Ajvar Making 101

The days are starting to get shorter and colder, which means that winter is right around the corner.  Time to start pulling out the long underwear and finish any last minute canning that needs to be done to survive the winter.  A few weeks ago, I went with Irena's family to their summer house to help them make their ajvar.  Ajvar is a spread made out of red peppers that Macedonians eat with bread and cheese. Its a traditional dish that they tend to eat in the Fall and Winter.

Now what I am about to share with you is the famous recipe for making ajvar.  This is TOP SECRET!!!  So do not share this recipe with any big American distribution companies.  It is a family recipe.

 First you start with peppers.  Lots and lots of peppers.  Irena's dad bought 33kg = 66lbs of peppers.

And they all had to be washed.

 That was my job. I also had to make sure that there were no bruises or cuts on the peppers and that they are not soft.  You want to make sure that the peppers are hard so they will roast nicely.
Afterward, they are nicely bathed  and then they are off to roasting.

  You have to keep rotating the peppers until they start to soften up and the skins get charred.

Irena's brother was in charge of roasting the peppers on the big stove.  It is a very tiring and hot job, but he would not let anyone else do it haha.

Irena roasting peppers on the little stove.  She came up with her own system, kind of like an assembly line, the peppers would start on the top and work their way to the bottom.

Irena's sister-in-law was in charge of prepping the garlic. She loves garlic and decided that 3 heads would probably be enough; when in fact, we only ended up using one head.

And of course the "boss" aka Irena's dad is hard at work.  Last year he did the whole process by himself, it took him 2 days.  So this year he said it felt strange having everyone else doing the work and not having anything to do.

The end result.
Once the peppers are roasted and you let them steam a little bit in a covered pot; then it is time for the messy job.....

de-skinning and de-seeding all the peppers.  This is the most tiring part and it takes quite a long time.  After I struggled with my first pepper, Irena and I worked together.  I would take off the skin and she would take out the seeds.  Taking out the seeds is the hardest part, because you have to make sure that none of the seeds stay on/in the pepper and your hands get all wet from the steam and the pepper juices.  I think it took us (myself, Irena and her sister-in-law)  about 3 hours to de-skin and de-seed all of the peppers.

Working hard.

Then we took a meat grinder and ground up all of the peppers. Once the pan was full we took it over to the big pot on the stove.  Where it cooked for the next 2 hours.

The peppers need to cook like this for about 2 hours or until all of the liquid has evaporated and the peppers stay parted (like parting the red sea).  For this part ,someone has to be stirring continuously because you have to make sure the peppers do not stick to the bottom of the pan.

I was allowed to help stir for a little bit, but then Irena did all of the stirring. After the peppers get to the right consistancy, where they start to separate, then it is time to add the oil.  You have to heat up the oil before you add it to the peppers. It cannot be room temp/straight out of the bottle.  You keep stirring and stirring until it is all worked in and you can't see a layer of oil on the top (they call it frying the peppers).

Every family makes their ajvar differently.  Some stop here (peppers and oil are the basic) and others, like Irena's family, add other things.  They add vinegar, sugar, salt, minced garlic, and parsley.  I had never had garlic in my ajvar ;and now I will never eat it without garlic.  I think that the garlic and the parsley make it even  more delicious.  After everything is fully combined, then it is time to put it in the jars. 

Irena's dad had put the jars and lids in the oven to get them hot.  You cannot add hot ajvar into room temp jars. Making the jars hot helps to seal them, which is why it lasts all winter.

Irena's dad made a little "bed" for the jars to help slow down the cooling process.  This also helps it last longer.  After 9 hours, from start to finish, we made 15 jars of ajvar.  It was a long day but well worth it.

This is how Macedonian's eat their ajvar, on a piece of bread with some cirenje (white cheese, kind of like a feta) on top.  Totally worth the 9 hours of work and something I can't wait to try and recreate back home.

The Wonders of a Good Book

As you all know, we have been working on an English Resource Room/Library at my school.  Well I am pleased to say that it is finally finished and up and running. YAY!!!  For the past two weeks kids have been coming before and after school to return and get books in English to read.  At the beginning our shelves looked full, but now are slowly getting smaller and smaller, which is a good thing because that means that the kids are enjoying the books and keep wanting to read more.

Just as a reminder....this is the before shot.

And....................................

This is the after shot!!!  Carpet on the floor, new desks and chairs for the kids to come sit and read, books on the shelves, and we made bulletin boards out of the old windows.

 The other side.  Here is the working area for the teachers and where the students come when they want to take a book out.  The cabinet is where the teachers can hold their English resource materials.  I can't forget Maria's, one of the English teachers, beautiful hand work on the walls.

More of Maria's handy work with posters.

 Boban, was our first student to come and check out a book.

 Irena checking some of the girls out.  We had each student that wanted to use the library take home a "contract" and read it over with their parents.  They had to provide some information (name, grade, email, etc).  We had some rules about what would happen if they returned a book late, damaged or lost one along with general library rules.  The kids had to have their parents sign it and they too had to sign it and once they returned the form they could start getting books. As of yesterday we had around 100 students turn in forms and more are coming!!

 Some of the 6th grade girls after school looking up words in the English-Macedonian dictionaries.

You can now always find someone reading!!!  It has been a nice sight seeing the students come and getting books; and then when they return them saying it was "good" and how they can't wait to get another.  I have also enjoyed seeing the kids reading the books during their free time or after they finished an assignment in English class.  The kids reading for pleasure; something that I had not seen before. The library will always be a work in progress; but as the years go on, I know it will be something that these kids will always enjoy having.