Those of us who bake bread at home are constantly looking for ways to utilize the excess bread starter. I personally believe that there should be no “discarding” of the starter. If you are in a good baking rhythm and the starter is mature and vigorous, there is no need to feed your starter daily, only […]

Sunday is supposed to be a lazy day for me — no or little cooking. We go out, enjoy each other’s company and don’t worry about the dishes afterwards. Nothing wrong with that. Except last Sunday my husband was on-call. To avoid being interrupted mid-meal at a restaurant (trust me, it happened to me before, […]

Borodinsky bread is my childhood staple food.  We had it practically every day and never grew tired of it. The aroma, the well balanced sweet and sour, the substantial “meaty” crumb and thin glossy crust — should I go on listing all the wonderful things that put this loaf in the bread hall-of-fame? Nowadays, it […]

You have to forgive me for giving you a false start of the soup season earlier this fall, in 85 degree weather. I hope you’ll be understanding because soup is my favorite thing.  But now I no longer have any formal restrictions. We are officially in the end of fall folks, even here in the […]

How far do you think you can deviate from the original recipe and still be able to recognize it?  I mean, there are hardly any real people out there that have all ingredients on hand at all times.  We are bound to substitute here and there, even omit some stuff, but can we still call […]

Gosh, I got so excited yesterday while typing up the 12-Kopeck Sugar Buns, that it put me in the next bout of cravings immediately — bagels.  Pfft, you may say, what’s so special about bagels? You can get them anywhere.  Well, that’s just the thing: first of all, there are no *good* bagels in 80 […]

In the years of being immersed in another culture I have learned to substitute most of the foods I missed about my native land with local versions of one kind of another.  Some products I learned to replicate quite successfully. Take kefir for example. I am now making a very nice creamy version of kefir […]