Namibia (I bless the potjies down in Africa)

Namibia joined April 23rd, 1990.

I have never been to Namibia, but I can say that I've seen it from the shores of Botswana.

I wanted potjies.  I just didn't want to make them.  Because if I made one, I would want meat.  I would have zero motivation to make one without meat.  But by making one with meat it means I would have to make another with veggies anyway for the vegetarian in our group.  And I really didn't want to make one, much less two.  But here I am.  Making two potjies.

Fun fact, potjie is not pronounce pot-gee like and good American would think.  Instead it's pronounced poi-kee.  Where's the K?  I don't know.

Also fun fact, potjies are traditionally not stirred.  The goal is to have distinct flavors from bite to bite, instead of mixing and making all the flavors meld so each bite tastes the same.  The pot is strategically layered, typically with the meat at the bottom, then covered with veggies in order of what takes longest to least longest to cook, topped with broth, water, or even a coke if you're feeling it.  Then it's cooked for hours without stirring.

I chose lamb neck for my meat potjie, but after calling several butchers I realized there is no lamb neck in Seattle.  So I decide to go with whatever is at the store, and ended up with some chicken drumsticks.  If there's anything I learned about potjies in my research it's that Namibians use whatever is on hand or in season.  So I didn't feel bad about adjusting the ingredients as needed.

I start cooking around noon and get my two potjies going.  The veggie one cooks easily, but my meat one is just not going anywhere.  When I got to Jenny's it was clear that this was a problem, so I pulled the pot out of the crockpot and put it in the oven.  Worked like a charm!

Jenny and amber finish their dishes, as some of our guest make us some "Namibian" martinis.  Jenny got real, real excited when she added the peanut butter to her soup.

Everyone was getting antsy, so to waste the last minute we did some planks, followed by some down dog.

I was nervous about my dish since I hadn't stirred it and had no idea how the bottom layers were doing.  When we finally served it was awesome.  The chicken was fall off the bone tender, and it all tasted a-okay.  We even started talking about cooking a potjie in an actual potjie cast iron pot at our next camping trip.

The evening ended with Cards Against Humanity, which lead to shenanigans and somersaults.  Yes, I said somersaults.

(Celebrated April 21st, 2018)

Liechtenstein (He's blond! He's pissed! He'll see you in the list! Liechtenstein!!! Liechtenstein!!!)

Liechtenstein joined the UN September 18, 1990, and is our 35th country and 24th Dinner Party.  Can you believe it!?!?  18% of the way there!

In case you don't understand the lyrics that this post is tagged with I suggest watching A Knight's Tale with Heath Ledger.  Great movie.  Throughout the dinner I was also singing this, and I only found out later in the evening that my friends thought I made it up.  Yes, that sounds like me, but no, not this time.

Upon searching all of the net for Liechtensteiner recipes I declared that they only eat three things: pancake, schnitzel, and mac and cheese.  A brief moment on Rosti, my friends convinced me of making Kasknopfle (don't ask me how to pronounce it).  A little more searching and I found mention of how they both grow and eat a lot of asparagus.  Something green with fiber!  My intestines were already thanking me.

So I researched how schnitzel is made (since this was the noodle in kasknopfle), and while I would typically just McGyver something I already own to fit my needs I decided this time I would go crazy and buy a schnitzel maker, which was basically a super dull cheese grater.  No idea how this was going to work.

I get to Amber's early and we talk her puppy to the park, with the added bonus of watching her lead him around holding on to his collar because she forgot to grab a leash.  Then back to the house for the usual cooking frenzy.

After I made my batter, I was discussing how it looked like a small amount and next thing I know people are yelling at me to double it.  It really didn't look like a lot, so I agreed and doubled it.

SO MUCH SPATZEL.

I was super nervous about using my spatzel maker, but once I got started I was freaking out at how cool it was.  Spatzel dough is much runnier than typical pasta dough, so it dripped through the holes into the boiling water creating these drops of deliciousness.

But holy cow that was a lot of spatzel.

Liechtenstein was very reminiscent of Switzerland with all the cheese, which made sense since they were border buddies, but we have learned from our mistake and made sure we have some fibrous side dishes as well.  It made for a freakin' delicious meal.

After dinner we played some games until Jenny realized that she still needed to make her dessert.  The look on her face gave me the impression that she fully intended to try not to cook dessert so late, so I made sure to let her know that I fully intended to have my pancake and eat it too.

She gave in quite easily, and we were all glad she did, because it was yummy.

(Celebrated March 17th, 2018)