Georgian Cooking Class

I've always said that one of the best parts about life in Georgia is the food. Georgian cuisine features an entirely different palette of flavors that we immediately embraced. Wherever you go the food is always freshly prepared from scratch. 

However, after more than two years here I still couldn't prepare a single Georgian thing, so I gathered together with a group of expats for a little instruction. 

The Georgian Culinary Academy in Dighomi offers a variety of introductory Georgian cuisine classes in English. I learned about the Holy Grail of Georgian Spices: wild blue fenugreek, Georgian saffron (ground marigold petals), coriander, and Georgian pepper (similar to paprika). These four spices in varying quantities produce the classic flavor ubiquitous in Georgian cuisine.

We also used a fair amount of ground walnuts, parsley, and garlic in the recipes. Here you see our attempts at baking spinach pies. We also made chicken with walnut sauce (satsivi), corn grits with white cheese (ghomi with sulguni), and a sort of spinach/walnut paté (pkhali).

After we prepared and cooked our dishes, we sat down to eat them together. As someone who loves cooking and cooks from scratch daily, I must say that I completely delighted in the experience from beginning to end. They also took pictures for us; the image below captures my dorky smile of happy abandon.

Early spring

'Tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes.

The budding twigs spread out their fan, to catch the breezy air.

To her fair works did nature link the the human soul that through me ran.

(from Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth)

On top of the world

Borjomi is so close to Bakuriani, why not?

This time little guy whet his miniature skis on the slopes.

I will soon have skied more in Georgia than I ever did in my former life...

...which is all a part of this guy's master plan.

On the drive home we witnessed a rare meterological phenomenon called snow rollers -- naturally occurring snowballs which, in this case, roll themselves down the mountainside.

Some of them had near perfect spirals in their interiors.

They are the combined result of a wet sticky surface layer of snow, thick powdery snow underneath, and the pull of gravity.

After a great trip we returned home to celebrate a birthday.

Three sweet little candles . . .

. . . were clearly not enough. Go big or go home.

Borjomi National Park

We'll pretty much do anything to get more snow out of winter and, fortuitously, our visit to the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park coincided with a perfectly splendid snowfall. No one else ventured in on this day, we had the whole of it to ourselves.

And from the massive snow-capped trees to the ice-cold brook intertwining with our path, from the high notes of fresh pine to the low tones of musty earth, the winter theater put on a majestic show for our audience of one [family].

 

As the day wore on, the temperature rose and huge chunks of snow were falling down in drips and splats. Turns out the winter theater had only run a one-act play, and we were there to bear witness.

Felicity

The combined effect of three mangled but cherished bouquets from my sweet little ones.