Huntin’ down them “deals”.

As catchy as that is,  it has nothing to do with today.  I just had to figure out a way of putting in this picture:

 

I just hate taking perfectly good pictures that I can’t use somehow.

If you’ve never seen these things,  let me explain.  They’re basically these little hockey puck containers of coffee that get inserted into a certain type of coffee maker.  Do I have to explain what a hockey puck is?  What planet are you on?

They have these in Canada I see.  Probably elsewhere too.

Our “children”  have one at home.  I have to say,  it is pretty cool,  especially since the machine reads the barcode on each and every hockey puck,  and then brews the coffee according to what ever type you’ve put in there.  It’s crazy!  Who thinks up this stuff?

 

Anyway,  Travelling Companion doesn’t have many vices. Well,  apart from some slight issues with buying really expensive fabric,  but every morning she has one single cup of coffee at work,  so she goes through these things at the rate of one a day.  Pretty excessive,  I know!

 

It seems she inherited a machine in her office,  and way back in the beginning of our stay here,  she discovered that one of the admin assistants was buying the coffee.   This would never do.  T.C.  isn’t all that pleased with the way some of the admin assistants are used and abused as it is,  so there was no way that this person was going to be taken advantage of like that.  It wasn’t an item that could be “expensed”  either,  not if T.C. had anything to do with it.  (It’s that “Controller”  thing?)  Mind you,  I do get the impression that the admin assistant don’t do too badly when it comes to being compensated,  but still.

This is why it now falls to me to pick these things up from time to time.   Oh goodie.

 

I think I’ve mentioned this before,  but with some of the store chains here,  if you sign up for a “member card”,  they will send you info from time to time offering a discount on certain products.  I suppose that,  since everyone’s shopping habits are tracked (quel suprise!)  and that I’ve purchased these things in the past,  it stands to reason that I’d get a letter from Merkur offering 25% off.

They’re blessed expensive to start with,  so any port in a storm.  This is also the reason why we don’t have one of these high falutin’ machines here at home.   Bob’s too cheap.   I think I paid a whopping €14 for our coffee maker,  which does NOT require any fancy little hockey pucks,  and which I will quite likely pitch out when we finally leave Europe. 

Confidence is high that wherever we end up after our little sojourn here,  we won’t be using any appliances that require 220 volts.  I’ll happily take any and all wagers.

 

I should also say that,  the first time I received one of these special offer letters,  I only bought about four packages,  since I wasn’t sure if there was any kind of a limit to the number that I could buy.    I don’t presently remember what a ‘skid’ is called in German,  but the lady at the checkout did say I could have bought an entire skid if I had wanted to.  OK then!  I try to keep it down to what I can carry out of the store in two bags,   one in each hand.  I mean,  let’s not get silly.

 

Today’s little shopping excursion however, was along a completely different vein. 

At some point in the not too distant future,  Travelling Companion wants to make something called Potica.   Um ya,  spell-check doesn’t like that one.  But I’m not changing it to Pontiac.

Anyway,  in my quest to try and explain this sort of thing,  I went to YouTube,  with mixed results.   Potica is very common in all countries that were once Yugoslavia,  let’s say,  and so there are a few different variations on the recipe.   This video however,  even though it’s in Slovenian made me howl!   You don’t need to understand,  to get a chuckle.   By the way,  the product that they’re trying to “sell”,  so that the lady of the house doesn’t have to worry about dropping her freshly baked Potica on the floor,  looks absolutely horrid!  That’s because the whole thing is a joke.  I’m sure of it.  And I don’t speak Slovenian.  If you can just shove it in the cupboard the way she does,  and dust it off once in a while?  Hm.  I don’t think they’re serious.

 

Potica is so common in Slovenia,  that you can get some pretty decent stuff in the grocery stores, but the store bought kind still comes in a distant second to home made.    At least the narrator says “Potica”  the proper way.  That was what I was looking for in the first place!

*Gawd* I’m so easily side tracked.

 

So this was my mission for today:

Ya ya.  I know,  it’s a meat grinder.   BUT,  it’s also very useful for grinding the walnuts that are used in Potica.    They had a plastic version out on the floor of the shop I went to,  and after the clerk and I had a little discussion about the one we get to use back home that I said was made out of metal and was “ancient”,  I guess she realised that T.C.  wouldn't be satisfied with the plastic version.  She had to fetch this one from the back somewhere.   When I say the one we have at home,  what I mean is,  the one that we have to borrow from T.C.’s older sister Magda.   T.C. has always wanted one of her own,  so hopefully this one will fill the bill.

I even ran some walnuts through the thing just to try it out. 

I hope that’s a fine enough grind,  or I’m in trouble.

The other thing I liked about this one over the plastic version,  is that you can clamp it right to the side of a table.   Why is it when I use those two words,  I think of the Beverly Hillbillies?  I shall resist the temptation to once again get sidetracked.   *Steady now*

 

 

The lady in the store said to keep the receipt,  and that if for any reason it didn’t quite pass muster,  I could bring it back.  I don’t think there was anything in that offer that would include me actually using the thing,  but I’ve cleaned it all up again,  and it’s as good as new.   Really.

And now we wait.

 

I guess I’ll let you know tomorrow what the answer is.   It’s kind of like Christmas only,  actually no it’s not.

 

Thanks for lookin’.

 

 

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