal phenomena could have led someone to great trouble – the psychiatric hospital if not to prison.
Teacher of English and German in her native country and mother of two daughters, Carmen Stefanescu survived the grim years of oppression, by escaping in a parallel world that of the books.
She has dreamt all her life to become a writer, but many of the things she wrote during those years remained just drawer projects. The fall of the Ceausescu’s regime in 1989 and the opening of the country to the world meant a new beginning for her. She started publishing.
She has joined the volunteer staff at MFRW blog.

I know you have enjoyed having Carmen Stefanescu here as much as I did. Romania was restrictive in 1963, but Carmen shared some glorious musical tidbits with us, as well as the delicious vintage cheese pie recipe.  Thank you, Carmen! Don’t forget to visit her website and give consideration to her wonderful novel, Shadows of the Past.