gotvene

so i know i seem to be perseverating on this sorrel that grows out of control everywhere. it just is crazy to me that you can just go and pick things to eat. for free. anywhere.
that being said, we decided to do a "cooking week" at the museum. with most ingredients picked right from the museum yard. other non-pickable materials were supplied by the kids themselves. i only provided the pot and hot plate (which was given to me by the municipality when i first moved in and didn't have an oven)
and vangel taught the kids how to cook.
it was a good week.

ok so i've figured out it is definitly sorrel.
and i've made a delicious cream of potato soup with sorrel for dinner tonight.

but this sorrel i picked from the museum today with the kids as we were cleaning up the yard.
ok, to be honest the kids actually picked it.
not to eat, just to get it out of the way.

yeah, i eat weeds.

and they're good too.

free food

so yesterday vangel and i took the kids on the weekly sunday hike.
we headed out to the lake in town.
the weather was perfect and although the group was kind of small (just 11 kids) we all had good time.
then on the way back he decided to stop at his parents house to get some "lapad" to make soup from.
so we go in, and instead of heading to the garden he goes off to the sides and starts picking what i could only assume were random weed growths around the yard.
although suspicious, i figured he knew what he was doing since his baba had been making soup and meals out off this weed looking thing forever and nobody has died yet.
anyway, so today before he went to work he made the soup.
after it cooked for awhile the stuff that used to look like a weed to me started to look a little more familiar.
i went to google and yep, it wasn't a weed at all.
but something much more familiar. like spinach but not quite. maybe sorrel.
apparently they grow wild here. maybe they do back at home too. i wouldn't know as growing up we weren't exactly allowed to eat random plants growing around the yard and i have only seen these greens maybe once or twice in my life and they had already been cooked at that point.
anyway, i'm excited now. healthy meals for free. just walk around town and pick.


my next plan is to pick some dandelion greens for a salad. i love spring.

common occurence

comments heard tonight as i visited vangel at his work.
spoken by the same intoxicated man, but you can take these quotes and apply them to numerous other people and situations as it happens quite frequently.

man- "so you are dating vangel huh?"
me- "yes"
man, under his breath- "boy did good for himself. she is pretty. white. not like his father and that black gypsy."

and later

so after declining the offer about twenty times of this 50 year old man to sit next to him, each time explaining that i wanted to sit at the bar so that i could talk to my boyfriend he decides that it is not actually my wish but states "the gypsy won't let her move"

and later


man- "i'm macedonian, not bulgarian! don't you ever forget it!
vangel, you are macedonian too. don't you forget it either. nevermind that your mother is a dirty gypsy."


welcome back to bulgaria.

Austria

mom,
i'll figure out a way to get the rest of the pictures to you.
it was absolutely fantastic.