Sunday Morning

Once again, I woke up too late to join my walking acquaintances. Waking up at 6:30 am on the weekend is no longer feasible for me. It's too dark and too cold. When I did get up, around 8:30, which is still early by some standards for the weekend, I decided to walk up to the castle to take pictures. As I rounded the corner by my apartment, I looked up at the hill and saw snow! You can barely make out a light dusting....but snow is snow.

On my way up to the castle, I ran into Mr. Tomato Face. He invited me in for coffee, which I declined. He again gave me his phone number and told me he'd love to have me in for dinner. Now, although I appreciate his gesture, I don't feel all that comfortable having dinner with this guy. Maybe if I had someone else I could bring with me, I would. But to go on my own is probably not something I will do at this point.

This is the view from out front of his house. I had to wait a moment while he ran inside to grab a pencil and a piece of paper he could write his phone number on.

The following are shots I took up on the castle grounds. Some are vegetation, some are of the walls, each is of something that caught my eye.

As I was walking back down from the castle heading towards home, I passed a few things to photograph:

This is overlooking the bombed-out Serbian area of Prizren. No one lives here anymore. Most of the Serbians have left and, according to my sources, nobody want to buy this land to rebuild. It's a shame, I think, because the views over Prizren are lovely. Although because it's up on the hill, I have to wonder how difficult it is to walk or drive up & down snow-covered cobblestone streets.

I think I might do a whole series of photos on entryway doors. All of the houses are numbered (that's what the blue and white numbers are for), and all of the streets are named (I think). However, there's confusion over which street names people know: the Serbian names? the Albanian names? Generally, directions are given in relation to landmarks. For example, if I need to take a taxi home, I tell the driver to take me to Photo Star,which is a photo printing shop close to my home, and I walk from there.

This is the only first generation 4Runner I've come across. Well...that's not true. I was up at the US Office in Pristina a while back and I saw a grey one (just like mine) that had a Marine's sticker on the back window and diplomatic plates. That one doesn't really count because it was brought over by one of the American mission staff. Two things I miss: Superdog Skeena and GT, my 4Runner (yes...I name my vehicles: GT= grey truck, even though it's not a truck per se).


In food news: I stayed home yesterday and cooked. I baked a chicken, which I did the usual stuffing with of oranges and onion. I've done this with my chickens quite a few times before and it's just so good I keep on doing it.

I also whipped up a batch of homemade applesauce. This is soooo incredibly easy, although my right hand is a bit sore from using a too-big knife to skin the apples. I cored, peeled, and cut up 7 apples, put them in a pot, added about a cup of unsweetened apple juice, brought the whole thing to a boil, then simmered the apples until I could mash them with a potato masher. Voila. Homemade applesauce is so much tastier than the store bought variety. I wish I had figured this out sooner!

I did go out yesterday, not just to take pictures, but to go to the store. On the way home, I took a cruise through the "green market" looking for squash. The green market is an empty parking lot that's been outfitted with stands for farmers to come in and set up their veggies for sale. Usually available items include peppers, tomatoes, grapes, carrots, onions, garlic, and other root-looking vegetables. It depends on the season. Yesterday I really, really, really wanted a pumpkin. And I found one! 4 kilos for 1,40 Euros. That's, what, 9 pounds of pumpkin for $2.20 or something like that. I roasted it and now I have pumpkin coming out of my ears. If I had room in my notebook-sized freezer, I'd freeze it. I don't have room, so I'm eating it. In fact, I added both pumpkin and applesauce to my oatmeal this morning and sprinkled it with cinnamon....divine.

For the first time ever, I saved and cleaned the pumpkin seeds and roasted them. Those turned out really good, too. I coated the seeds with egg white, pepper, garlic powder, and a bit of salt and cooked them at 375 F for 15 minutes. Very good. I would do this again.

I also made a batch of buttermilk biscuits. I faltered a bit when I realized I had two types of baking soda but no baking powder. I just omitted the baking powder and added a little more baking soda (yeah, yeah...I know...baking soda in no way substitutes for baking powder, although you can substitute baking powder for baking soda...don't know why one works and the other doesn't). Since I can't get buttermilk, I used liquid yogurt instead and the biscuits turned out beautifully.

Now I have my lunches made for the week. Sigh. I wish I had more time to spend cooking.