Crape week

We are about to enter the Great Lent (the Easter this year falls on mid May in Russia). And traditionally this week is called Maslenitsa, which is when you make crapes and eat a lot of meat and milk products to prepare for over a month of fasting. I was fortunate to get a Tuesday off school, so I made crapes for my family. With the frying pan that my mother in law gave us it was so easy and they came out wonderful! I also conjured a couple of fillers like fried mushrooms, ground beef with onions, and ground strawberries with guava extract for desert. Traditionally the crapes were dipped in butter or sower cream or honey.
My husband also treated everyone to his home brewed beer, which had huge success!

Here is how I make them. It is my mother's in law recipe modified by my hubby.
You will need:
4 eggs
1 stick of butter
1.5 cups of flour
1/4 gallon milk
1 tbsp sugar
1tsp salt


Pour a cup or so of milk in a mixing bowl, add eggs, and melted butter, salt, and sugar. Gradually mix in flour with a whisk or a mixer to avoid clumps. When everything is mixed add the remainder of the milk and mix well. Then heat a frying pan (my special pan has a flat bottom and a heat dispenser disk on the bottom, but any flat pan will work, preferably non-stick). You DO NOT need to butter up the pan if it is non-stick, if you do the crapes might not come out nice, they will separate in pieces. Pour a thin layer or batter on a frying pan and maneuver it quickly to dispense the batter. Then leave it for a minute or so, depending on how thick you poured them - you want them to be golden brown, then with a spatula go around the rim of the crape to separate it from the pan then flip it. That is it! They are, as you can tell by the recipe, pretty filling and oh so yummy! You can fill them with anything you like - make desert or a main dish!
If they don't come out right at first, don't worry, it takes skill, we even have a saying in Russia - first crape always comes out in a clump (or something like that).

Pineapple coconut jam

I talked about making this jam so long ago, I don't even want to bother with finding that post to link to it. The point is, I finally did it a couple of days ago! It turned out lovely and yummy - just like I imagined and hoped it would be. I am now having it with tea every morning - on a toast, with peanut butter, or straight.
I used pineapple pure, cream of coconut, Malibu white rum, lemon juice, and lots of sugar, and pectin of course  I mainly went by this recipe, but I learned a couple of things that are surely obvious to everyone else, but I will share them anyways:
1. Jars and lids have to be prepared for canning - sterilized in boiling water.
2. Jams take a lot of sugar. I used six cups! I couldn't believe you need so much, but it is what helps stop the bacteria growth in the jam and reacts with pectin.
3. After the jam is put in jars and lids are screwed on, jars have to be boiled to create a tight vacuum seal. I used a large pan with a heavy bottom and a tight lid. It fit all seven of the 8oz jars in there nicely and I put forks on the bottom so that the jars don't just sit right on the hot steel.
There are some great suggestions and advises for beginning caners here.

Other than that, it is pretty simple I think, and I am now officially in love with canning. I added another hobby/obsession to my long list. Oh man, sometimes I think I really should stop having so many hobbies, but then I think nah, I couldn't choose just one or two, they all make my life funner!

Breakfast with a friend / Завтрак с подругой

In  the middle of all the crazy, it is as nice as it gets to, one day, wake up and not have to run somewhere, to open your eyes because the sun is in your face (not because the alarm is waking you up before it is even light outside), to lay in bed and plan your day, and to have breakfast with a good friend!

В дни, когда кругом идёт голова от полного сумасшествия, так замечательно в один прекрасный день проснуться и никуда не гнать сломя голову, открыть глаза от того что тёплое солнышко светит в лицо (а не потому что будильник верещит когда на улице ещё темно), лежать в кравати и планировать грядущий день, а затем позавтракать с хорошеи подругой.

Creative Fridays. / Кутим по пятницам!

It has been a while since I wrote about our craft club, but it is up and running! This Friday we ate yummy seasonal food made by Mila, blueberry lime cupcakes with coconut lavender tea made by yours truly  Then we all worked on our own projects. Mom and Sonya were working on a winter centerpiece, Mila drew and we all admired her little creations, I started learning to draw as well (and hugged their cat in between). I also got a present from Sonya, for guessing what cat was on her drawing correctly. I will talk about that in another post a little later. It is so great to have a little group of people that share the same interests, and I am so thankful for our little crafting club.


