Croatia, Slovenia, & Bosnia-Herzegovina (#BigSweatyBalls)

First dinner of the new year!

Croatia, Slovenia, & Bosnia-Herzegovina (aka Bosnia) joined the UN May 22nd, 1992.

The pressure was on for this dinner.  Up until now we have had no way of knowing how authentic our meals have been, but this time Amber invited a coworker with Croatian roots.  Someone who could actually tell us how how close (or far off) our recipes are to the real thing.  Oh crap.

Unlike my last recipe, I managed to keep this recipe in one piece. My apartment smelt good!

On the way to the dinner I picked up our regional culinary expert slash food judge and Amber.  After some food Tetris in my car we were off!  My car smelt gooooooood!

There were already a few people working on their recipes.  Mine was done, and miraculously stayed hot even two hours after it was pulled off the stove, so I got the pleasure of drinking beer while watching the masters at work.  Awe man, that house smelt GOOD.  I pretty sure everyone was uncomfortably excited for this dinner.  O maybe that was just me projecting.

There were so many dishes we did it buffet style.

Amber also brought a party in a box, aka regional beer and plum brandy, and boy did it get the party going.  We had several thrilling conversations about a variety of subjects including, but not limited to, honey, burned thumbs, the uses of honey (to cure said burned thumbs), dinosaur ladles, and big sweaty balls.  There was even a video of someone getting owned by a sheep I think.

We made it through the main dishes our judge declared that he thought we did a great job, and had no issues with any of the dishes.  NAILED IT!!!




PS, I promised myself it wouldn't take me as long to post as it did the last one.  FAIL.  I made the mistake of trying to wait until I got the photos and recipes from my fellow UN diners, but I can wait no longer.  I can only say I have most of the recipes, and since I don't have a nice group shot, I sketched it out so you can get the feel:

PPS, here's some "big sweaty balls":

(Celebrated January 14th, 2017)

Georgia (My dumplings are bursting at the thought)

You may compare the date on this post to the date that this dinner was celebrated.  Shameful, I know.  In my defense, it's been a busy month!  The day of the dinner was no different.

The night before I made the fillings.  No issues there.

First thing in the morning I made the dough, stuffed the dumplings, and cooked them.  These dumpling are supposed to be very juicy.  When you take your first bite, you are supposed to suck out all the juice before eating the rest.  I think I rolled it out too thin so when I put them in the boiling water most of them burst.  How disappointed was I!  I would usually try again, but because I was on a schedule I didn't have the time so I unhappily piled the mess of broken dumpling sacks and loose meatballs into a container.

How they are supposed to look:

How they ended up looking:

After practicing my French Horn for an hour I left for my concert.  Warm-up, performance, cheers of admiration, and I was off to the dinner, my mess of a recipe in tow.

Dinner was being held at a new venue.  Our hosts have tried to attend several times but due to, well, life, they were never able to make it.  This time their attendance was guaranteed.  It was at their house.

I made the mistake of trusting google blindly, and I ended up waiting for twenty minutes for a ferry to show up.  I arrive a little past seven, everyone politely waiting for me to start.

Quick, reheat my food, and dinner!

Similar to last time, 9 people were planning on attending.  Unlike last time, 9 people showed up!

With such a large group, there was quite a selection of dishes (including two desserts!), and it was all good.  Most in attendance had not experienced the glory that is the UN Dinner Party before, so it was really fun to hear sentiments from them that I had already been experiencing for over a year now.

Dinner barely over, and I'm already pumped for the next one!

Fyi, I remade the dumplings with the leftovers I had in my fridge the next day.  They came out perfect!

(Celebrated December 3rd, 2016)

Czech Republic & Slovakia (Make enough for 9! No wait, just 5. Um... I think there will only be 3.)

Both the Czech Republic and Slovakia joined the UN January 19th, 1993.

As we dictated earlier in the year, since they joined at the same time, are located next to each other, and have very similar food, we decided to celebrate them together.  When we divvied who would do what I got assigned Slovakia.

