Taking in the Culture

Boo.  My sewing meeting was cancelled due to the blizzard and continuing blowing snow on Saturday morning...  

So instead of sewing my heart out, I had to pull our snow blower out of the garage.  It requires an extension cord to start and this year started up without any issues!  Robb went and got gas twice for me because w2e did our driveway and sidewalks and then I snow blowed over to Meri's 5-7 blocks away.

I made a few friends of our neighbors as I blew down our street, but if the sidewalk was already clear, I turned off the blower and walked it down.  I'm sure the neighbors were thinking to themselves, "Who was that scarfed woman?"

Then did Meri's sidewalks too.  

The snow was several inches deep and by noon, all of our town had finally dug out.

That night, Meri and her boyfriend, Shub prepared dinner for all of us at her house.  When we got there, Shub was busy stirring on the stove and calling out instructions to Meri.  She was his sous chef and server.  She SAID that we'd be entertained by Shub singing and dancing for us while we waited to be served, but he kindly refused and continued slaving over the stove.  So she put on some authentic Indian music on her Alexa for background ambiance.  When Shub heard it he laughed and said, "That stuff is SO old!!"  As if we'd know what modern Indian music sounds like...

Probably more like NSync...

The hoers devours consisted of samosas.  NOT to be confused with Mimosas as Meri has only just turned 21...  Samosas are little square hot pocket type morsels filled with veggies and seasonings.  They bought these pre-made and Meri cooked them in her air fryer.  YUM...  They served them with ketchup.

Meri has been collecting Pfalzgraff dishes ever since she was a kid after finding some at a garage sale.  Since then she's collected more at antique stores.  The table looked grand!

They also brought out Naan, a type of flat bread, both in plain and in onion flavors.  BOTH were really good and I could totally start seeing myself buying that on a regular basis if it had no calories.  But it does.

I did find a recipe online so I might try making some.

The main course was Butter Chicken made with Curry Masala along with rice.

Shub made it as it's supposed to be prepared, SPICY, 

and then in a milder version for anyone who couldn't hack the spices.

 For dessert, he'd also made Suji, an Indian style pudding with raisins and cashews mixed in.

We thought it tasted very similar to Cream of Wheat.

I could eat a lot of this unfortunately...  

I asked Shub if he ate like this all the time at home and nope.  This is a special meal only made once in a while. Kind of like in Germany.  I'm sure they don't eat saurbraten ALL the time...

Or Norway.  I'm sure they don't eat Lutefisk ALL the time...

Too much of a good thing is NOT a good thing.

Or in the case of Lutefisk, never at all.  But SOME people like it!

I'm German AND Norwegian, so I can poke fun at my heritage. ;)

I was SO stuffed by the time we left...  My mouth and esophagus felt so warm!  What a great way to stay warm on a negative degree night!  

Meri got to meet his family yesterday!  It's amazing what the internet can do...  With them in India and Meri and Shub in small town Iowa.  She's learning Hindi as quickly as she can so she can make sure Shub is interpreting correctly. :)

"They LOVE you!"

On to my day.  and on to Iowa food that is mostly salads for me.  

I'm determined to lose some weight!!!

And the Indian food didn't help this weekend.