Я уже сто лет не писала о нашем маленьком клубе рукоделия, но он живёт и процветает. Вчера мы кушали печёные баклажаны и тыкву сделаную Милои, и заедали кексами с голубикои и запивали ловандовым чаем с кокосовым молоком и мёдом, предоставленным мнои. После каждый работал над своим проэктом: мама и Соня делали зимнее украшение на стол, мы с Милои рисовали (я также обнималась с их котом в промежутке), и мы все любовались Милиными маленькими издельями. Я получила приз от Сони за то что правельно угадала какого из её котов она изобразила на одном из своих рисунков. Об этом призе я напишу потом, отдельно.
Вобще это так замечательно иметь возможность собираться с людьми с общими интересами. Это большая удача, что у нас есть наш маленький клуб.

A productive day

Usually I feel like the most productive day of the week for me is Saturday, because it is my day off and although I have to do my homework, I am not as hectic as when it is school time.
Usually on Saturday I try to get some sleep in. When I wake up, I make a plan, in my head or on the paper, of what needs to be done. I am pretty good about doing 95% of things on that list. Today I made a list on the paper because it felt like I had a lot, so I didn't want to forget anything.

Besides doing laundry, ironning, washing dishes, and things like that I made a couple of things that made me a very happy girl today.
First of all I found a new favorite soup - cream of mushroom. Of course I had cream of mushroom before, but this recipe is super quick and it is out-of-this-world delicious! I now have two quick recipes of soups that I would eat any time of the day (first one being chicken coconut soup, of course).

I served it with toasted basil bread and cheese.
Then I also made poppy seed strudel and that turned out quite yummy as well. And it is certainly pretty! I used sweet and rich yeast doe. For the filling I soaked poppy seeds in hot water for about an hour, then drained them added a bit of butter, sugar and honey to taste, and a tsp of vanilla extract. I then put it all in a blender and mixed.

After my husband came and we ate together, I made myself another delicious new thing - this time a drink. I saw a similar idea on pinterest and modified it to my liking. Basically I boiled coconut milk and poured it over dry lavender flowers, then added some honey and let it steep. The smell was AHMAZING! The taste was pure deliciousness and very calming.

So that is my day. Now to finish my homework for the day and go crochet my baby blanket.
I did so many things today, yet this post is kind of lazy. I could have made three different recipe posts out if this, could have taken beautiful photos with my camera, but instead just used my iPad... Oh well, hope it is still useful in a way.

Recipe: Tom Ka Kai (Tom-Kha-Gai) chicken coconut soup

One of our favorite places to eat at is called Pin Kao (we call it pink cow and so is everybody else in town). We love their curry and this soup! I have tryed to make it at home a couple of times with different vegetables, and this is my favorite way...
 You will need:
1. 1/2 zucchini
2. lemon grass
3. 8-10 shitaki mushrooms
4. 1 carrot
5. 1/2 lemon
6. a bit of fresh ginger
7. 1 can of coconut milk (not water or cream of coconut, but milk)
8. 3 tbs fish sauce
9. 1 1/2 tbsp Chili Garlic Sauce (or more if you like spicy)
10. 2 boneless skinless chiken breasts

How to make it:
Cut chicken breasts in thin slices and cook in boiling water for about 20 min.

Cut  ginger in thin but relatively large slices, it adds amazing taste and smell to the broth but is not good to chew on, so it is nice if it is easy to decipher, so no accidental consumption occurs. Set it aside.

Cut lemon grass while you'r at it, same thing, bigger slices, so it doesn't get eaten accidentally.

Put both lemon grass and ginger with the chicken and let it boil on medium gas for about 20 min.
Meanwhile cut the mushrooms. I like to cut everything big for this soup, because that is how they do it in our favorite restaurant. But it is up to everyone's' taste.

Cut the rest of the ingredients - carrots and squash.

After the chicken and ginger with lemon grass have been boiling for 20 minutes or so, pour a whole can of coconut milk in there, add fish sauce and chili garlic sauce along with salt to taste. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon. Then add the vegetables and mushrooms.

Cover with a lid and cook on low gas for about 5  min if you are not going to eat it right a way, or cook for about 10 if you want to eat it immediately.
That is it! Nice and easy. The ingredients can be found in an oriental store, or even Smiths sells coconut milk, and when I don't have time to go to an oriental market, I just use a little bit more lemon juice instead of lemon grass.
It can also be made without chicken and with other vegetables. We love it here and I like making it at home!
Here is how they served it in the restaurant, we unfortunately don't have that cool pan! But that doesn't prevent us from devouring it all in one sitting!

