With the coming of more autumnal weather, I suggested to my daughters that we should get out some candles to increase the "hygge" feeling of the house.
"How about those weird candles our friends brought from the Republic of Georgia," said I, referring to some lumpy, almost gnarly looking things that looked like dipped candles with bumps in them, as though someone had dipped the candle and then kind of squeezed and molded them by hand to give them character.
"Take a kitchen knife and whittle down the end a little so it will fit in the candleholder," I instructed my innocent 15yo daughter. Being the mostly obedient child that she is, she sat down on the living room floor with a cookie sheet as her workspace to whittle away as I read aloud some of her history studies.
"Mom," cried she after a few moments of said activity, "there's a walnut in here. That's weird."
"Well," replied I, "maybe some cultures burn walnuts in their candles. Maybe it smells cool or something."
After a few more moments, the history reading being interrupted once again, she commented, "Mom, this wax doesn't feel like normal wax. It doesn't cut the same."
Being accustomed to recognizing wax by chewing on it, I surprised her (and me) by popping some into my mouth and discovering that it was sweetish.
Thereupon, we called upon our friend, Google, and discovered that there is a special candy/treat made in the Republic of Georgia, which our friends had described, but somehow we had not made the connection to their kind gift to us as they came back from their visit there.
Said candy is called "churchkhela" and is made by soaking walnuts and dried fruits to soften them so they can be strung onto a string. They are then dipped in a thickened grape juice several times, like dipped candles, till about as thick as a fat taper candle. They are sweet, but not "sicky sweet" and very chewy.
After she and I had enjoyed a few bites, we called up our other daughter (yes, we have a bunch of daughters. Five to be exact) from downstairs and shared our story and delightful treat.
But then Daughter #5 had the brilliant idea to freak out Daughter #3 when she got back from voice lesson. So she put the "candle" into a candleholder.
As we sat down to lunch, Daughter #5 boldly remarked, "Life is short; eat the candle first!" and took a chomp out of the churchkhela much to her sister's confusion. Daughter #3 laughingly shrieked, "Put that back!" and we all had a fun time interrupting each other to tell her the truth. More laughter ensued and we had to text our traveling friends that we had finally figured out that the "candles" were the candies they'd described to us.
We found out that churchkhela can be purchased on Amazon though it's not cheap.
Ignorance has been conquered.
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