Margučiai, Šaltiena & Šašlykai!

The Lithuanian words in the title are "Easter Eggs, 'Gelatin & Beef Tongue Cake,' and Pork Shish-Kebabs" - all very important things on my Easter adventure! I headed to Joniškis again to be with Regis' family for the holiday, and I had a great time. Language barrier or no, moms are still moms, worried about your welfare, hunger and thirst levels and unstockinged feet. Side note about those eggs in the photo - the ones with thread and designs on them were made by a neighbor of Regis' family - by wrapping thread around eggs from her very own chickens and decorating them with slices of small branches and seeds, she created a very unique and permanent Easter memento! Apparently she made 400 of them in total, so I ordered a dozen and will send them home. And now back to our regularly scheduled programing - There was constantly food available, and it was dangerously delicious...everything from tried and true herring dishes to colored hard boiled eggs to a cake made from gelatin, cut up beef tongue and grated carrot, served with a horseradish sauce. The 'cake' was not bad, just a different texture than I am used to - and everything else was excellent. The barbecued pork shish-kebabs were outstanding, and what a nice change to have something barbecued! Regis' mama even made cepelinai (the potato dumplings with meat inside) and I had three! A definite record for me.

Regis' older brother Donatas was visiting from England, and he was very nice and definitely a big brother - teasing his little brother about anything and everything in true sibling fashion. It made me miss my own siblings, but I shall see them soon enough! :) On Easter, their Keith & Peggy came over to dinner and the kid side of the table excused themselves early to go play the flag game Regis got for his birthday in February. Anyone know the capital of Malawi (flag shown at left)? If you guessed Lilongwe, you'd be right! It's a great game, very nerdy and informative - I feel smarter just knowing there is a country called Djibouti!

Anyway, I got to bake a cake and made baked eggplant - both of which were well received - I just love cooking! The weather was beautiful, sunny and warmish until Sunday night and Monday morning brought snow! Snow? Yes, folks...snow. Where was this snow at Christmas? Just plain weird, but I'm glad I did not pack up all of my scarves and gloves just yet, as I am sure rain is on its way eventually. Lietuva means rain after all, and we haven't had a whole lot of it...

I have posted some photos of the Easter adventure in my photo album, though I was disappointed I did not take advantage of the nice weather to walk around the small town and take more photos. Mew. More will come when I get them from Regis' camera. Spending time with his family was very nice, and I could tell that my comprehension of Lithuanian was better than Christmas, but my speech skills are still lacking because of my lame unconfidence and plain lack of knowledge of proper sentence structure creation. Don't worry Mom, I will be sure to send a thank you note in appreciation of their hospitality! I even got a bag full of cookies sent home with me, and intend to come back with recipes in order to try and recreate some of the scrumptiousness!

In other news, I'm posting my resume on some places and doing job searches, with little luck...anyone got a media empire that needs an employee or a great business plan they want to share with me? ;)