Blinies for breakfast!

Tired of the same old pancakes? Well how about trying a stick to your ribs Russian bliny? Besides being a perfect meal in the morning, if you eliminate the vanilla and cinnamon from the recipe below, you can turn your bliny into a wrap for sandwiches or whatever floats your boat.

Be warned that I can't convert the measurements perfectly. You could do it yourself, take my suggestions, starting with the lower number first or experiment.

3/4's-1 cup of flour
1 egg
2-3 cups of milk
1/4 cup of oil
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp of vanilla
a few dashes of cinnamon
butter to smear the bottom of your hand held frying pan. No skillet, Ma!

First, sift flour with baking soda and salt. Add the milk, egg and oil and beat until it has the consistency of light sour cream. I mean it's only a bit thick. Add in the vanilla and cinnamon. Heat up your pan with a dab of butter and put the stove on low heat. Pour in batter, so it makes a pancake at least 5 inches in diameter. Once the edges looked cook and you see tons of bubbles, turn it over.

Suggestions for great blinies
I always test the first one to see if I should add more flour or milk.

Some people really like supper thin blinies so add more milk if you'd like to try it that way.

I always put some jam on one side of the bliny and roll it up. Jeremy does the same but adds fruit syrup (it's not so sweet here) and sour cream, but I only recommend this if you have a high metabolism.
Enjoy!

Welcome! How bout a nice bowl of Shchi?

First of all, you are probably wondering how to say this word before you make it, right? From how the Russians pronounce it, it's just like "She" Now that we've solved that problem you are probably wondering what it is. It's a dill cabbage soup that is a bit of a variant from the traditional chicken soup, if you ask me. That last bowl I made looked like this:





This may be a great recipe if you have leftover turkey still too, but meat is not necessary for this soup.

What you'll need:
half a head of cabbage chopped or shredded
1 fat or 2 skinny carrots peeled and sliced
1 large chopped onion
(optional) couple crushed cloves of garlic
lots of chicken broth (at least 6-7 cups)
1 can of whole tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste
heaping tsp of dill
heaping tsp of parsley
oil for frying
salt & pepper to taste

**optional bits**
handful of sliced radishes
cup or two of chicken/turkey
chopped tomatoes
1 0r 2 pealed and chopped potatoes
Any other veggies you feel like adding

So if this is like your first time making soup, don't try this. Only experienced cooks should use my recipes because it's hard to transcribe something I don't follow exactly, okay?

1. Fry the cabbage, onion and carrot (& garlic) until it's like stir fry with loose cabbage and onions.

2. Add basically everything else and cook until the potatoes and/or carrots are soft. Add extra broth if it looks more like a stew than a soup.

3. Serve with a dollop of sour cream on top. This makes it super creamy if you don't mind the extra calories! It's great with bread, of course. Should serve 6-8.

Hope this keeps you warm this winter!