my cooking Adventures…

so as of late, I’ve been trying out my skills in the kitchen. Back home I loved cooking and baking, especially when I was stressed. I must say, I have REALLY under estimated the convenience and variety of goods we have in America. If I wanted to scramble up something back home I would just get the recipe, go to the store, and start dirtying up the kitchen. Here, I have to think of something to make off of the top of my head, make 'said' something with the ingredients I am presented with, or can find laying around (or cowering in the cabinets/cellar) and then make sure there is enough gas to cook with or that the electricity is on for the oven, then and only then can I let my creative juices run wild. So far, they haven’t been running too out of control. I’ve managed to:

Bake a Pizza from scratch. (It included made from scratch dough, thanks to my host mom, my homemade tomato sauce, pickled banana peppers, spicy green peppers, cheese (that my host mom makes), and NO MAYO (which Georgians love to put on their pizza)!

Make scrambled eggs and Omelets (with Aaron’s help) accompanied by tomatoes, peppers, some sort of fried bologna meat and cheese.

A disastrous attempt at Peach Crisp. Now normally I’ve got skills when it comes to making Apple Crisp, but the pan for the oven was too massive, there was no brown sugar, so I ended up just mixing whiter sugar, peaches, and oatmeal together on the stove. I liked it, host family didn’t. FAIL!

Some Kick-ass fried rice. This was my first attempt at making fried rice, but I was craving some non-Georgian food, and well I must say it turned out delicious AND BONUS my host family loved it. After they ate it all, I told them it was Chinese food. They were so surprised that I knew how to make something so "exotic" but I explained to them that in America, we have many different types of people and foods that represent America. Chinese food has played just as large a role as Hamburgers have in my life. There is no national food/khinkali-equivalent in America. Diversity and Variety is great! (PC goal #2 accomplished). Now, if only I can get them to absorb the fact that America has no national dance, that would make my life a lot easier, especially at supras.

Tzatziki Sauce. Thanks to Dina Leris, I have been skilled in the art of Greek Cuisine (ok, so only some dishes). It turned out amazing and I nearly ate all of it already. However, my host fam refuses to try it. I did force some pita sauce covered bread down my sis’ throat though. lol. I just came back from a Culinary Festival that Kamran’s NGO put on and some Azeri kids made some unbelievable food. It was a small pita with what tasted like feta, oregano, and onion inside. Went extremely well with my tzatziki sauce.

Spaghetti…our ”American” contribution to the Culinary Festival. I smashed the tomatoes all by myself… lol. It was pretty good and we even had some garlic bread to accompany it. The Azeri kids were good sports and tried it. Some even claimed to liking it. I am hoping that when I make it for my fam, they’ll love it.