Tbilisi

Wanted to write and show something about my city, Tbilisi. This is very old city and you can enjoy visiting it. There are too many nice places to see and get pleased with and one of this places is Akhvlediani Street, place where mostly the pubs are located. Live music, tasty beer, and hot Georgian atmosphere! I'll add video and some photos to see but sorry for low video quality,next time it will be much better! 

Italy al dente (1)

It all began in 2011 on the train to Lublin. To make journey more pleasant I started reading book borrowed from Justyna. It was the "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. J. was praising it like crazy. I read it quite quickly, although I do not like this style of writing. It reminds me of 'motivational' literature - guides, how to use autosuggestion and affirmations to change your life for the better. But the book really had its impact on my future life. Justyna decided to go to Italy because of Liz. And she needed a partner in crime.

"- Darky, will you fly with me to Bologna? I found cheap tickets."
-"Sure."- I agreed without thinking. Several seconds later I became owner of the ticket on the route Wroclaw - Bologna - Wroclaw. Doubts emerged a moment later: where will we sleep and how will we manage not knowing Italian language. But the word has been said. Quickly we found solution to both problems: CouchSurfing site and Polish-Italian dictionary. Month prior to departure Justyna and I searched CS' database and wrote several mails asking people to host us. And then we started planning our trip. The decision was quick: Bologna, Padua and Venice. Justyna bought the fast course in Italian language, and I was looking through websites in search of places to visit, hiking trails and other cultural goods of all kinds. As the flight was scheduled for evening hours and the polish railway connection was far from perfect, we decided to split our journey in two stages: first to get to Wroclaw, spent there night, and go to the airport next day. The plan was simple to implement, since Justyna has a family in Wroclaw. Having all things organised, the only thing that left was waiting for the start of our trip (and quite incredible spiral of events).

*** Since this trip I often check low cost airlines sites. Very often one can find very good deals there. However, note that to the ticket prices they usually add different types of fees.

Khinkali

Khinkali is one of the most famous Georgian dishes.It comes from highlanders. Basically, it's a dumpling with meat inside but also with very tasty juice. And eating technique is different - hold khinkali in your hands, bit a small bite, suck the juice and eat rest. You can also add some black pepper inside or on the dough.

 Traditional khinkalis were made from sheep meat and had 32 "wrinkles". The most common are mixed beef and pork but you can also find khinkalis with potatoes, mushrooms or cheese filling.

Here is our easy (and Polish) version of khinkali.

What do you need:

filling

0,5 kg of meat mixed beef and pork (but you also can do it only from pork one)

3 medium onions

parsley, kindzi

3 or 4 cloves of garlic

spices: salt, red peper

dough

flour

water

salt

How to do it:

First, you need to make filling. Take grinded meat (preferably grinded twice) and mix it with spices. Add grinded onion, garlic and herbs. Mix it all.

Mix flour and salty water and knead it till dough will be soft. (You can also hit it with fists to make even softer;)). Pin out and cut out big circles - our had 10 cm in diameter. Pin out one more time and then put filling inside. Try to make nice shape and check if dough is "glued" correctly on the top.

Boil khinkalis is salty water till they won't float on the surface.

Eat hot with black pepper.

Postcrossing

Today shortly about one of my hobbies - Postcrossing. Postcrossing is a project which allows you to send and receive postcards to and from all over the world. Why? Because there are people on this planet who prefer piece of paper with stamp on it to emails.

First of all, you should register and create your profile, for example like me. Remember to check your post address twice, just to be sure postcards will find you ;) And then:

1. request address from the site
2. mail your postcard
3. wait for postcard sent to you
4. register received postcard

 It's also possible to take part in RR (round robins) group - one of theme group. Here you can see postcards from "City view", "Write wrong" (write and paint with weaker hand) and "Handmade postcards". I always have great time preparing cards for RR group.

And this is my favorite card and best envelope ever!

"Barbaroba" and lobiani

Barbaroba is a holiday in memory of Barbare - Christian saint and martyr. Traditional way of celebrating it is... to make lobiani. Why? I have absolutely no idea :) Tengo decided we should also make lobiani so we started to boil beans (luckily I had some at home).  

Lobiani is a baked dough filled with boiled and mushed beans. Very popular and tasty.

What do you need:

(for dough)

0,5 kg of flour

salty water

1 egg

(for filling)

0,4 kg of beans

spices: kindzi, uccho suneli, kondari, Svanian salt, black pepper, salt, red chili, oil

How to do it:

Boil beans till they will be soft. Strain the water but don't spill it - you will need it after. Mash it adding some beany water. You can also use machine for meat. Add spices (for your taste) and a little of oil. Mix it well.

Mix flour, water and egg and knead the dough till it will be smooth and soft. Take part of dough, pin out and put filling inside. Bake for 15-20 minutes in high temperature. Rub some butter on top and eat sill hot.

Oatmeal cookies

We are really big sweet-a-holics. When our gingerbreads are waiting for Christmas in metal can we had to eat something with lemon tea. Our choice for today - oatmeal cookies. Easy to do and easy to clean ;)

What do you need:

200 g of butter/margarine

1,2 glass of flour

0,8 glass of sugar

2,4 glass of oatmeal (but you can put anything instead - cocoa, linseed, raisins, cornflakes...)

1 tea spoon of baking powder/baking soda

How to make it:

Mix butter with sugar and then add everything else :D

Bake in 180 C degree for 15-20 minutes.

Those cookies are perfect with anything you have at home - you can add spoon of cacao, almond aroma, raisins, dried fruits and any kind of grain. 

HAVE FUN!

Christmas "to do" list

It's only 10 days till Christmas so we decided to move on with our "to do" list:

- decorate tree

- wrap gifts

- make cookies for Santa

- sing carols

- spend time with family

- wait for Santa

Our progress is around 32% - we already made gingerbreads and decorated tree.

Karaliok

Karaliok, in Poland known as kaki is one of my favourite discoveries in Georgia. At first I had no idea how to eat it - maybe boil, maybe cut, maybe peel. No, you just need to bite it :) But be careful, karaliok has some seeds inside. The best karaliok is spoiled already - more soft and sweet- but "new" ones are also good, just more hard to eat (like hard apple or pear).

Christmas Gingerbread!

I love gingerbread with all my heart. This year I decided to make them myself and asked Tengo to be my Santa's helper. Well, he had fun only with taking photos and eating :P

What do you need:

50 dag of flour

15 dag of castor sugar
1 tea spoon of baking soda

2 tb spoons of przyprawa korzenna (special spice for gingerbread)

15 dag of soft butter or margarine

1 egg

20 dag of liquid honey

How to make them:
On pastry board  put flour, castor sugar, baking soda and gingerbread spice. Add butter/margarine and cut it into small pieces.
Add one egg (better not to small) and honey. Mix it well till dough will be smooth and elastic.
Roll out dough to thickness of 5 mm and use the shapes. Put gingerbread on baking tray and bake 15-20 minutes in 200 C degrees.
*Gingerbread is ready when it moves smoothly on baking tray*
You can decorate them after they are cool.

Smacznego!