Ask any Serbian to describe a typical holiday dinner and, invariably, it will end with "tortes." Yes, that's plural. Drum tortes, better known as Hungarian Dobosh Torte, log tortes, meringue tortes, nut tortes, fruit tortes, they all make an appearance at fancy spreads and slavas.

Radmila Milivojevic of Chesterton, Ind., is a cook and baker extraordinaire. As a member of the Serbian Sister's Circle or Kolo of St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Merrillville, Ind., she was the palachinke chairman for many years and recently headed the hand-stretched nutroll committee.

She shares her recipe for log torte or panj torta and directions for assembling the log torte, as well as memories of Christmas in Serbia as a child.

Serbian cesnica, also known as bozicni kolac, Christmas bread or money bread, is very subjective. In some families, it is made without eggs or dairy (and probably served for the fasting meal on Christmas Eve - badnje vece), others make a sweeter version with raisins, and yet others use strudel dough and nuts to make something akin to baklava. What remains universal is the silver coin that is baked inside. Most hosts tear the cesnica into as many pieces as there are guests plus one extra for the polozajnik. Whoever gets the coin will be lucky for the entire year.

Pattee Russell-Curry of California shares a simple recipe for cesnica, handed down by her cousin Nedja Vignevic Jacobs (deceased) of North Versailles, Pa., and some of the delightful traditions surrounding this symbolic bread. View this larger image of The Busic Sisters taken in the early 1900s in McKeesport, Pa., or Aliquippa, Pa. Standing from the left are Lata Busic Vignevic (the mother of Nedja Vignevic Jacobs), Sima Busic Lalich and Danica Busic Zatesla. Seated is Boja Busic Gvozden (Russell-Curry's great-grandmother). The sisters were born in Ponikve in the former Yugoslavia before emigrating to the United States.

"Whoever finds the money will be very lucky in the coming year. This bread is not cut, it is broken, first in half by the host and hostess, or by the host and guest. Then it is passed around the table. It is just plain bread, because as you know, we are of peasant stock, but I love it," as written by Jacobs to Russell-Curry.

"The [silver coin] must be washed and sterilized 3 minutes. It must be all silver (no copper). The copper turns the dough green around the coin, but it doesn't hurt anything. ... We have used the same [coin] for 50 years. Whoever finds the money doesn't keep it, but returns it to the host. He'll be lucky all year," Jacobs wrote.

Here are two more Serbian Christmas bread recipes:

Cesnica Recipe #2

Cesnica Recipe #3

Jan. 6 is The Feast of the Three Kings or The Epiphany to Christians around the world. Some call it Twelfth Night. Along with religious observances, it's a day that marks the official end of the Christmas season, and a chance to party hearty before the fasting of Lent begins.

For Orthodox Christians who follow the Julian calendar, Jan. 6 is Christmas Eve and the START of their Christmas season. Serbians, Russians, Ukrainians, Slovaks and others of the Eastern Orthodox faith will celebrate Epiphany, or Theophany, as it is known to them, on Jan. 19.

How Poles Celebrate Three Kings Day

Three Kings Cake Recipe

Well, President-elect Barack Obama is filling up his cabinet posts pretty quickly. But what about his kitchen cabinets?

Scuttlebutt has it that Chicago chefs Art Smith, Oprah Winfrey's personal chef and owner of Table fifty-two restaurant, and Rick Bayless, owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo (one of Obama's favorite spots to eat), are in the running for White House executive chef along with NBA star Carmelo Anthony's former personal chef, Daniel Young, one of Denver's culinary glitterati.

There's also speculation that members of the Organic Consumers Association are urging Obama to promote healthy and sustainable eating by hiring an organic chef like Nora Pouillon or Alice Waters.

But Walter Scheib, White House executive chef for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, says there's a 90% chance the incumbent, Cristeta Comerford, will remain "in office."

The White House chef pockets a tidy $80,000-$100,000 a year creating menus for state dinners, holiday functions, receptions and official luncheons hosted by the president and first lady, and day-to-day meals for the first family and its guests.

Who do you think will be the next White House chef?