First, we wanted to make bolobies, which is the name we gave to the khatchapuries, a traditional Georgian (as in former USSR Georgia, not on-my-mind Georgia) cheese-filled bread. It is one of my favorite foods ever. I recently found out that one of my friends in Israel also likes this dish very much, as she gets to eat it at the parents of her sister-in-laws', who came to Israel from Georgia. Small world, isn't it? We found this delightful bread in the book "The World Encyclopedia of Bread and Bread Making" by Christine Ingram and Jenni Shapter.
So Mark made them, of course, and, as usual - they turned out deliciously great!
This is what they look like from the outside:
And inside there's a rich mixture of cheeses:
I'm glad we have 2 more leftover - we're going to have them tonight!
Hooray!
Then Christmas came, and with it some unexpected gifts. Mark wouldn't let me open the gifts till Christmas Day. Where would you put the unopened gifts if you don't have a Christmas tree? On the Christmas chair, of course!
So I decorated the Christmas Chair and this is how it turned out:
Note the little star made out of a wrap of Crembo, a favorite Israeli snack.
Of course, a chair is not a bread, so you may ask - what is it doing in a bread blog?
Luckily, I used the word "mostly" in the title, which entitles me to add non-bread items occasionally. ha ha.
To go with the festive chair, we decided to build a gingerbread house. We had no idea how challenging this might be! We followed the very simple instructions in this website:
http://www.recipelink.com/cookbooks/2000/0688156797_1.html
and this is what we got:
Pretty traditional, don't you think? I like the pond in the back and the rosemary trees.
Unfortunately, I got the wrong kind of cereal: topped with vanilla creme icing, instead of just regular icing. Hence the dirty-colored snow on the roof...
We also added some untraditional items to the house, though:
Like a gigantic bluebird and an outhouse.
The back side of the house, however, is a complete craziness:
After the house was done Mark went on with the baking and made a veggie pizza for Christmas Eve dinner. He took care to use Christmas colors, with red and green peppers, red onion (although in reality it is purple), green olives and red tomatoes.
It was as scrumptious as it looks, if not more so: the crust was crispy and just as sweet as I like it, and the toppings added juiciness to nicely compliment the crispiness.
Mark also made an apple pie and 3-garlic pasta, but this entry is getting too long already.
All in all - it was a very busy and breadful extended weekend!
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