Food

I have never had anyone tell me they didn't like my tacos....ever. When hubby was still in Kosovo I told him if ever he didn't like something I cooked to please tell me. He told me he would just have some bread and marmalade. I told him I didn't want my husband going hungry, that I would cook something else.

The first time I made tacos hubby refused to put the salad on the taco, preferring to put it in a bowl and eat it as a side dish. Then he spread copious amounts of mustard on the meat, folded the shell and ate it that way. Sometime later, a month maybe, we had tacos again. That time he put the salad on the taco. I thought great, he's getting the hang of it. Fast forward to tonight. I made tacos. Hubby warmed a couple shells, got some jam out of the frig, slathered it on the shells, and sat down to eat them. He told me he was sorry, he just can't eat tacos. I know I TOLD him to tell me, but for some idiotic reason I felt hurt. I tried to hide it. I tried to tell myself...after all, just the other night I told him the Hallva he cooked tasted like burnt flour.

I went to my computer and sat down, tears welling up in my eyes. He knew it, darn it. He came into the room to (again) say he was sorry and to ask if I was crying. Well, what could I do? He put his arms around me, apologizing again and again. So I cried a little on his shoulder and then I was ok.

I'm used to a meat portion, a starch and a veggie, and maybe a salad on the side. Albanian food is different. Meat portions are often cut up into bite sized pieces. The veggies are likewise cut up, and everything is cooked together. The good thing is, I cook Albanian food pretty good and I like it too.

"Her" is a He

I had no idea what the bunny was, just assumed a "she" because of no smell (I thought males would have a urine odor). But I guess I was wrong. I had no idea how to tell what a rabbit is until I looked on the internet. So, he is a male. So far no problems. One person who keeps rabbits told me there is no need to get a rabbit fixed if you have only one.

Shopping for a new desktop. I have a good monitor, need a new tower. The one I have belonged to first hubby, who told me "I'll only use it for email, buy me the cheapest one." A few months later the computer I was using died, so I ended up inheriting a really slow single core AMD. It's been solid and stable, it's just slow, and some bigger programs are making it lag. We were looking at Windows 8 with the touch screens. I like the touch screen feature, but it's not going to work for me when I'm sitting down. I mean, I can hardly reach my monitor from a sitting position, and if I scoot my chair closer, I'll just end up with a tired arm. I have some time to think about it. There's been no work. The big jobs that were talked about back in November that were supposed to come after New Year's haven't materialized yet.

Hubby said his mom always made a yummy dessert, but I had my doubts when hubby described it to me. It's called Hallva, and it's made by heating oil and adding flour until it's kind of thickish. It is stirred without stopping until it gets brown. At this point it smells like burnt flour. In another pot, water and sugar is heated. When the oil and flour is cooked, the sweetened water is stirred in. Then the mix is transferred to a heavy bowl and cooled. It tastes like...burnt flour. Hubby loves it. I told him it must be something you need to grow up with. Odd thing is, hubby doesn't like the smell of Parmesan cheese. He doesn't like the taste of turkey (but he loves duck). He bought a duck and I cooked it. I thought it stank. He said it was so yummy and couldn't understand why I didn't like it. Thankfully we both love chicken. Life is an adventure.

Like everyone else, we are waiting for spring.

P.S. I looked up Hallva. Here is a different recipe. It uses butter (or margarine), which would taste better (to me---hubby doesn't like butter either) but would wreck equal havoc with my digestive system.

1 glass butter or margarine (or oil)
1 glass flour
1-1/4 glasses granulated sugar
5 glasses water

Heat the margarine in a saucepan very gently, and saute the flour until golden brown in the margarine for 40 minutes over low to moderate heat. When the flour turns light golden, put the sugar and water in a separate saucepan and make syrup by boiling gently. Add the syrup to the saucepan with flour and simmer for 20 minutes, and then take out small pieces of the Hallva with a wooden spool, form into balls and place on a serving plate. Serve warm.

Since hubby likes it so much (and asked me to cook it for him once in awhile) I will try following this recipe and maybe not make it so brown, thus eliminating the burnt flour taste.

