Being Russian doesn’t mean that you are oh-so-good at cooking Russian food! I’ve mastered a lot of it. Making soups and stews is a piece of cake! I could make salads (or as one of my friend’s referred to them “cold casseroles”) every day. But Russkie Blini have always been a challenge for me. Every time I’d try to make them, they’d turn out as pancakes! And if you know the difference between a pancake and a crepe, well – that’s a big fail! The worst was when they’d turn out as something in between crecake? or maybe panpe? But last Sunday I feel like I’ve conquered it, and all I needed to do was to follow my aunt’s recipe, which is tried and true. It’s also no family secret, that’s why I am sharing it with you!
Here is what you’ll need:
2 cups of flour
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups of milk (you can cheat here and divide the given amount in half and substitute milk with water)
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Mix all of the above ingredients in a bowl (you can cheat and use a mixer, I won’t tell anybody!)
Then add 1-2 tbsp oil into batter.
And you are ready to FRY!!!
Sam likes his crepes with syrup, but I am more creative – I love them with Nutella and bananas, or strawberries, or blueberries…
Have an awesome Thanksgiving everyone and Black Friday, if you do that, of course!
I am going through my soup stage. Plus it’s one of those dishes, that will last a while. I never freeze my soups though, I know some people do, but I prefer to just finish it during the week.
Today I was super excited to try making Tuna Soup, like my grandma used to, when I was little.
Here is the recipe:
1 Onion
3 carrots
4 potatoes
2 cans of tuna (I used one in water, I believe you can also get one in oil, but I would recommend tuna in water for this recipe)
salt, pepper, dill or parsley (if you are into that stuff )
You are going to start up by dicing the potatoes and boiling them in about 2 liters of water. Please don’t hate me for going all metric on you. If you are like me, you’ll wing it
Now you want to fully cook the potatoes, so give them about 20 minutes or so. Meanwhile, prepare the carrots and the onions:
I used butter to sauté the vegetables, but if you want to, you can use oil
You are going to add the veggies and the tuna to the potatoes, once those are thoroughly cooked,
then let it cook for 10 more minutes or so, add salt, pepper, some dill, parsley if you want to, and you are done!
Enjoy the yumminess! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!
The what? The who? And where did I get it? First of all, here is what sorrel looks like:
It’s nice and sour, I remember eating it as a child, it’s amazing with sugar! Stumbling across sorrel while walking in the forest was considered the best of luck, but that was back when I was 7, of course. I don’t know if it grows in the wild here, but in Russia it did
Fortunately for me, my mother-in-law is growing some sorrel in her garden. And fortunately for you, I am going to share one of the best recipes of my childhood with you today!
1. You are going to start by making a broth (unless you are using a pre-made broth), I always make chicken broth, because I always seem to have chicken in my freezer. I really hope you know how to make chicken broth, but just in case you don’t, here is how:
- bring 1.5 lb of chicken in 64 oz of water to a boil, removing the foam from the surface;
- add 1 diced onion, and 1 graded carrot, boil for 45 minutes;
- add salt, pepper and bay leaf, boil for another 15 minutes;
- take out the chicken, cut it into small pieces, get rid of the bone (if you were using chicken on the bone), rid of the onion and carrot, toss those,
And your broth is done!
2. Wash and cut sorrel, make sure to get rid of the stems, unless you really want those in your soup .
3. Peel and slice 5 potatoes, dice another onion and grade one more carrot.
4. Sautee the onion and the carrot.
5. Bring broth to a boil, add the potatoes, and cook for 15-20 minutes.
6. Add onions and carrots, cook for 5 more minutes.
7. Add sorrel and cook for 2 more minutes.
8. Finally add the chicken, salt and pepper.
This soup is meant to be served with sour cream and half a boiled egg
I hope you try this recipe, fall is here, and hot soup is one of my favorite foods of the season
Xo,
Z
PS. I’ll have an update post tomorrow, just to share what’s been going on in my life
Yay for Easter and holidays and a day off Anyways I am going to start today’s post with my outfit of the day! The skirt was an amazing $12 find from Old Navy! The sheer blouse is something I got at Ragstock last week and the under shirt is something I’ve had for years! The shoes are pretty old too, I’ve had them since Russia!
I also made a traditional Russian Easter cake called “Kulich” – just some raisins and icing, and it turned out really good! I honestly didn’t expect that at all Hehe
Once we got to my in-laws house, Sandra surprised me with spicy Korean carrots (those are super popular in Russia!)
While waiting for dinner, we entertained ourselves by adding on to the diorama!
Can you guess what we’ve added? Heh!
And after dinner we were all enjoying the view and taking pictures. Sam and I don’t have a lot of pictures together, so we finally took one!
And I took one with my mother-in-law as well How gorgeous are we?
And finally, I just wanted to share some of the beautiful scenery with you, add on bird sounds and a little breeze and you get our Easter Day!
It’s easy, it’s ECO and PET friendly, it’s cheap – what can be better?
Plus I finally got my hands on the clothes that needed to be fixed, so the buttons got re-sewn, holes got fixed, and I can finally wear the clothes in public without being embarrassed of myself! I still have a couple things waiting to be altered, but watching South Park and eating cheese sticks with my husband sounds a lot more appealing now
)
