Dessert Night at The Vesa House

One of the projects for the Iowa adults on this trip is to host the families of Liz's Kosovar volunteers for an evening dessert. Originally our plan was to host dinner, but it was changed at the last minute since the kitchen facilities at each of the adult houses are not equal. Stores here are full of Western foods, but cake mixes are strangely absent. So the members of my house (Keith, Ric, and Aimee) decided to fix American style sundaes (complete with fudge sauce and sprinkles) with cookies and cake.

We had a wonderful evening visiting with Kaltrina (Muscatine High School graduate and MCC student) and Blini's parents and everyone loved our dessert offerings. But we had a few humorous moments.

This is what the cake Aimee and I bought at the little store down the street from our house is supposed to look like when it comes out of the box.....

.....this is how it really looked coming out of the box.

Clearly I have watched too many Martha Stewart episodes because I quickly transformed into "domestic" hostess mode. Every problem here in Kosovo has a simple solution, right? My solution was to spread the frosting that ended up in the cake top.....

.....and to put sprinkles intended for the ice cream on top of the cake.

The cake tasted great....and looked good too (if I don't say so myself). Here Ric and I are serving ice cream and cake.

Here Keith is presenting Blini and Kaltrina's parents with a "Muscatine" towel.

The American youth staying with Blini and Kaltrina also joined us for the evening. Here's a group shot.

Thanks to everyone for a great night of conversation and fun.

----Kristin McHugh-Johnston (with photo assistance from Aimee Wedeking).