Hungary

So the #1 question asked this week was, "Mom, is it Hungry or Hungary?" I guess they were hungry for Hungary, cause the second most popular question was, "Are we having Hungary tonight?"

Much to their delight, Mom got to the Hungarian food on Friday night. It was a short and sweet menu this week. We had:

Hungarian Goulash. A little on the bland side, but the kids were fans!

Cool cucumber salad--very good--and we will have to make it again with all our cucumbers lately.

And for dessert, I had to forgo the Dobos Torte I was going to make because I just couldn't do without  Hungarian Apple Strudel!  Mmmmmmmmmm......

Andrew lovin' him some cucumber salad.

 

Next week we will be enjoying some good old American food as we celebrate the 4th.

Random Picture Thoughts

 " Tired Movie"

 "Gum Anyone?"

 "Buddies"

 "Experiment"

 

 "Workin' Hard and Hardly workin'"

 "Smelly Gym"

 "New Friends"

 "You are what you Eat"

 "Rapunzel"

 "Cleats meet Cement"

 "Shake my Groove Thing"

 "Too Cute"

 "Too Old"

 "Hairbrush Hippo"

 "While you were Away"

 "Picknickin'"

 "Sleep Eating"

 "Reward Earned"

"Empty Seat"

Finland and Father's Day

I'm a little behind this week, so you get the condensed version today. And since it's Fathers Day, I would be remiss if I didn't say a word or two about my kids' awesome Dad.

My kids have an awesome Dad! That pretty much sums it up. I could take two hours of your time to tell you all the reasons why, but I'll just say how grateful I am to have him and how much his kids adore him! And his kids are so cute I'd almost make him a father again--just kidding honey!

And before Father's Day, we did Finland for dinner. Reindeer was on the agenda--until we found out it's illegal to try and obtain reindeer meat in the U.S. Sooooo....we decided to go with something a little less controversial.

We had Leek, Carrot, and Pork Pie. It was very much like a pot pie, only better!

Fresh mushroom salad.

Potatoes the Finnish way (basically boiled and then fried with bread crumbs)

Finnish Pullah (Awesome sweet bread- and it makes a great baked french toast the next day!)

And for dessert we had Fruit Snow- very interesting texture like a jello sherbet.

And all the cooking proved a little overwhelming for Ava.

Next week.....Hungary!

South Africa

This week the kids picked South Africa. I was very excited to try African cuisine...but then my excitement was shattered as I realized we may have to travel to Africa for some of the dishes (Biltong and Boerwors) we wanted to try! Oh well, I pouted and then got to work on some other dishes.

My favorite thing about "Eating around the World" is that we always find at least one dish from every country that we really liked and would eat again. South Africa was no exception.

The Menu:

We had Frikkadels, a cross between meatballs and meatloaf. (I can't vouch for these, cause I didn't try them--ground meat is the one thing I cannot eat without an immediate gag reflex.) The kids all really liked them though. Andrew, the porker, ate seven of them!

Cucumber and zucchini salad--very simple and quite tasty.

Mealie Bread--if you can get past the name reminding you of meal worms, is a different take on corn (mealie) bread. Yummy!

And for dessert, I debated between the traditional Melk Tert (milk Tart), and Koeksisters. I decided on Koeksisters, which are kind of a cross between a donut and a funnel cake dipped in a cinnamon sugar syrup. They are very popular in South Africa and are sold just about everywhere they sell food. They were AWESOME and we will definitely be eating them again!

Next week?.........................Finland!  Look out Rudolph--I hear they eat a lot of reindeer!

Boys Who Eat

Do you have one of those kids who doesn't eat anything? They are skinny, scrawny, pick at a half of a peanut butter sandwich and declare they aren't hungry anymore?? There are a lot of these kids. I often see them and wonder how they don't just blow away, and what on earth is wrong with my kids?

Actually, I don't wonder what is wrong with my kids-- they have two parents who taught them the art of eating, and an endless imagination that must be fueled with mass amounts of food.

So... we're at Costco tonight, (big surprise) and when at Costco, one feels obligated to super size their appetite in light of all the bulk packaging. Which is exactly what we do... cause we're not the scrawny, skinny, picky eating type. And super size we did with Ice Cream AND Churros. Then I sat back for a minute and and snapped a few shots of what my boys do at Costco.

Oh yeah, this is good stuff, gotta focus here. Ice cream in one hand, churro in the other.

   

"Dude! It's gone already?"

And people ask me why I eat so fast. Well, I'll tell you like I tell them...because I had brothers like these....8 of them!

Turkey

No, not the animal...the Country! It's that time of year again and we've started our "Eating Around the World" for the summer--where my kids pick a country each week and we attempt to enjoy their authentic cuisine. The first country picked was Turkey, which is supposedly a very diverse and influential world cuisine. I learn somethin' new everyday.

Before we get into the food, let me make a disclaimer on our summer eating adventure. I am a mom, not a chef. I live in backwoods Georgia. I have never been anywhere to speak of, so my specialty is internet surfing. I attempt to find authentic dishes and recipes, but this is just for fun. (In other words I know nothing, don't quote me on anything!)

So on to dinner!

I really wanted to try Dolma, but I needed more time to locate some pickled grape leaves. And I really didn't want to eat mutton, although we maybe should have, so it wasn't on the menu either. What we did eat for our appetizer was Borek--these tasty little stuffed puff pastries! --stuffed with an olive, and roasted pepper filling.

They were so yummy!

For dinner, we had, chicken shish kebabs, marinated in a yogurt hot pepper sauce. Man that was some spicy chicken even after cutting the amount of red pepper in half! To go with it, we had this awesome roasted zucchini (first pick of the season from our own backyard), and traditional Turkish flat bread called Pide--which of course the boys loved cause you can't go wrong with fresh bread.

And to finish it off....no, I didn't make Turkish Delight--Andrew already raked me over the coals for not making it, but I want it to turn out good, so we'll have to wait until it's a little cooler. Instead, we had Baklava!  (MMmmmmmm....drool) And yes, I know what you're thinking- Baklava is Greek, but in my "extensive" research, I came to learn that Baklava is really Turkish. ( those Greeks just don't have anything special so they complain a lot--they should try being American!)

Next week we'll be having......I'll let you know when the kids decide!

Asheville

With the office closed and school out for the weekend, we took the opportunity to head up to Asheville for a couple of days. We had planned to hike from the base to the top of Mt. Mitchell, but with poor directions and a shoddy navigator (hhmmm, hhmmm-- me), we ended up driving to the summit instead.

Since we were already up there, we decided to take a hike out toward Deep Gap- a trail that basically traverses up and down the different peaks of the mountain range. It was a fun hike and really neat on the way back as we became enveloped in cloud cover. 

We finally had the chance to see the Biltmore (thanks to a stellar deal I got!). I have wanted to go ever since we lived in North Carolina, but just couldn't bring myself to shell out that kind of money. I would highly recommend it.....with a few caveats. Do not pay regular price. Do not eat there. Do not take your kids. Do not go when it's 95 degrees out. Do not go if you are an alcoholic. ( free wine= bad new bears, or just plain boring if you're Mormon!) Okay, that was more than a few, but take my advice--you'll thank me later.

And to make a long story short- we did some more hiking, eating (lots of that), walking through downtown, swimming, and enjoying the city's water fountain. 

 Next on the list- Outer Banks- never been, dying to go. Never can find the time or money for a trip that long!