My Adventure Book...: July 2013

I don't want to give too much credit to my Dad for this one, but I have to admit that perhaps some of the inspiration for this sandwich came from his crazy ideas about what to do with leftovers that I remember from my childhood. Whenever it was his turn to make a meal for us kids, it was usually one of two things: A rotisserie chicken that he would pick up from a take-out joint or scrambled eggs with every leftover he could find in the fridge. That was about it.
Hence, the other day when I was scrambling to make dinner, what I came up with was a {glorious} sandwich that involved a few leftovers from our previous dinner, grilled flank steak & asiago mashed potatoes, reinvented into a different form.

Asiago Mashed Potatoes

1 1/2 lbs. potatoes {of the firmer variety}
1 small onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 oz butter
1/4 cup milk
2 oz shredded asiago cheese
2 T fresh herbs {I used rosemary & parsley}
salt
pepper

Cut & boil the potatoes {I left my skins on}. Saute the onion, garlic, salt, pepper & butter until translucent on low heat. Add milk {slowly}. Set Aside.

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and return them to the pot. Add onion mixture, cheese & herbs and mash them.
Serve hot.

I was introduced to this Tomato Relish by my friends at Blackberry Market...

Steak & Mashed Potatoes Sandwich

Sliced good bread
Steak, sliced thin
Horseradish Cream Sauce
Tomato Relish
Sharp White Cheddar
Asiago Mashed Potatoes

I think we all know how to make a sandwich, right? Take two thick slices of bread, spread on reasonable amounts of mashed potatoes, horseradish cream sauce & tomato relish, layer enough slices of sharp cheddar & steak, stick it in a panini press {or a stove-top skillet} for a few minutes and enjoy!

"Summer is awful...there's too much pressure to enjoy yourself..."

A friend of ours recently posted a cartoon with that line and my immediate thought was "I know...right?" Because seriously, who wants to spend a beautiful, warm sunny day inside on a computer writing silly blog entries that about 4 people might read. But I suppose someone's gotta appease the masses, so here it is.

Summer in Moldova is a delightful time of year; the markets are full of seasonal fruit that is bursting with bright colors and flavors, and it appears it is perfectly acceptable to steal cherries/nectarines/any other random fruit off your neighbor's trees if they happen to extend into the street or your yard. Moreover, your neighbors might just give you an entire giant bucket of cherries "with meat" {aka worms} with a giant grin on their faces and wish you "to be healthy". Last month we were invited {or we may have invited ourselves} to our friend's village and his parents have the most glorious raspberry patch I have ever set foot in: golden raspberries and plump juicy red ones for yards and yards. They let us raid it and I was like a kid in a candy store.

This was from a few years ago with my friend Anna...you see what I mean;
I just get excited about raspberries...I can't help it!

You start eating unreasonable things for breakfast...

...and dessert.

At the local lake a few weeks ago where I take Ronald for walks, I noticed an increasing number of sweet old men fishing, and an alarming number of scantily clad people at the little "beach" they have there...think old fat dudes wearing thongs. Yeah. Or hilarious women {of all shapes & sizes} tanning standing up or in any one of many unusual positions...which is a new technique to me. It was duly noted.

I was struck, once again, by the seasonality of life here. There is a time for everything, and when the time comes for something in particular, like during cherry season, Moldovan's fully take it in. They make compote {a sweetened and canned fruit drink} and cherry placinte {which are like cherry pies}. Slightly before the cherries were fully ripe on the trees, we had some Moldovan friends over and they asked me, excitedly, if I knew my neighbors, and that if I didn't I better get to know them quick {!} because they had a cherry tree! They've got a radar for these sorts of things. The passing of time is marked by nature more so than by calendars or schedules, and I find it refreshing.

My in-laws came to visit us last month and when we were planning their visit and had to come up with what we would show them around Moldova, naturally, our first thought was to ~~get the heck outta here~~ go to Romania! Just kidding, there are many lovely things to do in Moldova {and we did do them all} but given Michael's Mother's German background we thought it would be cool to explore the region in Romania that was historically settled by Germans. And cool it was.

We stayed in a lovely log cabin in Bran {a few minutes from amazing hiking trails and Dracula's Castle}, then took day trips to both Sibiu & Brasov. Here are some shots from our travels...