Moldova (Going DEEP)

Like San Marino, Azerbajian, Armenia, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan... Moldova joined the UN on March 2nd, 1992.

There was a longer than usual gap between this dinner and the last one.  6 weeks instead of the usual 4, and while I appreciated not having to worry about my next recipe for a while I was definitely itching for a UN Dinner fix by the time it rolled around.  (I also didn't choose a recipe until 2 days before the dinner).

With an estimated 7-8 people attending, I didn't feel bad about choosing a super simple recipe that I new wouldn't take much time.  Little did I know...

Jenny texts me asking for a ride a few hours before, and on the way to her place I find out that I will also need to pick up Steven.  Carpool!

Travis was hosting this dinner, and he now lived in Maple Valley.  On the way Jenny explained that one of her friends found out where we were going to for this dinner, and her reaction was to tell Jenny that Maple Valley is "deep".  We laughed a little, not really understanding what it meant, but it soon became clear as we continued to drive out of the city.  At one point we turned off the highway onto a road bordered by trees and little else, and the GPS chimed, "stay on this road for 10 miles".  Maple Valley is DEEP.

When we arrived it became clear that the menu for this meal was not going to be as I expected.  Jenny and I made some really simple (yet delicious) dishes, and Amber did her usual stuffed flatbread, but I didn't see much else going out.  There were 4 reasons for this:

1. Travis' roomies forgot about the dinner, so we were down to 6.
2. Steven only brought wine (because he also forgot about the dinner?)
3. Bryan didn't cook anything, no surprise there, he also brought wine.
4. Travis noted that there was a dinner and just decided not to cook (WTF bro?)  So he brought... you guessed it... wine.

6 people, 3 dishes, 5 bottles of wine.  And I was DD.  We had always had a rule that if you didn't cook you brought an adult drink to share, but this is a little ridiculous.

I decided to prep my dish, so all I had to do was fry it up when it came time.  Not much to do, cut tomatoes in half, chop garlic and dill, mix topping together.  That's pretty much it.  Well I guess people REALLY SHOULD HAVE COOKED SOMETHING because as soon as I got started people were asking if they could help.  It seemed a little crazy with how little I had to do, but ok.  Fyi, super excited about getting to use dill again. Definitely added twice what I needed to.  Did that with the garlic too.

Amber had pre-prepared her dish as usual, and the raw flatbreads were all stacked nicely in some tupperware.  When it came time to fry up her flatbreads they were all stuck together.  She managed to get two unstuck, but the others shredded as she pulled them apart.  Poor Amber, learning the hard way.  Somebody came up with the solution to just mash the cheesy filling and the dough together, so instead of "stuffed" it was more integrated into the dough.

Turns out, having a simple UN dinner without a ton of dishes or leftovers was just what the doctor ordered.  And Amber's dish tasted perfect.  I liked it even better because the cheesy crush gave it a little texture.

After dinner someone suggested a friendly game of baseball.  BASEBALL!?!?!?!  WHEN I'M D.D.!?!?!?!?!  GAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!  You may be wondering why being sober mattered in baseball.  Well, our baseball involves solo cups, ping pong balls, and lots of cheap beer, and I hadn't played in a while, so I was a little bummed.  We tried subbing this terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE lemonade, but it wasn't the same.

Action shot.

In case you couldn't tell, there was also a lot of dancing.

There was break between games for dessert, but when it got late it was time to head out.  It was a long drive to get out of Maple Valley (DEEP).

(Celebrated June 10th, 2017)
(Don't judge)