While perusing through the various options for Slovakian... correction... Slovak dishes to make I started noticing a patter of rich, hearty and/or cheesy dishes that made me drool.  It also made me crave vegetables, so my next search was "Slovak vegetable recipe".  I was sold when my eyes landed on stuffed tomatoes.

With an anticipated attendance of a new record, 9 people, I made sure to buy enough for 10 tomatoes, expecting 1-2 leftover tomatoes that I could enjoy sometime during the following week.  One of our guests would also be attending during his birthday, so I agreed to make something that we could stick a candle in.  After a short period of searching I landed on a Slovak pound cake.  Simple and easy, yet delicious!

The day before Amber (aka "would-be host" of the Czech Republic/Slovakia dinner party) reaches out and asks if I would be willing to host.  Her house was still under construction from some roof issues and it wasn't in a state to accommodate the crowd we were expecting.  Looking around my less than 600 square foot, single bedroom apartment, I was like... sure!

The following morning was spent tidying up, making sure I had enough beverages for 9, and pulling out my folding tables and chairs.

After texting Amber to bring the last few chairs I would need, she responds that a few people could no longer make it since my place was much further away than hers.  We were down to 5.

Not a problem!  Actually, much more manageable in my tiny apartment.  So I put away my card table and left the long one up.  I was also able to put away a chair.  I decided I still would make all of the tomatoes and the cake, since more leftovers for me, and the birthday boy was still coming.

Or so I thought.

I finish cooking...

...when Jenny shows up to cook her meal, and she tells me a few more people dropped out.  One is sick, the other is double booked.  It was going to be 3-4 people, depending on if Bryan shows.

He didn't.  But his Czech/Slovak beer did!

So it's down to the original three.  The Three Musketeers!  The Fantastic Three!  The three without which the dinners could not and would not be held!

It got weird.

Maybe it was because it was raining, but there was something in the air.  I tried taking a photo of my lovely co-musketeers twice, but SOMEbody was unable to pull herself together.

Let's take another look...

There was some slurring of words, odd conversations, trying on of Halloween masks, ending in doing the P.P.A.P. with full participation.

If you don't know what that is, don't feel bad.  I didn't either.  And I still don't.

All in all it was a fantastic dinner party.  The food was deeeee-licious, the company was... "superb" would be an understatement, and at the end of the day we were all quite proud of ourselves since we made the perfect amount of food.

For 9 people.

(Celebrated October 1st, 2016)

Macedonia (That food may be Gouda, but this one is Feta!)

Sorry.  Was that joke "cheesy"?

Macedonia (aka the The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) joined the UN on April 8th, 1993.  The first thing I learned about Macedonia is that a 90% of their meals include some type of feta cheese.

Ok, so maybe that's not true, but it was for this dinner!

This was our first Friday dinner.  In order to allow for people to "decompress" after work, we scheduled it for 8pm.  In order to compensate for that unusually late dinner (my normal is 6pm at the latest) I had a pre-dinner meal, but it didn't help much once everyone started cooking.  Especially since everything had feta in it.  Mmmmmmm, feta!

It was a fairly calm dinner.  I prefer when it gets rowdy.  I blame Friday.  But, it was good!

Between the hunger and the tired, I don't think anyone was very careful about making sure we got good pictures.  We managed to piece together enough of a thought to take two pictures.  One of my plate:

Clockwise starting at 12: Cheese Dip, Shopska Salata, Burek,
and Mamaliga in the middle.

 And the other which turned out to be the worst group selfie ever:

I was too hungry and tired to try again.  That and it was a new phone and I didn't know how to turn on the flash.  We're only smiling because we're finally getting to eat.  Notice that one of us couldn't smile very well as his mouth was already full.

Now that I think about it, this was the best selfie ever.

