European Gardening: First Frost, 1 by adinamiti

adinamiti wrote:
Hi, everyone !
In Romania, we are preparing for Christmas, first, by cleaning the house. This means that we are cleaning the windows, the doors, the furniture, the paintings, the floor, the cupboards, the stove, the fridge, the carpets and, of course, the flowers. Don’t misunderstand me : we are cleaning the house every week, all over the year, but for this special occasion and also, for the Easter, it’s our custom to welcome, each celebration of the Lord, by supercleaning our houses. Also, for Easter, we clean the gardens, as it’s spring and warm enough to work in the garden. I’ll tell you all about this in spring.

I usually began the cleaning in November, because I’m no longer that young to make so many works in one day, so I make one work a day, when I have the time. First I begin with the balcony, which I have to clean in 2 days, not because is very big, but because of the too many flowers. Then I clean every corner of the house, so that, a week before Christmas, all the house is “clean like a lamp”, this an old saying which means that there is no particle of dust in the house.
This week I’m finishing the cleaning, I have to clean the floor cupboards from the kitchen and the lamps. Also, I’ve asked Ionut to help clean his room, the shelfs with his books and the computer.
Next week I’ll cook all the goodies for Christmas : 'sarmale' ( cabbage-rolls with meat), 'cozonac' .This is a cake, similar with your cornbread , but we add sugar and some filling, as mixed nuts with sugar, cocoa and egg or raisins or jelly. I’ll make a soup(ciorba) with meat-balls (perisoare) and a big piece of roasted pork meat.
In Romania is a tradition to cut a pork for Christmas and make many goodies with the pork’s meat. The pork is cut, usually, in St Ignat’s day, which is on the 16th of December. I’ll tell you more of this tomorrow .