We have been on a cooking spree this week. It is something we totally enjoy doing together. It is our quality time.
Monday was Borshch and potato salad; Tuesday Tanya made a yellow cake and I made Mexican cornbread, of which most went to her boys. Cooking for two is no fun so we send stuff home to the family all the time.
Wednesday we made 8 pizzas. Once I found out Tanya could make the dough and she found out I knew what to put on them, we were set. This is the third time for us. Tanya started the dough about noon and from 2 to 4 we cranked them out one every 15 minutes. Our oven will only hold one 12" pizza pan at a time. We sent five home with the boys.
Thursday Tanya made pumpkin-rice "casha" which means "mush" but we might translate it as porridge. Pumpkin, rice, honey and milk. I don't know the name of the squash, but do know it is not pumpkin per se. The hide is hard and the flesh thick, hard and bright orange. It can be eaten hot as vegetable, or as breakfast porridge or cold as dessert. I love it.
We had roast beef for supper Thursday night and lucked out on quality. Mostly I never complain as beef is beef and a treat to me, tough or tender. This roast was cuttable with a fork! With beef supplied by the dairy industry and no grading system, mostly we eat it as ground beef. A roast is a rare privilege, so to speak.
Today was cookie baking day. Tomorrow Tanya is going with Masha and her school class to Krivii Rih to the circus and a museum. Masha requested oatmeal raisin cookies. For 27 kids, two teachers and Tanya. So we made two recipes today. When I put the cookies in the pans I am lucky to get 40 from a batch, so I asked Tanya to do that part. She got 60 cookies from the first batch and 48 from the second. We lined a new shoebox (apparently I wear large shoes) with serviettes and filled it with cookies and still sent home a dozen to both Andrei's and Roman's.
Did you ever notice when a recipe MUST turn out good, it presents all sorts of problems you never experienced before. So it was with the cookies. But they taste pretty good and the kids will love them. Tanya figures Masha is thrilled because it is HER Babushka bringing them.
Tomorrow I make chili. Yeesssss! Tanya can't eat it, too spicy, so I make it when she is away.
Sounds like good times!
ReplyDeleteThe good life in Ukraine is defined in individual terms. A good post Al, to counter-balance the pessimism of the previous day's post.
ReplyDeleteYum! I'll be cooking up a storm this week, too. Growing up on the farm, I got programmed to cook/bake any time the weather prevented outside work. It was time-efficient, and it provided some extra heat. It's supposed to snow here all week.
ReplyDeleteBanana bread today, and a big roast in the slow cooker. Whole wheat/flax bread tomorrow, white buns next...
DC, we have so much fun cooking together. And a good thing we made a huge number of cookies as there were 40 kids and 6 teachers on Masha's school trip to Krivii Rih today and enough to go around.
DeleteMerv, thanks for leaving a comment. If nothing touches you it is a good country to live it.
Diane, I sure wish I could find a slow cooker here. 220v but I am sure there will be some in stores soon. We make banana bread too. One of our favourites.
Last night a new recipe was tried here (it should have been hanged too) :-)
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately there were too many chefs in the kitchen (I stayed out of the fray). Unfortunately the one who can't cook won the battle and the dish turned out undercooked as is their MO. :-(
Couldn't be hanged unless it was both tried and convicted. Tanya and I have our differences as to time and temperature too but we usually throw it back in if needed.
DeleteMy father would not allow an underdone roast and so my mother was famous for "making a few slices off the roast, for supper" and putting it back in the oven.