(Celebrated August 12, 2016)

Eritrea (Err-ih-treeeeeee-yah)

Here we are again!  After a 4 month hiatus our lives finally settled enough that we found a time to celebrate Eritrea.  The first dinner in the second year of the awesomeness that is the UN dinners!

Eritrea joined the UN May 28th 1993, same day as Monaco.

Eritrean food is only subtly different from Ethiopian food.  Or so I'm told.  I couldn't tell the difference.  Doesn't matter.  It's delicious either way.

I was to make the bread, which included hembesha, kitcha, and the spongee, sour, crepe-like injera that the dishes are usually served on.  I located some recipes, and then promptly forgot about it until Amber sent out our usual "I so excited about the UN dinner!" text.  The day before the dinner I pull out the recipes.  Injera requires you to prepare the batter an then let it ferment for up to three days.  Oops.  Well, one day might be enough, right?

Little did I know how hard it would be to find teff flour in Seattle.  Four grocery stores, two hours of googling, and phone call to a fifth store later only produced teff seeds.  I could just grind that into the flour, right?  Turns out teff seeds are so small my processor just mixed them around and didn't grind, and my mortar and pestle managed to do nothing but make a mess.  So I tucked my tail between my legs and texted my friends that I was giving up on injera.  Jenny graciously offered to pick up some pre-made injera at an Ethiopian market instead.

I still got everything else together for the kitcha and hembesha and Jenny picked me up to head over the Amber and Bryan's.

With a record 7 people attending the dinner, it was quite a cooking frenzy once everyone got going.

As we worked there was a quick discussion on the pronunciation of Eritrea.  I admitted that I YouTubed the correct pronunciation, and it reminded me of Sesame Street when they would teach you a new word.  "Eritrea.  Err-ih-trEEEEE-Yah.  Eritrea."



Like Monaco, tears were shed for the onions we were massacring.  Some openly, others hiding their shame.

But seriously, there was so much onion in the air I was tearing up and I wasn't even doing any of the chopping.

This was Arjun's first time attending a UN dinner.  I did not hide my amusement at his cooking skills, or lack thereof.  When it came time to dice the garlic I explained how I found it easiest to remove the husk by taking the flat of the knife and pounding it down over the clove.  His first attempt was too gentle, so on the next try he brought his fist down hard and the clove shot out from beneath the knife, narrowly missing Jenny as she worked on her own dish.  Arjun decided that this strategy for husk removal might not be for him.  I don't blame him.

After shooting for a 6pm dinner the meal was finally ready around 7.

Oh my gosh so good!  Again!
So many leftovers!  Again!

(Celebrated July 16th, 2016)

Monaco (You haven't cried this hard since Titanic)

Monaco join the UN May 28th 1993.  (Same day as Eritrea, but we'll get to that later.)

Just one short week after the last dinner we had yet another planned.  This one was unique since it coincided with a weekend getaway to Long Beach, WA, home of Jake the Alligator Man!

Cooking was done in stages, starting with Amber making some home made chickpea flour for the Socca she was making before leaving for the cabin we were renting.  I thought she was doing this because she couldn't find it in the stores, but she actually wanted to make it.  Kookie girl.

After our first night at the cabin and our morning visit to Marsh's Free Museum to see Jake, first up for the kitchen was Jenny in the early afternoon to prepare her Onion Monegasque since they needed to sit for a few hours.

Next was Travis, preparing his Cassoulet.  Cassoulet is named for the type of pot it is traditionally cooked in, the Cassole.  It it were named for the pot he cooked it in it would be called the "slow-cooker-oulet".

Before starting to cook Travis tried to get someone else to cut up the onion he needed for his dish.  Upon further inquiry we found out that onions make Travis very, very sad.  I didn't believe it was any more than anyone else, but once he got going it became very clear why he didn't want to chop that onion.  Being the sensitive person that I am, I immediately started laughing after seeing his red puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks.  

