Beautiful Pictures of Biltmore House

I went to Biltmore House, the largest private house in the country, in Asheville, NC last weekend. I just thought I'd share my pictures with you.

My weekend at the beach

I traveled to South Carolina with my boyfriend Jack and his friends in April 2009. We did the usual sunbathing, swimming routine, but we also chartered a small fishing boat and went deep sea fishing. Our boat went really, really fast. I have never been out on the ocean in a smallish boat, so I was pretty much terrified the whole time.

Most of the time while we were fishing, the captain kept the boat moving at a slow speed. He would help us with our fish when we caught one and while he was away from the wheel, the boat kept moving. There were quite a few boats pretty close to us, so I kept praying we wouldn't run into one of them. I was really surprised to see several boats far smaller than ours out in the ocean. They almost looked too small to cruise a lake in, much less the ocean! The picture above shows our catch-all Spanish mackerel. Fish is my favorite food, yum!

My Travel Plans

I stated in a previous post, that I may be visiting Croatia or Italy very soon. That may not be happening. Due to my boyfriend's change of job assignment, we may be visiting Hawaii or Aruba instead. Also, there is a very good chance I will be going on a Carribbean cruise with him later in the year. He owns a small business that sponsors a company cruise every year for the owners, their families, and their few employees. I don't know any details yet as the cruise has not yet been booked, but my guess is it will be in Aug. I am really excited. I have never been on a cruise, but have heard they are really fun.

Polish Cooking, Yum!

Ever since my boyfriend returned from Poland, we have been doing a lot of Polish cooking. I think I should have been born Polish, because I love it! Tonight we tried to make perogies, which we were told were hard to make. If you've never had them, they're similar to ravioli (the fresh kind, not the Chef Boyardee canned crap) except with often different toppings and fillings than ravioli, and they're often fried or baked.
Here is an example of perogies, but not an actual picture of the ones we made:


When we started cooking, I was convinced that the recipe would be a flop, but it wasn't.

They really weren't hard to make, just time consuming, To make the outside, we combined flour, sour cream, butter, and water. Then we let the dough sit for 30 minutes. Then, we combined the ingredients for the filling (which involved mashed potatoes, sour kraut, Italian sausage, etc). We rolled the dough out into medium size circles. Then we put some filling on top and folded them over. Then we pressed a fork into the seams to seal them. Finally, we boiled them in salted water for about 3 minutes. Then we removed them from the water and fried them in butter (you can also bake them) until brown and slightly crispy. We served them with some sour cream. They were delicious, and my BF said they tasted just like the ones in Poland.

If I can make them, anyone can make them. Yup! I'm a disaster in the kitchen.

My boyfriend told his co workers in Poland that if they ever visit the US, he will cook them a Polish dinner. One of his co workers is actually going to take him up on his offer next month, and we are going to cook him perogies! How cool!