image was found google

Getting ready

Tomorrow is our two year anniversary and I am getting ready. I decided to make a little meringue berry cake and a little cake topper to surprise my husband in the morning. It was my first time making, or trying to make, a meringue... So here is how you mess up a meringue cake:
- first use plastic bowl to beat the egg whites (they will never beat, because the plastic holds the greace from previous use and egg whites don't like it)...
- then dump that and start again (good bye six eggs) in a glass bowl. Get it right this time, good job! But now bake them until they are nice and brown, that means they are ready right? Um... No, because they get golden pretty quick but are still soft and will come flat and become sticky for the most part...
So maybe I don't get the idea, but my meringue base was pain in the butt and I even cut my finger trying to separate it from the parchment paper! At the end though, once I put it all together, it didn't look so bad ( I just put a whole lot of cream on it) and with the little cake topper, I hope my Jenya will be half way impressed, or at least delighted.
For now, I get to finish the remainders of cream and berries - yum!
P.S. if I am to make meringue again (which I will because I can't just let it win) I feel like I can succeed taking all the mishaps in consideration. I will be sure to share the RIGHT way with whoever might be interested!

A happy day!

A husband in underwear and an apron - the hottest thing if you ask me! Doesn't happen very often, come to think of it I can count the times that happened on the fingers of one hand. Nevertheless it makes this little girl very happy!
So for lunch today we had a Russian version of dumplings, called pelmeni (like this one for example) - with sour cream - yum! So a pretty good day for me!

What happens when I have a weekend all to myself

Pies get made... This one is potato, mushroom, and chicken...

House gets cleaned...
And some of the projects get finished!
I started making this little doll house bed for a little girl last weekend. It is made out of jewelry wire of two thicknesses 20 and 25 gauge I think. I just drew what I liked in the size I liked and then bent all the parts.

My sweet man helped me weld it and painted it for me, but super glue can be used instead of welding...

Then my first quilt ever was made! It's not very straight, I know, but I am quite proud of it! It is about 5 3/4" long and 4 1/2" wide. The bed turned out 4"W x 3 3/4"H x 5 3/4" D.

I got to say, things happen that upset me sometimes... Friends neglect my friendship, people around me ruin their lives with their own hands and you can't help, school gets tougher and tougher choking me - God sands me these trials... But my sweet husband and my mom are my best friends, and they are always there for me, and I am blessed through them every day!
Anyways, here is what it looks like in the little girl's room. I think it's pretty sweet! There is a lot to do here, even just in this room...

Pizza

When you make pizza, do you just randomly sprinkle ingredients, or do you carefully distribute them so they are all neatly even? I do the second. It's tastier that way...

Grandma's Recipe - Plyushki

While staying with my family, I learned a couple of family recipes from both of my grandmas and my grandpa. This one is for sweet pastry called "plyushka". It is even more special because my grandma Maria doesn't really cook. She gets away with it, because my grandpa Oleg does it for her in a perfect way. But this particular recipe was taught me by her, and even on photos, it is her hands that are making them.
My bff Natasha and I came to visit them one day. We go way back with her and she use to visit my grandparents with me all the time. Just as we came, grandma Maria was getting ready to roll the plyushkas. so I tied my hair and covered it, just as I use to do, when they would let me help in the kitchen when I was little, and we began helping and learning. 

I tried my best to snap a couple of photos, to show the process.
So here it goes. For this pastry you will need regular yeast doe. I am not going to describe how to make it, as most of us have their favorite way. Honestly, I use breadmaker to make my doe, and my friend Natasha and I arrived too late to see the process of my grandparents making it.

Plyushka

You will need:
- your favorite kind of yeast doe
- sugar
- unsalted butter (melted)
- berries (if you want)

How to make it:
First you separate your doe into equal balls and let it rise a little. Then you roll, or flatten each piece with your fingers, not too thin, just enough to spread the butter, which takes us to our next step... we spread melted butter...

...then sprinkle generously with sugar...

... then roll it and fold the rolled piece in half, so that the end of the rolled part is in the middle of the fold...

... then we flip it and make a little incision...

... then unfold...

... Then you bake them under 375'F until they are nice and golden and indulge with hot freshly brewed tea.

My grandma said that you could also add berries inside with sugar and butter if you wanted to. Today I made these just like grandma taught me and they came out delicious!!!

I craved strawberries so instead of putting them inside, I mixed them with cream cheese and guava syrup in the blender and made home made strawberry cream cheese. I served it on top of plyushkas and it turned out heavenly!

The fact that you can mix these with anything you like, serve them hot or cold is pretty amazing, but they are even more precious to me because my grandma passed this recipe to me from her mom, and now I am making them and will teach my daughter some day - so this is a real family recipe!