I covered a variety of foods, and the technique for each one is different and quite intensive.
Zeamă, borchst, and răcitură are all usually prepared by boiling different vegetables such as potatoes and carrots. For borscht, different households may fry or boil beets. Once zeamă is cooled, it has a remarkably similar texture to răcitură. Mămăligă is also boiled. Pârjoales and plăcinte are both fried. Clătite are cooked like traditional crepes, using a pan. Babă neagră is one of the few desserts that is baked rather than fried in some way, although some households do bake plăcinte. Sarmale is more complicated, as the rice, vegetables, and meat are all mixed together before being put into cabbage and steamed.
The food in Moldova is incredibly connected to the local environment. It is likely that at least some, if not most, of the ingredients in each dish came from a person’s own garden. If not, it may have been obtained from a neighbor or a local grocer. At my house, my host parents have a large garden with cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, cherries and plenty of root vegetables and salad greens. We also raise chickens and make plenty of preserves of pickled foods during harvest season. We mainly only purchase dairy products, such as milk, cheese and butter, from the store.
