Packa Low Low

We are so excited! Grandpa Nelson came to visit, bearing gifts of a most American nature: fajita mix, and Betty Crocker cake mix are not to be found in Lviv. I'm told there is a store in Kyiv that has brown sugar ... needless to say, there are some food items, and other necessities, we're accustomed to that just aren't available in these parts ... like Downy, Betty Crocker frosting, Carter's onesies, Melissa and Doug floor puzzles, and food coloring.

Amazingly Packa Low Low was able to fit an incredible amount of goodies for everyone in his bags.

A dear friend, and surrogate grandma while we lived in Millbrae, Marlene McBride, helped me make Ella's first birthday cake just like the one we made for Mary.
It's fun to see how the colors turn out ... and even more fun if you are 3 or almost 5 to help make!
Just make a white cake mix according to directions, separate the batter into bowls (glasses) and add food coloring to make separate colors (don't forget to leave one white).
Drop colored batter by tablespoons into 2 flowered round cake pan ... try to alternate colors.
Continue until all the batter is gone.
Once the two round cakes are cooked, and cooled, frost and decorate as desired.
Another friend (Allyson) taught me how to more effectively frost cake.
Freeze each cake before frosting to make them easier to handle, and then apply a 'crumb' layer of frosting (thin layer), chill again, and finish frosting.
This is a fun, festive, easy cake for kids to help make, and eat.
Happy birthday Mary!

Borscht

A Ukrainian Staple. 

Here's how I was taught to make it ~

you'll want to wear an apron, beet juice is not easy to get out ... and that's coming from someone in the laundry business:)! 

Happy cooking ~ Ukrainian style!

Finely slice half a head of cabbage (in thin strips about 2-3 inches long).

Peel and chop (bit-size pieces) 3 large potatoes. 

In large pot, boil 1 cup large beans.

Add sliced cabbage and chopped potatoes. 

Wash, peel, and grate 3 medium size carrots, and 2 medium size red beets. 

Separate the grated beets into two piles (2/3 of beets in one pile, 1/3 of beets in the other).

Chop 1 medium onion - fry in large skillet in two table spoons of oil. Add the grated carrots and smaller (1/3) pile of grated beets. Add the larger (2/3) pile of grated beets to the cooking pot of beans, potatoes, and cabbage.

Over medium-low heat add to the onion, carrot, beet mixture 1/3 cup tomato paste dissolved in 1/3 cup water. Continue cooking for several minutes. 

Add frying pan mixture to pot.

Add salt, pepper, fresh dill, and parsley to taste. Wait patiently.   Continue cooking on low heat for several hours.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream, and fresh bread.  Other borscht variations include meat ... with or without a variety of beans ... and spices to taste.  Borscht is sort of like American chili and people get passionate about what should and shouldn't be in a 'good' bowl of borscht.  As long as you have beets, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and onions in there - it counts as Borscht, I'm told - and then you can do whatever you like to spice it up!

Ukrainian salad

This quick and easy Ukrainian salad is a staple we eat several times a week.

Sliced cucumbers, chopped tomatoes, fresh dill, salt, pepper and drizzle with oil.
It's eaten here as a side to almost any, and every, Ukrainian meal.

potato verenyky

You can make verenyky with virtually any fruit or vegetable. Potato is probably the most common. If there is meat, it's called palmanni. I love verenyky with cabbage, onions, and carrots. At our favorite Lviv restaurant they serve poppy-seed verenyky with golden raisins and a honey sauce ... mmm.
For potato verenyky, peel, boil (in salted water), and mash 4 medium potatoes.
Make the verenyky dough.
Once the mashed potatoes have cooled a bit, add 1/2 cup ricotta (type) cheese.

Then, roll out the dough, add potato filling, and pinch tight to close - adding flour to seal the edges.

Boil for 5-7 minutes.

In the meantime cook a 1/2 cup finely chopped onions in oil until brown.
Top verenyky with golden onions, and serve with sour cream.

Galupski - Holupsy - Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

This is one of Benj's favorite Ukrainian meals. I'm not sure what the correct English spelling is .. but in Ukrainian it sounds like "holupsy." The more I travel, cook, and eat the more impressed I am with the similarities in foods. This dish is very close to middle-eastern grape leaves ... or the fresher version of Asian-American lettuce wraps. I love discovering dishes you can find variations of all over the world ... it makes me feel like it really is a "small world after all."

Here is how my friend makes stuffed cabbage rolls.

First, add 1 cup HOT water to 1 cup of rice - cover with a lid, and set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. You want to soften the rice, but not cook it completely. One mark, I am told, of well cooked holupsy is if the rice is cooked (not to soft, not too hard) correctly.
Next, saute 4 medium sized onions over medium-low heat.
Grate 3 large carrots. Once the onions have cooked for a while, add the carrots.
Meanwhile, it's time to peel the leaves of cabbage. This can be a tedious and tricky task - the woman who taught me to make this dish is an extremely patient mom of five young children.

While we were peeling cabbage leaves I joked with her that the reason she is such a patient woman is because she makes holupsy frequently, and anyone who consistently peels cabbage like she does would have to be patient! There are two ways to get the cabbage leaves off in a usable manner for the roll-ups. You can patiently peel the cabbage fresh, and if a piece is too large, gently cut the leaf down the spine, taking care not to puncture any of the under-leaves. If you peel the cabbage raw, make sure to soak the leaves in hot water to soften them before you roll them up. The first time I made this dish on my own I forgot to cook the leaves before rolling them ... and created a mess of broken cabbage rolls with more holes than I care to share.
Or, the method I prefer in getting the leaves of cabbage, is to cut into the cabbage stump (like your cutting off the top of a tomato), stick a knife in hole, put the head of cabbage in hot water, let it soak/cook until the leaves loosen, and then tenderly peel back each leaf.

Once the rice has absorbed the hot water (about 20 minutes) add about 2 pounds ground beef.

Let the onion/carrot mixture cool a bit (so as not to cook the meat), and add that to the rice and ground beef.
Add seasonings. The family that taught me this recipe uses coriander and salt ... but when I've made it at home I used oregano, salt, and pepper.

Now we're ready to roll-up! Don't hesitate to use a knife to slim down the spine of a cabbage leaf if it's too tough to easily roll.



Once you've rolled and stuffed all the meat mixture create a tomato sauce to cook the holupsy. One way to do this is to use the water the cabbage cooked in, add tomato sauce, and a bit of sour cream.  Pour over the roll-up, top-off with cabbage leaves, cover and cook.

Take a break, make a friend, play in the playground and wait while dinner cooks over medium-low heat for an hour, or until fully cooked. 

Finally, serve with sour-cream, tomato sauce, or soy sauce ... and enjoy!

ps- sorry for all the weird photo formatting (or lack of) issues ... blogger and I had a fight I guess, and I don't have the patience to figure out how to fix the formatting ... I guess that means I need more practice at making holupsy to help me become more patient.

smile! it's nutella

*On a side-note, when Mary saw Anne with her hair in a poof, and chocolate smeared across her face, she began belly-roll laughing. If only the video camera had been charged!