I have now acquired a new recipe into my knowledge bank: Kiploku grauzdini or garlic toast bites.

I found the recipe here, bought bread and garlic salt, and went to it while my internet was resetting itself.

To that note, the name of my wireless account has had to be changed from "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" to something else.

The first batch of toast bites was a bit on the burnt side, but after adding the garlic salt and fresh garlic, it really doesn't matter. Grauzdini are a popular beer-snack in Latvia and it's easy to understand why. Garlicky goodness in finger food form; even though it has kind of a rural ring to it, the snack is more graceful than an entire loaf of garlic bread. My flatmate asked me last year if I knew how to make them, as this guy she was seeing was a huge fan of the toast bites and hers always turned out too soggy or too dry. But the process of making them is super easy... I wish I had tried it out earlier. No worries! Now that I know how to make them, I'm sure to be a big, big hit at all of those countless parties I go to several times in one night even on the weekends, but maybe only at the ones that are BYOS (bring your own snack). Kidding. You and I both wish my night life was that exciting, don't we. The most exciting my night life ever ends up being involves missing the last train after sprinting across downtown to get to the station and then immediately afterward getting caught in a rainstorm without an umbrella. And that's me without the umbrella, not the rainstorm.

Oooh yes and I'm back in Riga now and very glad to be so. Other than the depressing non-bed qualities of my couch-bed, I'm loving every second about being back. Yesterday a friend and I rode a train with the rest of the entire population of the city (no, really, it probably honestly was...) out to Jurmala and lazed around the beach for a few hours before walking down to Majori (which we almost were unable to find because neither of us payed attention to where we were going and missed the big mansion landmark, oddly enough during a conversation joking about how bad our skills of observation were - or are) for coffee. Then I was planning on coming back home to work on some projects due Monday, but instead half made my dinner and passed out for 4 hours. All of that sun, fresh air and walking definitely got to me. But it was a sound sleep and I woke up happy. And hungry.

So, to recap, I've mastered another great recipe thing. My next goal is currant pastries. They had them at Double Coffee, but there was no way I was going to pay 2.20 LVL for a pastry that costs about USD 0.50 in Germany (it was also listed in the menu as "Johannisbeer" pastry, which is correct, but why use the German word for currant in an English translation of a Latvian menu? I swear...) The only solution - learn to make them myself! Luckily for me, it's season and currants can be bought at the grocery store fresh instead of frozen. Until then-

P.S. due to mass amounts of spam regarding all kinds of interesting topics, I've set this blog to require people to register and sign-in in order to comment. If that doesn't help I'll switch it again.

P.P.S. pictures now available here. It's taking some time to load everything up, but at least I know how to get to the site now :)