Shchi!

Well now I have to make shchi soup, don't I! 

I knew there was a reason I kept my journal on a Russian-run blog. 

Shchi, by the way, is most traditionally a cabbage-meat-mushroom-flour-spice soup garnished with sour cream and eaten with rye bread. And yes, in it's most traditional form, it really can take around 24 hours to make!

It looks like you can substitute almost all of the ingredients in one way or another; any meat is acceptable, and any vegetables you'd like to add, and it doesn't even have to contain cabbage per se. The traditional version is so thick you can stand a spoon in it; modern versions are more liquid. Almost all of the versions that I see online involve potatoes and/or tomatoes even though those aren't mentioned as traditional ingredients. 

Well whatever. It's a promise, LJ!
I will make shchi with Russian rye at some point :)

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friday five

From egg_shell and spacefem and because I'm just trying to wind down from a very stressful week by answering silly surveys.

1) If you had to build a Christmas tree with just items around your house, what would definitely be part of it?
Legos. We have so many Legos right now because everyone is buying them for Jameson to help him get through some depression. And he's doing the Colosseum so there are lots of brown bricks, I bet we could do a whole Christmas tree trunk out of 'em!

2) What's your favorite holiday to decorate for?
We essentially only decorate for Christmas. I love Bonk, Defender of the Hedge (a light-up Xmas T-rex) and Noggin (An Xmas Alicorn)

3) What are you best at baking?
BEST, hmmm. I'd have to say if "best" = "most-perfected", loaves of wheat bread. I make 'em most often, and they are consistently good at this point.
But if "best" = "what people like the most", I'd have to go with lemon bars. I've only made them once but they were so phenomenal that I still get asked by my boyfriend, and his friends, when I'll be making them again. And that's also considering the friends only got one bar each, and it was 48-hours old. Nothing else I've ever baked has been so memorable that people still ask for it months later.

4) What memorable gift do you still appreciate?
There are so many, I'm really fortunate to have thoughtful friends who really do pay attention to my likes and casual "I like that" mentions. What comes to mind are A) the planter that Jameson got me, which was how I got started on my gardening journey, and B) my Bread Baking for Beginners book, also from Jameson, which has resulted in a huge variety of delicious homemade bakes. I don't know which is better, we have benefitted hugely from both gifts.

5) What would be a good reindeer name?
Thunderhoof.

I'm Sorry

Just wanted to apologize because I haven't been very interactive lately.

I'm trying to catch up on everyone's activities this holiday week. I am reading your posts, I promise! Just haven't had time to leave a comment with everything going on. Mainly spending 30+ hours in a car this week.

It looks like most of you had lovely holidays, I'm glad :)