Andorra

On our most recent trip we were able to cross off two new countries--Spain and Andorra. We flew into Barcelona, rented a car and headed up to Andorra for one night. It was not the most convenient nor affordable of side trips, but it was a must to visit the small country that is nestled between Spain and France. 

Andorra is known for shopping (duty free, of course) and nature. We spent our first evening walking down the main shopping street. If you love perfume, this is the place to come. I think every other store was a perfume shop (a bit hyperbolic, but there were soooo many). 

Our hotel room had the best view! There was a rushing stream right outside. It was especially perfect for white noise at night. 

I keep forgetting to look it up, but this statue is based on Salvador Dali's work and it was in the main shopping area of Andorra la Vella. 

One benefit of our hotel was their spa! Andorra has a lot of spas (much like Germany) and we wanted to spend a least a bit of time there. Our reservation included time in the hot tub which we did not realize until check-in. We were fully prepared to pay extra for it, so that was a very pleasant surprise! 

The other nice thing about our hotel was the in-house restaurant. We chose a half-board reservation which means our time included dinner. We enjoyed our first taste of Cava at dinner. Cava is a sparkling wine, similar to Champagne, that is unique to this region. It is very popular in Barcelona, as well.

Breakfast was included and it was so darn good! They had an amazing selection including a full piece of dripping honeycomb. We were definitely fueled up for a little hike and journey back to Barcelona. 

As I said earlier, Andorra is known for nature. There are tons of hiking trails, skiing opportunities (in the season) and outdoor activities of all kinds. Throughout the country are wooden creatures called Tamarros. They are protectors of nature and the forests. There was one close to our hotel that we set out to find. It was a dreary morning, but we started on our trek, nonetheless. However, after thunder, lightening and hail started coming down and no Tamarro Andy in site, we turned around. We still do not know exactly how much farther we had to go to find him, but maybe we will return one day. 

Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad

 At work we have a tradition of holding a potluck lunch on an employee's last day. We had an opportunity for one last week. Another co-worker offered to bring gorditas. Having never tried them before, I was looking forward to it! Knowing what she was bringing, helped me pick what to bring. I scoured my saved recipes on Pinterest and saw this one for Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad. 

The recipe was super easy to put together and turned out really good! I even received compliments from my two Mexican-American co-workers. Yes! 

Because this dish is served cold, it is a perfect one for a potluck. Bring some extra cotija cheese for everyone to sprinkle on top of their portion and your serving bowl will be empty before you head home. Or if you're lucky like me you'll have just enough to have a portion later. 

*Because I'm not a fan of onions or cilantro, I left those out and it still tasted really good.

Bolesławiec, Poland: Food and glass blowing

On my recent trip to Poland with the spouses' club, we stayed at The Blue Beetroot Hotel. It is a charming hotel with a lot of character. Our room had beautiful wooden beams on the ceiling and the in-house restaurant had delicious food. We enjoyed a lovely breakfast buffet each morning. 

We spent two nights, so we had two opportunities to eat dinner at the restaurant. For my first night, I chose the pumpkin cream soup (yum), goulash (delicious) and apple cake. The apple cake was slightly disappointing, especially compared with my own apple cake. But it was a great meal with good company, nonetheless. 

Another stop in town, aside from the plethora of pottery shops, was a glass blowing studio. We were all immediately drawn to the fun, whimsical pieces scattered around the entrance. 

Once inside, we browsed their shop where it was hard to decide what pieces to take home. I ended up with a blown-glass ornament and a kiwi (pictured below). The kiwi was a bit of an impulse buy. They reminded me so much of Disney's Alice in Wonderland, one of my all-time favorites, that I had to take one home with me. 

We were also treated to a glass-blowing demonstration. I have watched the Netflix show Blown Away, so I felt more educated on the process and terminology with glass blowing, but nothing beats seeing it in person. 

The oven behind the glass-blower holds only clear glass. He would have to visit it many times throughout the process to add more and more glass to the piece. They add color by rolling the hot glass in colored pieces of glass. For the piece they are working on, they also had to add a swirl of another color. It was really neat to see the technique. 

Glass-blowing is a team job! It was really cool to see them work together. It was like watching a choreographed dance as each person knew that the other would be there when they needed them. 

The little cup around the hot glass is made out of wood and is used to help shape the glass into the desired shape. They have to replace these often since they wear out from the intense heat. It smelled really good, too. It was like being at a campfire!

I have not eaten a lot of (or any???) Polish food. Our lunch stop on day one was to Opalkowa Chata which had an extensive menu in addition to a selection of specialty vodkas. It was hard to decide what to order and I ended up with way more food than I could handle. I tried both the beef and the blueberry perogies. Both were so delicious! One of my friends ordered the cheese and potato perogies. We traded each other one, so I was able to try that type as well. So yummy! One thing I thought was interesting was that on the menu the cheese and potato perogies were originally called Russian Perogies, but they marked through "Russian" in solidarity with Ukraine. 