Once his Cassoulet was slow-cooking away it was my turn.  I made Barbaguians, which are little pastry dumplings that first required you to make the dough, then the filling, then cut out the rounds, wrap them up, and fry them.  They were quite the effort.  Meanwhile the rest of the gang start a game of monopoly with Bryan standing in as my proxy, aka, rolling the dice.

Despite my limited involvement, it was, in fact, the best game of monopoly I every played.  That is to say, I did not immediately go bankrupt.  I addition, I was up against Jenny, the most ferocious monopoly player you will ever meet.  Pity is not in her vocabulary.

Bryan held on as long as he could, but was the first to go.  Meanwhile Amber and I have to put the finishing touches on our dishes so he steps in for Amber.  And goes bankrupt.  So I let him stand in in for me.  And promptly looses the game.  Not his fault. He might as well have been going hand to hand with the Hulk.

If you can't tell from the photo, Jenny really enjoys this game.  The entire time not only is she ruthlessly negotiating her way to the top, but jumps into other's negotiations to broker deals without being solicited to do so.  The entire time with that silly grin on her face.

Once we were sufficiently beaten down by Jenny it was time for dinner, so I finish frying up my dumplings...

 ... and Amber finishes up frying her Socca...

 ... and we finally get to set the table for dinner!

What was Bryan's contribution this week you ask?  How about some really delicious wine to drown our monopoly sorrows.

I'm sure he regretted the contribution later, as it directly resulted in the evening ending in Twister, somersaults, and cartwheels, instigated by his significant other.

(Celebrated March 12th, 2016)

Andorra (I bread your pardon?!?!?!?)

On July 28th, 1993 Andorra joined the United Nations.

Andorra (aka, the Principality of Andorra) is located between Spain and France.  It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe, covering an area a little over 180 square miles, and has a population of a little over 85,000 people.  The cuisine there is primarily Catalan (Catalonia is a part of Spain), but has French influences as well for obvious reasons.

I was interested in making two dishes which was forcefully reduced to one as Amber tried to steal them from me, but I managed to hold onto pa amb tomàquet which is bread, primarily peasant bread, smeared with tomato and oil, and sometimes garlic.

I have made many pastries before, including breads, but the recipe I chose threw me off as the dough turned out a lot wetter and stickier than I expected it, even with all the extra flour I added.  Anyways, I poured it into some pie dishes (bad choice, which I regrettably did not lubricate beforehand) and packed them to go.  As you can see, unwrapping it was a bit challenging.



Actually, now that I think about it maybe the consistency was fine.  Shoot.  I don't know, it was all tasty in the end!

I baked it once I got to Amber and Bryan's (nothing is better than the smell of fresh baked bread!), and after that I popped in the garlic to roast (nothing is better than the smell of garlic roasting in the over except for fresh baked bread!).  It smelt good!  My goal was to have the pa amb tomaquet as a sort of appetizer, but the rest of the dinner was ready soon after.

I really enjoyed this meal.  Simple and delicious!  As proof I offer you the following:

Before:

After:

After scraping our plates clean, Amber put the finishing touches on the dessert which was a sweet berry Coco.

The crust was crispy on the edges and doughy in the middle and was a little tart, not overly sweet like some desserts.  Nice job Amber!

Compared to previous meals, Jenny and I agreed we had it easy.  The recipes we chose didn't take much effort.  Meanwhile, the entire time we are cooking Amber is talking about "Bryan's dish", and what "Bryan was making".  In reality, Bryan was busy shooting things on his TV as Amber finished prepping and cooking two dishes!

It's okay Bryan, I'm not giving you a hard time.  Really.  Quite the opposite.

ALL HAIL BRYAN!
KING OF CLEAN UP!
LORD OF KITCHEN TIDINESS!
WE ARE BUT INSECTS IN THE VAST SHADOW THAT IS YOUR CLEANLINESS!!!

As the rest of us ladies proceeded to enjoying some drawing games Bryan spent the next hour?... hour and a half?... cleaning up after our kitchen Armageddon.  Thanks Bryan!

(Celebrated March 7th, 2016)