My daughters teach me so much. Sometimes, I actually enjoy it! š
Karen has been on me to get into the 21st century, but I found my medieval existence tolerable enough until I found out what else was out there. Simply put, Tweetdeck allows you to keep track of all of your various social media accounts from one place. It wonāt help you farm, run a cafe or do a hit in Mafia Wars; but it is still very cool.
Oh yes, they turned me on to iPad. Thanks Ladies!
Dad
PS. āK.I.T. keeping it togetherā was a great line by Eddie Murphy in āBowfinger.ā
After 38 years of marriage and much soul searching, I am starting to get better at gifting the women in my life what they want for special occasions. The secret? I ask them! Obviously, it is extremely bad form to ask any woman what they want on the day of the event; however, I manage to sneak questions into the conversation well in advance.
Most of our events center around food, since we are foodies this should not surprise anyone. Laura loves my stuffed Bell Peppers ā as did her mother ā so this isnāt too tough a decision. However, dessert is always a challenge. Laura loved the tin roof sundae served at a restaurant called the āHamburger Hamlet.ā Dessert wonāt be a tough one to recreate with homemade french vanilla ice cream, real caramel, nuts and hot fudge smothered in whipped cream! I guess Iāll have one as well!
Laura also wanted an ergonomically designed chairā¦Ā which was a bit more challenging, but this one has memory foam for the padding and looked a great deal more reputable than the others I found. Oh yes, there was the iPad.
āSou Baragā is an Armenian dish by many names in many places: Sou Boereg, Sou Boreg, Sou Boeregi, Sou Burek and Sou Barag to name but a few. However, the many variations in the preparation of this dish is due in part to the travels of the Armenian diaspora and in part to the availability of ingredients.
Armenian is considered ā I am told ā to not be a highly spiced cuisine; something , I am sure, my Swedish father-in-law would have approved. However, this is not to say it isnāt wonderful or flavorful. The real challenge is to find a guide to how to make Armenian food without all of the substitutions and shortcuts found in so many recipes today. It is hard to talk to someoneĀ knowledgeable who doesnāt starts the conversation by saying,ā this takes a lot of workā¦ so this is what I doā¦ā For example, the dough layers are made with egg, flour and a water mixture that is āpaper thinā and somewhere between a lasagna noodle and filo dough. Many recipes call for one or the other, but mostly Filo.
There is some agreement on what constitutes the cheese layer. This contains a mixture of egg, cheese and parsley. I am sure there is an inclusion of some seasonings; salt, pepper and garlic at least. This would be my choice.
This recipe as it stands today isĀ a bow to vegetarians everywhere; however, I suspect that the original recipes had a meat and tomato sauce layer ( Tomatoes came to Armenia late in the game). And although pork was a well used meat in austere Soviet Armenia, I suspect that lamb is preferred being widely used today and historically in and around Armenia. As with South African āBobotieā, I think a blend of pork and lamb would be a nice change of pace with some of the commonly used Armenian spices, including Basil.
I still have a few questions on this dishā¦ but it is coming along!
For those who donāt know this month well, you may not know that this is Karlaās birthday month! Karla has informed me years ago that everyone has a birthday, that one special day each year we celebrate their birth DAY, but since she is special, she gets a birthday all month long! Think of it as a thirty day Hanukkah with a present every day.
Karla has a way of lightening the mood , she makes wonderful drawings to help remind all of us of some important things in life ā¦and sometimes I canāt help but smile, like this little cartoon about one of the common irritants on the road around here.
Happy Cinco de Mayoā¦ and yes, Happy Karla de Mayo ,too!
