Apart from the regular recap (which is about two weeks from now), just to report on the last sitting of this second cycle of dinner and drinks, the 20th frendz parti altogether. It was Borče's turn. Dragana came just a couple minutes after us, and we were late already, because the girls wanted one more bicycle ride at the last moment.
He made gravče na tavče, which is the traditional macedonian recipe for beans (of prebranac sort), which was great, and we did fart some the next day. Also some ćevapčići for meat, plus some more of barbecue stuff, and his usual greek salad with lots of olives. I brought, as usual, another 1,5l bottle of tutifruti, but drank maybe two or three of that, and then we all switched to wine, ružica (rosy). Just for kicks, because we are really not into wine. Though wine was my first drink, back in 1972 (or was it 71?), but that was the still white, slightly sweet and went easily. Then we went for beer for many years, and about wine our opinions split - she likes black (eng: red) and to me that's too rich in taste, can't take more than one glass, too heavy, too many components, and usually at least two are too strong to enjoy. And she doesn't like the white... so we usually drank beer, and now rakija, specially now that we make our own. But this evening we enjoyed the ružica. I just took care to not pour it to myself, and drank at about Dragana's speed (she was sitting next to me) so I didn't get as high as last time. She said she never saw me that drunk. Well, that's because on every parastos you all leave before the wine hits me. That day is when I have company for white wine (her) and the wine is retarded, it gets you later, so I keep drinking while I have the company, and get drunk afterwards. Someone better stay with me next time, perhaps we should think of a way to make an allnighter.
There was a matter of hats. Borče pulled the russian fur hat he bought during that trip to USSR in 1978 (and I don't even remember he was there), actually he bought a full suitcase of those for friends and relatives, and this one remained. Dragana said I should buy one for my wife, fits her so well. We actually have one, found it in the house in Klincaid, and by rights it should be in Seattle now, but wasn't packed.
We're taking a break with these meetings for august, will resume after the annual meetings in september are over. We need to dedicate our time to making rakija. Which we then did, on 30th (tutifruti) and 7th. The latter didn't work too well, as the neighbor gave us some 40kg of his apples, and that apple rakija was in the first two batches. Dunno what went wrong, he applies all the science he knows ("the experts have said theirs, and that should be respected"), so he prunes them to the max, spends weeks in february-march doing that, and they sprout new twigs everywhere. Almost no sugar, instead of usual five liters at 50%, we got less than three at 35% or less. Weak, we just poured it into the next batch. One batch takes almost three hours, so for the rest I turned up the gas a bit, and we were done by 20:30, with 6,6 liters.
13-VIII-2020 - 25-III-2026