Lovely Heart surprise!

Hello everyone, hope you are having a great weekend.

We had a very busy day yesterday, with in-laws visiting us, so cue a big clean up operation and a big cooking session.  I will show what I made at the end of this post as first of all I would like to start off with what definitely cheered my day amongst all it's hectic-ness.  My dear friend Betsy sent me a lovely package all the way from the United States - just look what was inside:

Betsy has made this lovely felt heart brooches for me and some of our other dear blogging friends...

I love the sweet embroidery of this flower...

and isn't the card adorable?

I shall be wearing this tomorrow on my return to work...

 

Betsy, thank you so, so very much for this gift and your sweet message, you really are a sweetheart!

 

And the arrival of these lovely gifts were such a pick-me-up: I don't mind cleaning and cooking marathons, but have to confess that I do find these things a little stressful when having to complete them to a set deadline.  My work life is what you might call "an extreme deadline environment" so in my everyday life I choose to be on a slightly more flexible timetable.

 

But thankfully everything was done and dusted (literally) with 30 minutes to spare before the visitors arrived.

 

And this is what I had spent 3 hours making:

 

 

 Galnish...

 

A traditional dish from the Caucaus region...

 

 

To give you some idea of the quantities, it requires 2 large bags of flour, 4 pints of water, and a lot of elbow grease and patience!  The trays (of which eventually there were three in total) are large enough to cover almost a third of my dining room table - that is each tray is that big!  Yes, we are talking of industrial quantities here.  Does my family have a healthy appetite?  You bet!!

The flour is wholemeal, but has to be sifted to take the larger pieces out.  Then, it is mixed with water to form a stiff dough.  About 6 years ago I had surgery on my hand and found kneading the dough too painful, so DH treated me to a Kenwood Chef Major so that I can use it with the dough hook for this dish.  Yes, it is a family favourite and worth investing in such a piece of kitchen equipment!!  Then the dough is rolled out (by hand) into long sausage shapes, about the diameter of my little finger.  These are then cut into pieces about 2 inches long and hand rolled into the shapes you can see above.  The good news is that any left over pieces can be frozen before cooking, so every time I make this dish I freeze some.  This means that on average, after 4 times of cooking I end up with a 5th batch in the freezer for "emergency visitors".  Or when DH wistfully says "I really feel like having Galnish for dinner"...

 

A soup is made with meat (the relatives) or onions and milk (me).  The meat (or onions) is taken out and put on one side, then the Galnish pieces are cooked in the soup in the same way you would cook pasta.  The cooked pieces are served with the meat (for the meat eaters) and a garlic sauce.  It is a very rustic but delicious dish, and although I sometimes groan when I am making it, the eating of it makes it all worthwhile!

 

Today I am taking things a little easier, just a big pile of ironing and some paperwork tidying later on.

 

Have a lovely Sunday!

 

Helenxx