If there is one item that puts Ukrainian cookery on the map of International Yum, that would be borscht.  I would love to tell you that there are poems and songs written about it, borscht cook-offs and Borschtfests are held around the world, but, sadly, I can’t report any of this; apparently the rest of […]

Spring is almost, almost, almost here.  Folks all over the place are visiting their local gardening supply centers, deep discount stores piled up mulch and compost outside their doors, and weather is dig-in-the-dirt friendly more days than it’s not.  Don’t know about you, but I have already caught the gardening bug and got started on […]

I poke around Russian culinary forums from time to time, for good ‘ole time’s sake.  Once in a while I stumble upon a good recipe or two and feel compelled to translate them for my English readers.  Recently, I had a discussion with a few ladies who happen to be big fans of Belonika. If […]

Many vegetables happily serve as containers for tasty stuffing — peppers, squash, eggplants cut in half and scooped out will serve as boat-shape stuffing vessels… Some require a bit of work to be turned into containers, say, cabbage or brussels sprouts. But some of them just seem to be waiting to be used as containers, […]

I proclaim the soup season of 2013-14 officially open. Yeah, yeah, I know, we still have at least six more weeks of this hellish heat and humidity, but I can smell the fall already. There is just something in the way the air smells in the morning, the dew beads on the grass blades, the […]

Recently, I received a request for a meat-n-potato type dish for someone who doesn’t eat vegetables.  Not judging. I am sure they have their reasons.  Rather than fussing about it, I took it upon myself to go as fancy as I could with the meat-n-potato idea, as it sounded pretty challenging. My first thought was […]

Today there is going to be no nostalgic excursions. I threw this stew quickly together for dinner the other day, and it turned out very well. It’s got a somewhat soupy consistency because I didn’t brown the meat, I sweated it together with onions, just like my mom taught me. Then I added a few […]