Music and Chocolate Cake in Zagreb, Croatia

So I got home from my weekend in Ohio, Sunday night with no chance to photograph the neighborhood for the weekly photo challenge as it was dark outside. Changing the clocks didn’t help me with enough light by the time I pulled in the driveway

-but in my inbox I found a message from my son Matthew who lives in Zagreb, Croatia (9 years already!)

The subject of his email: Guest blog 🙂 The dilemma of what to post? SOLVED!

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Dear Ma,

Yesterday I spent the evening with the Kaplowitz family. My dear friend Joe Kaplowitz is pretty much the only American I know over here and he invited me over for an American-style chocolate cake. Not only is he a brilliant jazz musician but he is quite an accomplished baker to boot! His beautiful wife Lela is a marvelous singer and they recently came out with a big-band album of original compositions called With Every Breath that you can hear (and buy!) here

After enjoying a generously-sized hunk of cake chased by a glass of milk, Joe, Lela, their daughter Lucija and I played a cut-throat game of Name That Tune. Lucija is also a budding musician, so as you might imagine the competition was pretty stiff. Then we headed to the parlor for a concert. Joe and Lucija, who plays the violin, teamed up for a set of traditional Croatian melodies played over some soulful blues piano.

Perhaps I was witnessing the concept for the next album being born.

Joe’s cake was so tasty that I plan to go back over tomorrow for another sliver.

In keeping with the spirit of the blog, will get the recipe tomorrow and send it to you!

Love, Matthew

p.s. Here is the recipe, just in from Zagreb this morning

only got 3 stars but i thought it was fabulous!