So kooky Sokolka

Well the long weekend allowed us to get on the road again to see the in laws in the North East.

After the drive in the rain into the area of lakes (I know how they get filled now!), we arrived to another great feast of food from Marta's mother. We also got the chance to see the new world they have created in the attic for us. It is a new bedroom and another 2 living spaces. So it was nice to go and see that and the new world that exists for us.

The next day was spent relaxing and enjoying the ambience of serenity in Sokolka, along with a little job which we thought would be a lot quicker than it was. We dug up the old food smoker, as it had been struggling to work of recent times. After getting through the trees, soil and then concrete, we found out that the pipe that let the smoke through, to the food, was totally full of soil and ash. So after about 1.5 hours of digging to get it out, breaking through the concrete footings, we realised we had broken the pipe!! So we could have just smashed it all up in the first place! Hopeless!

That day we also cooked a nice little (not too spicey) Curry for the family, complete with Naan Breads which are suprisingly easy to make! Just need a little flour, yeast, water and small amounts of salt and sugar, and happy bubbly days! See below.

So that was Day one. Day two and three was mostly painting in the new area in the attic. It was indeed great fun getting dirty again. Rolling around on the floor trying to get into tiny angled corners and with it being white paint on white board, trying to figure out which parts we had painted was also a challenge.

This was actually one of the few things we could do, as you can imagine at this time of year in Poland (especially in the Eastern provinces), it can tend to be wet. So being inside and painting was fun. We also did this on a smaller scale by getting the family to sit around the table and paint some small canvases with more creative themes than the white on white we had played with.

Sunday came and we got the chance to go out for dinner to a local restuarant. I was able to try two local delicacies which were Pyzy (large meat-filled potato dumplings) and KISZKA ZIEMNIACZANA (potato sausage), see the pics below :)


And this is how they look inside. The external dumpling is a potato based starchy concoction. It is actually a lot nice than it sounds!

This is a Schnitzel well not exactly it is called a KOTLET SCHADOWY, which is pork rather than in Australia where we have mostly Chicken and Beef.


Of course Marta couldn't resist, but to have her traditional Pierogi dumplings, which is something we are planning to make at home very soon! We have even bought the devices that make them as it isn't done entirely by hand. So we are going to try and bring the old world to a new world with some random flavours. These of course were Russian style (sheep cheese).