Sweet dumplings and Rainbows

Its Friday morning, my last full day in Prague and I woke up to a gray, rainy, and cold day. Not the best of conditions for outdoor activities but as you’ll see it turned out to be one of the most charming and sweet days of my RTW trip. The evening before we got home at 1am from Prague so I didn’t get to bed until 3:30am and shamelessly slept til noon. I woke up feeling exhausted, my body and feet were slightly aching (like after a good hard long run) from the three full days of walking and sightseeing. I start to think twice about the plans Alena and I had made the night before given how I felt, getting up so late, and the weather! We had made three rough plans for today…plan A was a 3 hour bus ride to the countryside to more castles…plan B was a 1 hour bus ride to the outskirts of Prague…finally plan C was to hike the hills around the village area. The endpoint of any of these plans was to be home by 5pm to make sweet dumplings for dinner with her cousin Kafta. At the end of the day, we only managed to lounge around the house, check emails, pick-up grocery for dinner, walk the dog and make the sweet dumplings. We head out to the supermarket called Albert which is about 15 minutes drive outside of the village of Lhota. If I haven’t admit this to all of you, here is my confession….I love, love perusing through the market aisles in any destinations I visit. So much so that it is mentally written into my sightseeing list along with the tallest buildings and/or castles. I realize that it borders on the wacky side but I think it’s one of the best ways to experience the culture and life of the local people no matter the location. For my last supper in Prague I was bound and determined to have more tasting of Czech food, so we picked up many varieties of bread, meats, sausage, and beer (for tonight it’s the label “Gammbrinus” pilsner).

Once home, Kafta and Alena immediately put on their aprons and prepared the kitchen for making sweet dumpling. Dumplings rule, it is the bread, rice, and carb of choice in this region and typically on the savory side. In contrast, the sweet dumplings are so called sweet because the dumplings are filled with the season’s fresh fruits (this happens to be strawberry season) and serve with sugar and cheese. The strawberries were picked from the backyard, some slightly tart and some sweet...with the additional toppings it didn't matter if it was tart.

Alena and Kafta introduced me to the concept of having “sweet dumplings” for dinner…its like having dessert for dinner. It is a new concept to me but very Czech. Our first course was a leek soup which was also yummy. Our night ended even sweeter when we looked outside and saw two rainbows...it was the first time I've seen a rainbow from end to end (check out the video). After my shameless consumption of 8 dumplings I decided to join Alena to walk the dog and hopefully walk off the dumplings. Unfortunately this also worked up my appetite, so we return to enjoy wine, beer, sausages, and salami.

Don't be shock but it really is me in the kitchen making sweet dumpling as taught by Alena and her cousin Kafta. I'm putting the fresh strawberry in the middle of the dough then it gets shaped into a round ball.

The dumplings then go into a pot of boiling water for 4-5mins.

The cooked sweet dumplings are then topped with hard fresh cheese, sour cream, melted butter, and finally granulated sugar. Breaking the dumpling open reveals the sweet strawberry center. It is a very rich but ooh so good ;-) and not to be eaten all the time!

After a copious consumption of sweet dumplings, we got this fantastic view of two rainbows end to end. It was amazing to see the complete semi-circle (check out the video).

Taking the family dog "Dick" for a walk after dinner through the forest.

Roses are just more beautiful after the rain.

Wild poppies grow along the rye wheat fields. Its really a sight to see the sprinkling of red flowers along the perimeter of the fields.

A field of rye wheat at sunset looking into the next village.

This day turned out to be as sweet as the dumpling ;-)