Indian Cooking and other ex-pat perks

Ok - so one of the things I love about living overseas are all the unique things I learn from the people I live around. Ex-pats come from all over and bring their own unique traditions and other life learnings with them. I've experienced and done many things with friends here that they've brought over. This spring I've learned a couple of things.

At Easter one lady taught us how to decorate Ukrainian Easter Eggs. I had never heard of them before but if you do a google search you will see some amazing eggs. They are pretty time consuming (a little more time than I care to spend on an egg) but I'm glad I did and I would probably do it again sometime. Here's the egg I did. Anyone ever try this before?

One of the highlights of this spring has been cooking class. The lady below us is Indian and she cooks some amazing meals that we get to smell all the time....but not partake of.... Well, one of the ladies over here asked her if she would teach a cooking class once a month. The first month she taught us how to make samosa's. This is a mixture of potato, beef, peas, and lots of Indian spices cooked together put in a pastry that is then fried. A couple of weeks later we tried them ourselves at home and Molly (our resident Indian expert since she lived there for three months) loved them! The first picture here is of our kitchen counter in the midst of making the samosas. Then there is the finished product. This last class was Chicken Masala (that's the indian version - not to be confused with the italian version). We have not tried that ourselves yet (hoping for this weekend) but again, it was delicious and I can't wait to cook some up. I love going to cooking class b/c it's much better than just reading a recipe.

Not everybody likes the Indian spices but it's pretty exciting to be able to cook a type of food I never thought I would be able to. I love it! The last picture here is of the Chicken Masala made last time.