Puzzles and Pierogies

So, a little over a month ago, the Intemann's gave me a 1,000 piece puzzle for my birthday. It was a beautiful puzzle with 7 different lighthouses on it (clearly they've noticed my interest/obsession with all things water related!). Well, May 3rd the first pieces were tediously laid out and this past Sunday, the last piece perfectly fit into place! Woo-hoo! I've only done one other big puzzle like this and forgot how much I like it. We both really enjoyed just being able to sit down and put a few pieces together as we had time. It's addicting though, I tell ya. You always just keep thinking "one more piece, just one more piece!" We're ready to get started on our next puzzle, one that I brought over with me and was given to me by a family friend. Mom, Dad, you can tell Mike that we are determined to finish that puzzle and I'll take pictures when we do!

We were pretty proud of our accomplishment...even if we did often joke that we could probably move into a nursing home where we could drink coffee and do puzzles all day.

Also in exciting news from Poland, the fresh strawberries have arrived! We bought our first kilo (2.2 pounds) and enjoyed them sliced and served over Ritz crackers, sprinkled with sugar (or Splenda, as is my preference), and topped with whipped cream. This is a little treat that Amber taught me about and it's delicious! We call it a hillbilly strawberry shortcake.

After enjoying our first kilo of strawberries, we decided that we wanted to try to make strawberry pierogies. Fruit filled pierogies are really popular here and, you know what they say..."when in Poland!" Well, something like that anyways...So, this past Thursday, the two girls we were supposed to meet with cancelled, so we had some free time on our hands! We got to work and created strawberry pierogies. It's not really a complicated process, but it definitely works best with four hands to do the work. There are several steps. I rolled and cut out the dough while Amber filled each pierogi with sliced and sugared strawberries and gummed the edges together. Then we boiled them, then toasted them in the oven to dry them out. I'm not sure if this is the official Polish grandmother technique, so don't tell! I'm pretty sure you're supposed to fry them, but we opted for the oven.

The filling and gumming process in our tiny kitchen.

And this is a shot of the remains of the finished product. We were so excited to eat them, I forgot to take a picture as they were all pretty on our plates and only remembered about two pierogies in! We both agreed that they tasted best topped with powdered sugar. The whipped cream was ok, but not the crowd favorite.

And, finally, to leave you all--a little story. So, the other day as we were purchasing our strawberries from the vendor outside of our neighborhood grocery store where we usually do our shopping, our favorite cashier was walking in as we were walking out. She definitely knows that we're not from around these parts and seems to get a kick out of us. So, she said hello and asked if we'd already been shopping and...with my very limited vocabulary, I didn't know what else to say, so I suddenly found myself blurting out "we have strawberries!", saying goodbye and walking away. I'm sure she had a funny story to tell when she returned home that night. And so, moral of the story: the next time you're in one of those awkward situations where you don't know how to reply, just blurt out "I have strawberries", say goodbye, and off you go! Works every time.