Potato salad and pickles....

   So easy right? Making potato salad is something I can usually do in my sleep. In fact I remember a few times in the last 35 years that potatoes sitting cooked on the range magically got peeled and cut up an put in the fridge while I WAS sleeping...maybe it was Jim, or maybe I was really doing it in a sleep walking daze. Who knows? Anyway, last week the missionaries asked if we would host the members over here to watch the Sat. morning session of conference. We are the only ones in the branch with Internet. Of course, we'd love that opportunity. So we decided to make things easy. This is where the adventure begins...
   Menu for easy get together: Yummy fresh bread
                                              Meat and cheese
                                              Potato salad
                                              Chips

First stop at the grocery store, I found the deli meat counter was having a great sale. At least I THINK it was a sale, they were swamped with people, buying all sorts of stuff that I don't have the foggiest what it is. Finally the little girl that knows me, smiles and says "Hello" ahhh good sign, she remembers that I don't speak Croatian! Next she helps me figure out what kind of meat is what...Okay, turkey, ham and salami stuff. That should do it. Ya, a half a kilo of each. Whooooooo that's plenty. just kiddin' not a real half a kilo. It was like a pound and a half each. Such a dork! I bet she just laughed her guts out after I slunk away!

Next stop: the bakery where one of our members work. She is a little hard to get to know and a little leery of us. But she is one of two in the branch that speak English, so we are really trying hard to get to know her. She won't sell us bread, something went wrong in production. They didn't put salt in the bread so it's yucky. We asked her if she wanted us to come get her and her family for conference tonight. No, they can't come. Her husband isn't feeling well.

Next stop: another bakery. Success, came home and ate lunch. Bread was as usual, awesomely wonderful!

Potatoes and eggs were cooked and cooled so I started the potato salad. Do Croatians eat potato salad, Jim asked....hummmm don't know the answer to that one!  At least not until I started cutting up the dill pickles. Well, they LOOKED liked dill pickles. I tasted one. YUCK! Pickles, but really yucky, no hint of dill. We translated the label and it said, pasteurized cucumbers, no additives. No taste either. I sent Jim back to the store. It's across the street. I don't care how much it cost...bring me home dill pickles and a diet coke! We'll I got a Coke Zero and pickles that were in vinegar. Still no dill, but better than pasteurized cucumbers! I don't think they eat potato salad. In answer to Jim's question. If they did, they would have dill pickles, right? So I made my first Croatian style potato salad. Hope someone shows up! I might have to shove it down the missionary's throats..I put tons of onions in it just to give it some taste...so Jim will not be eating it.
   Two days later...only one member showed up to conference, and she was too shy to eat. So I ate potato salad. Turned out even the missionaries even wouldn't eat it. They don't like Croatian pickles! So I put it in a container, hung it on the side of the dumpster and within 15 mins. the Roma's had it. Hope they liked a little bit of my American madness!
   I know this is a silly, not important blog post, but tonight I feel a bit tired and this will have to do. We go again to Bosnia tomorrow. I'll write about something important when we get home. My love to all of you!

Ahhh! Potato Salad...Croatian style!

Our pickle haters, Missionaries
Elder Nita from Henderson Nevada and Elder Lee from Cedar City

This has nothing to do with anything, but made me laugh! I took this from our car window. They were in front of us in traffic. Down town Varazdin.