so kool

Last night Lori & Dean had a little party at the Sokool pub in Riegrovy Sady, to celebrate Lori's birthday (Happy Birthday, Lori!).  We left the kids in charge of themselves,  at Lori & Dean's- which is right on the park & so just minutes away (how great is it that we all have cell phones now?).  They were thrilled to be trusted to stay there & with the pop/ chips & huge collection of English-language movies & tv shows on disk for their viewing pleasure (started out with a House, moved to Spinal Tap & had just started on Batman Begins when we came for them).  I thought we'd end up having to take a taxi,  but the night was warm & everyone was still awake & in good spirits, so we walked up & took the metro to Malostranksá & then the tram the rest of the way.

 This evening the owner of our villa has decided that we're having a "welcome" party & everyone should come: the owner; his son, Vladan & his wife, Jana & their three little boys; the Ukrainian couple-
Ferda & his wife- who live in the basement & help maintain the house; the Croatian couple who live below us & their (not altogether likable) young son & daughter; &, of course, us.  We are supposed to bring some main dish (from our homeland) & something sweet.  The difficult part of this assignment is that the ingredients are often very different & so I'm not exactly sure how things are going to turn out (& I can't even get started about the horrors of the little hot & uneven oven).  We decided on lemon bars (I made some yesterday for Lori, which turned out great, but the ones today are crumbly & not as delightful) &, that old standby, a frittata.  Cottage cheese is out- so I'm using tvaroh- a creamy curd product without any visible curds. Hmm.  No mild diced green chillies, so Zdenek found some long skinny feferonky in a jar that I diced up & tried to guess how many to add- they are rather spicy (so much for mild) & I didn't want to put in too many.  No Jack cheese & so I went for "white" which ended up being a mix of Eidam & some sort of Swiss-like cheese.  So,  soon I'll put it in the aforementioned, nightmarish oven & hope for the best. If all else fails, I'm sure there'll be some klobasa on the grill.