Saturday, March 16, 2013

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).

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Antiquing with mom

My mommy is notorious for getting me to go shopping with her, and I am always up for that! She always encourages me by getting me things I really want, and who could say no to that?! Not this girl! Plus it is always so much fun to hang out with her!
This Saturday after church we stopped by an antique mall. This place is huge and filled with unending treasures of the past. This is the place my doll house came from. Now in this same place we found a family of dolls to happily reside in my not-so-finished-yet house. They need some pampering, may be some hair and new clothes would help, but I am excited to have them there - now there is someone to do all the light and shingles installing. Haha!
We also found a true treasure - a pair of dolls in traditional Russian costumes made in the 60s. These dolls probably came from Russia, because it is just hard to imagine that during 60s something like that would be made in the US. They also went home with me.
I will need to give a tour of the doll house some day to show some of the progress I have made, there is not much, but I will share as soon as I get to it.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Friday Night Crafting Club (on Thursday) - painting on porcelain

This time Mila finally came to our weekly meeting and I brought my porcelain paints (that Mila and Sonya gave me for my Birthday). I also bought a whole set of low cost white dinnerware that we had fun customizing. We each did a mug, a small and large plate, and a bowl. Who would have thought that it could be so fun - the possibilities are endless! Next time we do it again!
Oh and Mia (the cat) seemed to really like Mila's rug that is by the way almost finished!

The Woman's Day

March 8th is woman's day in Russia, and aperantely in some other countries as well. On this extremely rainy day I finished my shawl and got lovely flowers from my lovely man. Feeling like a lucky girl here, pretty happy with the shawl - it is super soft and even though one skein was a bit darker than other three, it is barely visible and is like a wink to me, saying "that is hand dyed for ya!"...

Pink Spring

It is Spring here in Vegas - blooming, gentle, cool, and recently rainy. I am excited, because this is the season of change for me. I am going to be done with this hell called Dental Hygiene School. Also because I love the weather here during this time. The only thing I can't stand is the time change - waking up at 5am now is not great at all!
Things happened here, little things, but I want to share them now that I have a second. So buckle up for a few posts in a row, because I don't want to stuff it all in one big mumble. For now, welcome my pink Spring, I have been waiting for you for so long!

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Remedy

A couple of days ago the instructors in my dental hygiene program killed the last hope and strength I had. I really don't think this is a good place to go into details, but let's just say there was a lot of uncontrolled sobbing and saying out loud in an empty room what I would have told them all if I wasn't brought up to respect people. Oh man, I don't know why this had to happen to me now, but even though I don't feel like I deserve it, I have no choice but to trust God and to do my best to not let them break me. Luckily I have my amazing family to support me, and it took all of them to convince me that I am actually worth anything in this life, unlike my instructors are working hard to convince me... Anyways... What can I do but to go into my favorite yarn shop and buy uncontrollably until I feel better. Haha! Well not exactly, there is a project that I started spontaneously during these bad times, so now for the first time ever I currently am working on two knitting projects... It's a beautiful cowl that I found here, the pattern is not correct and there is no specification on materials so I'm just winging it. I got myself a beautiful blend of merino and silk in pink for the cowl itself, and silk blend in ivory for the lace.

I am not looking forward to the graduation anymore, and even less to the three months before graduation that I have to face, but what I am looking forward to is our Alaskan cruise that my lovely family is treating me to in the Summer when all of this hell is going to be over. Yep, I am so lucky to have my family, without them I would go into some deep depression or something.
from here

Friday, February 22, 2013

Friday Night Crafting Club on Thursday

Yesterday night my dear friend Marsel, my hubby, my mom and dad, cat, and two goats - we all gathered to have a drink of hot tea, talk, and craft a little (the boys and the animals mostly did the talking, and made sure that the girls crafted). As always I had such a fun and relaxing time. I am also one third way through making enough hexagons for my baby quilt!