I’m Croatian. So I started blogging in Croatian, at food blog Mirisna Teka. Mirisna Teka means something like recipe notebook scented with vanilla and cinammon, specked with cherry juice and butter. Notebook that you use and carry close. Mirisna Teka started as bread and pastry blog. In time, other sweets, savouries and dishes slowly wrote themselves on Teka’s pages.

One day I realised that there’s no meat on Mirisna Teka. I realised that I wrote what I cook, and those are vegetarian and vegan dishes. I also realised that Teka’s followers really don’t see Teka that way. They see it as authentic Croatian/Slavonian cuisine recipe book based on bread and pastry. And what’s with this vegan pasta and red lentil burgers all of a sudden?

That said, I started to think: I need to write what I cook. I want more people to see it and recognize their interests in it. If I want to reach more people, my blog has to have an English name. I want people around the world to understand what I wrote. And I need to say what I cook on the first page. And those are Croatian/Slavonian dishes I learned from women in my family, but also other cuisines our family table adopted during time.

Apart from cooking, I write stories. So sometimes I’ll be writing frolic, sunny stories and sometimes I’ll write heavy, sad stories that’ll make you cry. And it will all be true as I think of them while I cook. Ah, that pumpkin story is way too sad, said my husband. You’ll scare people away! Well, I said, the pumpkin story stays. It is sad, but in order to be authentic, I have to write what I have inside.

So here I am. Mirisna Teka has a brother, Nuts&Walnuts. It’s in English for now but I plan bilingual site in both English and Croatian language. Teka and Nuts are both running, but we’ll see. I think of merging them in the future. For now, all the social networks will be shared and in common for Teka and Nuts.

I know some people will leave. But I know some will come. I’m glad you did 🙂

Thank you! I’m off to cook now but see you soon!

xx Mari