Home-Style News

Taylor wanted to show off her new haircut.  All three of these pictures were taken at the castle at Petrela.  

Tomorrow is Taylor's last day of school for this school year.  She and I leave for Budapest Thursday afternoon; Cindy left today and just texted me that she's arrived.  We'll all come back Monday, then Wednesday Taylor leaves for her unaccompanied trip from Tirana to Munich and Munich to Washington, DC.  She'll spend a few days in DC with some friends, and then head to Mississippi to spend the summer with her Dad and Cindy's mom and various cousins and brothers and sisters and nephews and friends and such.  I know the kids on our street will miss her -- they'll be ringing the bell for her to come out and play here shortly.  I've told Taylor that before she leaves she must tell them she won't be back until August 26th -- or else I'll be telling them five times a day for two months that Taylor is not here.

Thursday the 26th we're having our first dinner guests.  I can't even remember where I put things in the kitchen, so it should be interesting.  I have to plan a menu and a shopping trip.  Tirana has a lot of small specialty shops that sell spices, produce, lots of bakeries.   You can get everything you need from the little grocery stores, but not necessarily everything you want.

A friend took me to a cheese factory a few days ago.  I bought some fresh butter and some ricotta that was still warm.  I brought it home and let it drain and then made cannelloni.  It was pretty good.  Milk here is pasteurized using a different method than the US, so it can stay in the carton unrefrigerated until opened.  They say for up to three months.  I assume the ricotta was pasteurized in the process of making it, since you just heat up the milk without letting it boil and dump some lemon juice in it and it curdles.  But I "pasteurized" the ricotta when I baked it. Someone told me that brucellosis is not unknown here, but I think this cheese place has been here a while and seemed pretty well-run.  I wanted to make a ricotta pie, but I don't know where to find whipping cream yet.  I've been told now, so I might try that if I find some.

So much for the mundane news from Albania.