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, […]

If you ever cooked a large hunk of meat, say, pot roast, picnic pork, leg of lamb, the abominable Thanksgiving turkey, or chicken, you probably have experienced the big feast aftermath syndrome.  Doesn’t ring the bell?  Well… you cook that beautiful cut of meat, you feed everyone until their are full to the brim, and then… and then […]

As days are getting warmer — some places already headed full-throttle into scorching summer heat — meal preparation is dwindling down to a few quick and easy basics. I don’t blame you people,  I mean, who wants to spend the entire evening after a stressful work day cooking when it’s so nice outside (well, that excludes me, […]

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 […]

My grandma and mom used to make this refreshing soup very frequently in summer.  It was typically made from young beets — tender bunch beets no larger than 2-3 inches in diameter. The idea here is to extract as much flavor and color from the beets as possible in the shortest possible time.  Then you […]