Ok that's more normal

Hubby gets paid every 2 weeks. The first two checks were for 2013. We figured out why such a tax sticker shock on check # 2. The first check had no taxes taken out. The second check had double taxes to make up for it. This first check in 2014 was normal. Phew! Work has been slow. One thing about the construction trades....the ebb and flow with the weather, the seasons and the holidays. Hubby would rather have a steady, 40 hour work week, but at least this is something. Now we are just waiting for this north pole weather to go back where it belongs. We had piles of snow and now bitter cold. They call it the Siberian Express or a Polar Vortex. Wednesday is supposed to be better, and ABOVE freezing this weekend! Woot! We had 29 below zero here, once. First hubby worked for a heating & A/C company and he had service that night. The phone rang ALL night.

In other news, we have a pet, a bunny. Someone didn't want her. She doesn't bite, doesn't chew on things, and is litter trained. She has no smell whatsoever, not even her litter box, so I'm thinking she is fixed. When she sniffs my feet it feels like cotton ball kisses lolol. We bought rabbit food, timothy hay blocks, a water bottle and chew sticks for her. We were going to buy a cage but got sticker shock and decided to wait. I had her blocked off to the kitchen. We made her a box with old towels for a bed. Turns out she just lives in the kitchen, blockade or not. Sometimes she ventures into the living room or bedrooms and then back to the kitchen. She loves parsley. She will also eat some carrot. We bought mixed salad greens but we haven't opened the bag yet. I read they like to play with metal things that jingle, like measuring spoons. I can't give her mine but I gave her a jingle bell (not tiny). She rolls it around. They also like toilet paper rolls. She will pick it up by the end and toss it. I really had no idea rabbits would play, nor did I know they could be litter trained.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

From my window to your computer - Happy 2014 - Hope it's a good one!

8 months of adventure

My husband has been here 8 months. What an adventure. I am picking up some Albanian, at least I am understanding more when I listen to my hubby talk to family. I am shy to speak the words, though. Hubby has learned a lot and is adjusting well to America. It's still a learning experience for him, and for me. Driving, for instance....I thought it was rather easy here, it's flat, and the roads go north/south or east/west. If you know the names of the main roads, and you are driving on one of them, eventually you will come to an intersection of one of the others. Easy peasy. NOT if you grew up in a city with hills and virtually no street names! Apparently at one time Prishtina had no street names. People lived on this hill or that hill or somewhere between, but always with LANDMARKS, not street names. So my poor hubby is still struggling with the expanse of flatness here, with the absence of landmarks. Yeah, there's GPS. He would be totally lost without it.

Culture shock---there is still some of that, like TAXES. Being self-employed, I've been pretty much out of the picture regarding the kind of taxes that come out of a regular paycheck. In Europe its common for people to be paid "under the table".  So neither of us were prepared for how MUCH would be taken. I think the hardest thing for hubby, and maybe for a lot of foreigners, is learning about how many laws and restrictions we have here. Hunting license, building license, etc. In Kosovo or Albania, if you need to add on to your house you just do it. Over there, if you are hungry for wild meat you just go out and hunt it. I feel like I'm constantly reining my hubby in, "no you can't do that, omg no, not that either".

On top of that, now we have the Obamacare looming. Thankfully the state of Indiana decided not to drop me, at least until April. With the Indiana insurance, I have 100% coverage. I pay my small monthly premium. If I had to switch to Obama care, even with the tax credit my premium would have tripled. It would cost between $20 and $50 to see a doctor, and I can't even figure out the prescription "coverage". And a $6,000 deductible? Who are they kidding? It's all a mess.

But in spite of all the road blocks, laws, restrictions and so forth, my hubby loves it here. America is a huge country. Foreigners learn about us from books, movies and youtube. No wonder they have so many strange ideas about us. No wonder they think our streets are "paved with gold" and every corner has gangster shoot-outs. Sometimes reality can be disappointing as well as comforting.

This December...

...is stinkin' cold!!! It's like January, but no snow. Thankfully it was sunny today. Hubby and I went shopping, picked up some nice dishes and some European food we have been missing. It's fun to drive around at night and enjoy the Christmas lights. Downtown Prishtina is lit up but I'm not sure how much decorating is done on the residences. It's common for even the Muslims there to put up a tree and buy some presents for the kids. Nobody worries about what to say or do, they just all get together and enjoy life.

November

It's been raining and then it turned to snow. Well, it's November already. Hubby is happy...his first AMERICAN snow! As if our snow and Kosovo's snow is any different lol

Hubby and I have been praying together. That's nice, and a new experience for me (praying with another person----I always prayed alone before, or in a congregation). It's good to remember to bless the food before we eat, and to thank God for all we have been given. God is good.