Making Ajvar for a Team Meeting

Yesterday Christine and I drove down to Bitola to hang with some colleagues and to make a local specialty called Ajvar (pr.. "Aye-var"). When we left Skopje it was sunny with a kiss of warmth in the air, but halfway to Bitola the sky opened and it began to rain. And rain. And rain. I also realized it was high time I changed the windshield wipers as the harder it rained the harder it was to see!

Arriving in Bitola we got right to work on coring and roasting 75 kilos (aka 165 lbs!) of vibrant red peppers. Oh! Wish you could smell the wonderful fragrance that they make as they're sizzling on the stove. We enjoyed some great conversation and laughter under a patio umbrella as the rain continued to come down. (Cracking walnuts for roasting also in pic below).

Their landlords would pop in one and another at different times to say hello and to watch us Americans try our hand at a Balkan specialty. Mark let me take over roasting while he and his landlords son chatted over by the apple tree (while sampling a few fresh from the tree as well). I really enjoy roasting the peppers, though usually it's the men who do it. At one point I was roasting and Christine and Becky were coring as Mark brought us more peppers. I can only imagine how odd that must have looked to the locals! ;)

About 6:30 the gals and I left Mark to the roasting and headed to the church for women's bible study. Christine and I were put a little on the spot to lead the song-time... um.. in Macedonian. I must say that was a first for me. Usually I'm leading songs in English for the International Church, but this was a really great experience. Afterwards we all had some great discussion times about living our lives as lights to those around us. We ended with prayer for our families and then the gals and I returned home to find that Mark had just finished roasting the second bag of peppers.

Today we have 25 kilos left of peppers to roast as well as a bag of eggplant. This batch of peppers will be a bit different, though. You see, one of the discussions we had yesterday was if coring the peppers before roasting is better than leaving the stems on for roasting and coring and de-seeding afterwards. Every Macedonian will tell you something different (even about peeling... sweat the roasted peppers in a plastic bag but peel them while they're warm vs. sweat them overnight). Anyways, today we roast with stems and will compare our experience with yesterday. :)

Mark and Pattie are joining us today as well and we'll be having a team meeting while roasting and peeling peppers. I must say, this will be the funnest team meeting I think we've ever had. ;)