Category: Uzbekistan

Going Nuts

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Sometimes I wonder if I’m going nuts anyway. It’s been one of those weeks. Work is beyond stressful at the moment, which I’m not used to at this time of year (nor do I really like it). We’ve got holiday parties to attend, the kids’ classroom parties to get ready for, Mike’s wrapping up his semester of teaching (finals to grade!), we have birthdays to celebrate and we’re planning to host Christmas at our house. And speaking of Christmas we haven’t even started shopping yet. Yikes!

So what’s a crazed, stressed out girl to do? Make a dessert – an Uzbek dessert! Miss A and I came across a recipe called Shakarli Bodom (sugar-coated almonds) and instantly knew it was for us. It’s got nuts and it’s loaded with sugar. Continue reading →

Pillow Talk

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No. No. No. We’re not talking about that kind of pillow talk. This is a family blog after all. We’re talking about our next recipe from Uzbekistan, Kovoqli Varaki Somsa – or Pumpkin Samsa.

We came across several samsa recipes on Uzbek National Cuisine and quickly settled on the pumpkin version. Just because Thanksgiving is over, doesn’t mean we’re over the pumpkin yet. As for the samsa, well it’s similar to the manapua we made for our Hawaiian adventure and also to the old college favorite, Hot Pockets (only much, much tastier).

For today’s recipe Mr. N and I were cooking partners. Miss A was off at her friend’s birthday party – her very first party (Now if that didn’t give me scary flashes of what’s to come…). If you know anything about Miss A, you know she was excited and feeling very important, so she wasn’t sad about missing our cooking adventure today. And I have to say, it was quite fun to be in the kitchen with my favorite boy (works out having a boy and girl – they can both be my favorites!) who expertly whisked the eggs and added them to our flour to create a dough batter.  Continue reading →

Platter of Pilaf

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Now that we’ve wrapped up our Portuguese cuisine, we’re moving on to Miss A’s international pick for the next few weeks. She again got out her trusty little beach ball globe and selected the green-colored country of Uzbekistan. Both she and Mr. N have loved running around the house saying yelling “Uzbekistan!” It doesn’t have quite the same ring as “Ecuador,” but they still love saying it.

We really didn’t have any idea what to expect from Uzbek cuisine. In fact, before Miss A picked it on her globe, I wouldn’t have even known where it was. So we got out our world atlas and the kids and I did a little reading. Uzbekistan is a relatively new country having broken away from the Soviet Union in 1991, and it’s considered part of Central Asia. We also came across the website Uzbek National Cuisine from which we developed our first Uzbek recipe, Behili Palov, or Pilaf with Quinces. Continue reading →