{"id":1783,"date":"2012-05-10T06:25:49","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T11:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/?p=1783"},"modified":"2012-07-07T11:46:25","modified_gmt":"2012-07-07T16:46:25","slug":"albanian-adventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2012\/05\/albanian-adventures\/","title":{"rendered":"Albanian Adventures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you had asked me, say, when I was in high school whether I would ever have a connection to Albania, I would have answered confidently that I wouldn’t. Ahh high school, \u00a0the age of misguided confidence.<\/p>\n

It turned out that through some friends of a friend, that I would meet an Albanian guy with whom I went on a few dates. Now, it is a long time ago, and my memories of this brief time have mostly evaporated, but it is the first thing that I think about when I think about Albania. All that I remember is that this guy carried a noticeable amount of cash, he painted water towers for a living, he was a Catholic, and he got really upset with me when I made alternative plans when he never firmed up tentative ones with me. That, and \u00a0I liked the way that he said Albania.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Had I been as interested in food then as I am now, it is likely that I would have attempted to cook an Albanian meal for him, not understanding that I would have been aiming, in a way, to understand where he came from. Less experienced in the kitchen, I wouldn’t have done a great job. Awkwardness would have ensued, which is ultimately what happened anyway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I looked into Albanian food, I read that there is little food culture<\/a> associated with Albania. Yet, I read<\/a> that “Albanian cuisine reflects a mixture of influences from the Turkish, Balkan, and European cuisine.”\u00a0There were particular dishes that came up a few times on all of the websites I consulted. I decided to make stuffed eggplant, \u00a0a vegetable pie, and chicken with walnut sauce.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My beau fully endorsed this food with a, “You can make any of that any time!”<\/p>\n

I think that one of the things that I am learning from these cooking adventures is different ways to approach ingredients. Through this experiment, I cooked some things that I would have never before made, and slayed my irrational fear of working with filo dough. It is likely that I will make spinach pie in the future. Maybe I’ll make the eggplant again sometime, too. I probably won’t make the chicken, but will remember the sauce. I bet one could make something similar using pistachios.<\/p>\n

Overall, I would call Albanian Adventures a success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you had asked me, say, when I was in high school whether I would ever have a connection to Albania, I would have answered confidently that I wouldn’t. Ahh high school, \u00a0the age of misguided confidence. It turned out that through some friends of a friend, that I would meet an Albanian guy with… Continue reading Albanian Adventures<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,20],"tags":[179,186],"class_list":["post-1783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cooking","category-food","tag-albania","tag-world-cooking","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p33KTw-sL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1774,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2012\/05\/a-is-for-afghanistan\/","url_meta":{"origin":1783,"position":0},"title":"A is for Afghanistan","author":"admin","date":"May 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently, I said to my guy that I think that it would be cool to go through\u00a0list of countries and cook food from each of these countries, in alphabetical order. 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On Monday, I started her up and got ready to go through the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cooking"","block_context":{"text":"cooking","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/cooking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/creampuff.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1262,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2011\/11\/happy-birthday-alex\/","url_meta":{"origin":1783,"position":4},"title":"Happy Birthday, Alex","author":"admin","date":"November 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I can't believe that Alex is 8. Every day, that guy cracks me up. For his birthday, Alex wanted a Monster Book of Monsters cake and a variety of office supplies. His very specific requests were for tan duct tape, a stapler (though as a household we already have 2,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "alex"","block_context":{"text":"alex","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/family\/alex\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/DSCN2367-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":126,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2009\/06\/artos-greek-celebration-bread\/","url_meta":{"origin":1783,"position":5},"title":"Artos: Greek Celebration Bread","author":"admin","date":"June 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the last two days, I baked the second bread from The Bread Baker's Apprentice book: Artos. After the anadama bread, I was excited to try this second bread that I wouldn't have ever tried under any other circumstances.\u00a0 There were three versions of the bread in the book. 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