#71: Georgia

Wedding Bells are Ringing!!

I will affectionately call this weekend, “Wedding Palooza 2015”. I traveled to the beautiful state of South Carolina to be in the wedding of my dear friends Kiki and Chris then I flew back the next day to be in Christy and Kevin’s wedding here in Colorado! So yeah, two weddings in 48hours across the country, you can check that one off the bucket list! Big congrats to the happy couples, Mr & Mrs Allen and Dr & Mrs Meyer! I love them all so much and I was so proud to be in their weddings, they’re basically like other sisters to me. Plus, who doesn’t sort of love weddings? For all the “hassle” it’s really nice to put on your good clothes and get dolled up and eat cake and drink champagne and dance with your family and see soulmates pledge their lives to each other. So, yeah, pretty awesome way to spend a weekend in my book.

THE DINNER: In the midst of it all, I got to spend about 10 minutes with my parents at wedding #2. I was happy to help pick out a recipe for the AW195S but unfortunately didn’t get to help make or eat this one. I got to drive through the lovely state of Georgia but the country of Georgia alluded me this weekend. On that topic, Georgia is an interesting country. I mentioned last week that it is brand new in terms of Independence from Russia. In 1991, this country struck out on it’s own and so did their food.

Obviously, there’s a very heavy Russian/Eastern European food influence to their cuisine, but surprisingly enough there is also quite a lot of Middle Eastern influence in their food too. For this week, we picked khachapuri which is like breakfast…but for dinner. They eat this like a little hot pocket to go that’s vegetarian.  In Georgian it’s: ხაჭაპური which translates to ხაჭო xačo “curds” + პური puri “bread”. It’s basically the traditional Georgian answer to American cheesy bread plus an egg. According to a 2009 survey 88% of Georgians prefer khachapuri to pizza and it is more popular among men and older people.

Khachapuri Recipe: http://www.restlesschipotle.com/2014/04/khachapuri-is-a-georgian-cheese-bread/

 

OVERALL COUNTRY SCORE:

Ease of prep and cooking: FOUR STAR out of five this meal!
I’ve got this set pretty high, ladies and gents— but do ye, not afraid! Because homemade bread is a thing of beauty. So though it is scary (and hard) it is rightfully so. All good things take time and patience and nothing worth having comes easily. All that aside, there were no strange ingredients nor was anything innately complex or difficult. It all comes down to making sure the yeast is fresh and that the bread adequately rises. There’s also this business of the recipe stating it takes about an hour to complete and the reality of it being nearly double that and change. So all these things combined made for the additional difficulty.

Best dish of all time scale: FOUR and a HALF STARS out of five for Meal!!
I mean, what’s not to love here guys? Fresh bread. Cheese. Butter. It’s a win, win, win. There are no special spices on this one– it’s just salt and time that goes into making it taste lovely. It’s basically cheesy bread and that’s what we love about it. It was a simple eat, with a complex creation (see above notes on fresh bread making). In the end it was what it was, and that was yummy as all get out. L and A gave this one just below five star perfection, so I have to say, I’m sad I missed out on it.

Heading to Gabon for country #72 next weekend! I’m excited to be back home for some more fun in the kitchen with L! I missed AW195S last weekend, so stay tuned for what this African country brings to our table! 

Cheers to all the newlyweds!
– L & K