Gadding About With A Blind Date

Yesterday was Valentine's and I thought what could be more romantic than a blind date.  I was to meet my blind date at the Cameron Village Public Library. I was so excited!  When I told my younger son, he expressed a bit of concern.  I assured him it was quite okay.

The Librarians had created a novel activity called a Blind Date with a Book.

I love books, so I thought how romantic!

Sure enough just in the entrance to the Library was a collection of gift-wrapped books, in colorful Valentine's Day paper.  Each book had a little synopsis, but no title.  You had to unwrap the gift to see who or what your blind date was.

I notice that many of the books that the Librarians had selected seemed to have a theme of love, marriage, or relationships.  How appropriate!

This is the "date" that I chose. 

I'm heading out of town for the weekend, and I'm taking my blind date with me.  I may even fall a sleep with my blind date beside me.  Thank you Librarians for a clever activity for Valentine's Day. And friends I hope you are not a bit disappointed, because you may have expected a different "blind date" for me.  : )

Gadding About with Friends Making Pierogies

Boguska's pierogies filled with cabbage or potatoes and cheese. 

My friend Boguska (aka Marta) is a whiz at making pierogies, and two of my other friends Jen and Assunta had asked if we could get together and have her make some pierogies for us.  We had a wonderful time, and we are impressed with Boguska's expertise in cooking.   For lunch we had some of these and the rest we divided and bought them from her.  She sells her homemade fresh pierogies at $20. for a package of 15.

She set up shop in my kitchen and we all pitched in to help..

Getting prepared. 

Potatoes with cheese, cabbage, and onions for fillings.  

Check out this video showing some of the steps in making these delicious dumplings.

Stuffing the dough. 

The next video shows the pierogies being cooked.

They float to the top when they are done. 

Ready to serve.  Yummy!

We spent most of a Saturday making and eating the pierogies, and the three of us are now on her list to make more for us as needed (I think I'll need at least a package once a month.)  Fun! Fun! Fun!

My only contribution was providing the kitchen, setting the table, and making a salad.  The others did all the work. 

p.s. We had so much fun that we decided to form our own little Cooking Club where we will get together once a month and one of us will prepare the meal while introducing the others to a new recipe. We are a diverse group (Australian, Polish, Italian, and Southern US) so we hope to experience some different cuisines.  I may even introduce them to a West African dish, Groundnut Stew became a favorite of mine the summer I was in Ghana.