The exterior of the restaurant had some great folk art pieces! 

Bolesławiec, Poland: pottery shopping

On a recent trip to Boleslawiec, Poland with the spouses' club, we visited a bunch of pottery shops! While I am not a huge fan of Polish pottery (blue is just not my color), I was intrigued to see the many patterns and find out what all the hype is about. 

At one of our stops, we had the pleasure of seeing behind the scenes for a little tour. Ceramika Andar showed us the process, starting with the big slabs of clay they begin their work with. They use the clay to make slip (a watered down clay) to use in slip-casting their mugs, plates and other pieces. 

We walked through the drying room where pieces are drying out in anticipation of their bisque firing prior to being glazed. 

The ladies were hard at work getting the pieces cleaned up so they would be ready for the kiln. 

One of the ladies in my group took this picture and I just loved the close up of the plaster molds and some of the little creamer jugs. 

This ceramic shop is a family affair. The father, wife, son and daughter all work in the shop. This is the wife. She was hard at work painting Christmas trees. It was really cool to see how quickly she was able to finish each one. 

This was our guide through the workshop. 

Another popular shop in town is Andy Polish Pottery. This was actually our very first stop of our shopping excursion. They had a wide selection of pieces. I picked up some Jack o' Lanterns, Christmas ornament and little sleeping kitty figurine here. 

This is a small snapshot of the selection at Andy's. In addition to this, there was a whole other room filled with pieces. 

Elim Christian Center in Poland

For the spouses' club Trips & Tours in March, we visited Boleslawiec, Poland. The purpose of our trip was two-fold. One was to enjoy time together and shop for Polish pottery. But our second purpose, in light of the current situation with Ukraine, was to bring some much needed donations for Ukrainian refugees that are currently being housed in Poland. 

Our community donated a ton of items like bedding, clothing, toiletries and more. We packed as much as we could in our bus and headed off to the Elim Christian Center. 

Emily, our host at Elim, greeted us and gave us a tour of the property. The center is in an old Polish castle that has been restored for the Center's purposes. Emily is an American whose mother escaped Poland during the Communist era, so Emily has a passion for the Polish people. Through tears, she expressed how grateful she was for our visit and for all the donations we were able to collect for the 70+ refugees they are currently providing shelter for. 

When we arrived, this room was completely empty. We quickly got to work sorting all our bagged and boxed donations into this room. Emily told us the donations would only last a couple of days before they were all claimed by their residents. 

After we finished putting things away, we were treated to lunch at the Center and were able to see their Nativity Sets that the Center crafts and sells to raise money for their mission. They are sewn and are the most adorable sets that include the typical Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus but also camels, sheep, donkeys, wise men and more. I brought home a Mary, Joseph and Jesus set to remember my time at Elim. They sell them through area reps, so if you're interested in checking them out visit their website and send them an email! 

Guava Cream Cheese Pound Cake

One of my very favorite things on the planet is my cream cheese pound cake. I don't even remember where the original recipe came from, but I make it as often as I can justify. It is creamy and just has the best flavor. 

Recently I had ordered some guava paste online to make guava and cream cheese pastries. With the remaining guava paste packages, I was thinking about making a guava cake. I saw a recipe for guava pound cake where the author said she substituted one cup of sugar for guava paste in her original pound cake recipe. So I chose to do that with my cream cheese pound cake. It turned out so good! 

To top my guava pound cake, I attempted to make lime Swiss meringue buttercream. That was a fail. On my first attempt, it was both soupy and curdled. After fighting with it, I gave up and scooped it into a bowl to mess with the next day. The next day I played around with it again by heating it up and re-whipping. That fixed the curdled part, but it was still too loose. I tried cooling it in the fridge and then whipped it later after bringing to room temperature. It is thicker than it was, but more like a whipped cream thickness. That's ok! I have just been topping my pound cake slice with a dollop of my lime Swiss meringue cream and have been perfectly happy! 

 

Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken

I came home from a spouses' club event with a pineapple. It was one of the prizes from our Luau themed event. I love pineapple and have no problems eating it by itself, but I wanted to make something with it. I considered making a crockpot recipe, but my last batch of crockpot chicken came out super dry. Plus, the crockpot is a pain to clean in our tiny sink. 

After searching Pinterest, I decided to try my hand at making teriyaki sauce for chicken and throwing in the pineapple. 

I loosely followed a recipe from Build Your Bite for the sauce, but because I did not have all the ingredients I had to go off-book a little bit. I was a little nervous that it would come out gross, but I was pleasantly surprised by how tasty it was!