PURPLE BEANS from ANASTASIA'S GARDEN

 My sister, Anastasia, has a green thumb.  The amount of stuff she grows in a tiny space is unbelievable!

Gifts from Anastasia’s Garden

PERFECT GREEN BEANS (serve 4)

Cook ¼ pound of beans for each serving.

1 pound frozen cut green beans  (or fresh  beans)

¾ cup water

2 tbsp butter

¼ tsp salt

1/8  tsp pepper

1/8 tsp marjoram (optional or substitute a different spice) 

1.       Measure butter and seasonings and set aside.

2.      Put beans and water in Dutch oven over high heat.

3.      Reduce heat when water begins to boil. 

4.      Boil until tender:  about 7 minutes for frozen beans:  start testing at 5 minutes.  Fresh beans may take about 10 minutes.  (Watch that the water doesn’t all boil away.)

5.      Drain.

6.      Return beans to hot Dutch oven; then add butter and seasonings.

7.      Stir and serve.

• I cut up and cooked Anastasia’s long purple beans this way – they turned a wonderful dark green and were delicious.
• Anastasia suggests adding some Chinese spices and a little Oyster Sauce or Hoisin Sauce to the pot with the beans and water.

**********

I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to post a comment on my blog.  It’s like having a conversation and makes blogging so much more fun.  

  

I know that it’s been difficult to leave a comment but I have made some changes that should make it easier.    Also, I have worked out some steps to follow.  Please let me know if they actually helped or maybe need some clarification. 

To make a Comment for the First Time

1.        At the bottom of my post, click on “Links to this Post”.

2.       Type in your comment.

3.       Click Publish.

4.       You will be redirected to a page that says Create your Own Blog.  That doesn’t mean anything.  You will not be creating a blog.  Just type in your gmail address and your password.

5.       Hit Enter and that will bring you back to your comment.

6.       You may have to click on Publish again.  (You may even have to type in your message again, but after this first time, it should be much easier to make a comment.)

7.       Thanks.   And I will respond to your comment! 

SPICY FOOD and NICK STADNYK

Dad:  1975?

Not everyone likes spicy food, but, for our family, it may be in the genes. 

I don’t know when Dad started liking HOT food.  I think it probably started with fried eggs that were black with pepper.    

Nestor remembers Dad's Blackened Pork Chops.  (Dad cooked for the guys when they were harvesting on Matt’s place and Donald’s place.)  

An iron frying pan on the woodstove, pork chops sizzling . . . then Dad picked up the pepper shaker and the air around him went gray.

**************

1971-1972:  house in Defence Colony, New Delhi, India

*****************

INDIAN DINNER  Sept. 6, 2012

Tequila Lemonade

Chicken Korma

Alu Sagh  (Spinach with Potatoes)

Coriander Chutney

Cabbage Raita

Cucumber and Tomato Raita 

     Carrot Salad with Apples 

  

*******************

There was so much pepper in Mary Atwood’s  Cabbage Raita that I had to make my usual Cucumber and Tomato Raita to serve as the cooling agent for the dinner.  

I’m giving you Atwood’s recipe, however, as a salute to my Dad.  It would make a good salad to go with plain meat.

CABBAGE RAITA

2 cups cabbage

1 cucumber

2 tbsp green pepper

¼ tsp cayenne

½ tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

2 cups yogurt

1. Slice cabbage finely.   Soak in ice water for an hour.
2. Peel and chop the cucumber.  (Not necessary to peel if it’s an English cucumber.)
3. Mince green pepper.
4. Drain and dry the cabbage.
5. Combine all the ingredients. 

****************

And, the Ukrainian Element  

which complemented the Indian food very well, by the way, acting as another cooling dish:

CALAT z MORKVI ta YABLUK

from Bohdan Zahny’s  The Best of Ukrainian Cuisine

½ pound carrots

1 small apple

1 tbsp vinegar

4 tbsp sour cream

1 tbsp sugar

1.  Julienne the carrots.
2. Peel and julienne the apple.
3. Mix all ingredients together.

BLUEBERRIES with ANASTASIA

My sister says that she still misses living in the country, and that she enjoys berry picking because it is one way for her to connect with nature.

Anastasia’s friends took her to this wonderful spot.

 Anastasia is a creative and wonderful cook so she will do lots of different things with the berries.

  Bryan and I brought home 15 cups of blueberries.   

That same day, we had BLUEBERRY CRISP with Vanilla Ice Cream.

The next morning -- BLUEBERRY PANCAKES.

  

 BLUEBERRY and BLACKBERRY COBBLER

Best of all:  BLUEBERRY PIE #1

                                   BLUEBERRY PIE # 2:  spiced with Cinnamon & Nutmeg

We had a wonderful time picking blueberries with you, Anastasia.  Thank you so much!

I’m thinking next year Blueberry Jam.

P.S.  Blueberry Vareniki:  Aug 29, 2012:  Aline wrote:

Today was a real scorcher.  Chay is here ror a few days and he wanted to do baking so I went on Suburban Grandma and got her blueberry perogies recipe.   Boy did Chay ever like them piled high with whipping cream. He helped make them and thought it was fun pinching.  The reason we made them was because I was not starting the oven today.  

BREAD and STOVES, part 2

During World War II, Mom and Dad got a new stove, a yellow enamel Renfrew with a boiler on the right side for heating water. 

“It was wonderful,” said Mom.   “Everything baked beautifully.”   

1943:  Nellie, Florence, Mary

Aunt Florence still remembers Mom's stove.  “You could bake 3 or 4 pies in at the same time,” she told my sister, Diana.

“What I remember,” said Diana, “is Mom taking out of the oven a roast pan with 2 roast ducks.”

“Oh,” said Aunt Florence, “the roasting . . .  it just can’t be duplicated in an electric stove.”

The door to the oven broke off, unfortunately, from getting sat on too often.   After that, Mom had to use the metal screw top from a sealer to wedge the door shut.

Even after they moved to the new house in Shoal Lake, Mom liked to use a woodstove in the basement for singing chickens.  And one time, she said, the electricity went off when she was in the middle of making doughnuts so the woodstove was a good back-up.

On the other hand, Mom also made that comment about being able to get some rest after she got an electric stove whereas, with a woodstove, she couldn’t lie down during canning because the woodstove required constant feeding.  

******************

Xhlib Parka  (Crusty Rolled Bread)

  Recipe give to Savella by Mrs. S. Drul  (page 328):  a few alterations

Start bread in the morning as there are 3 risings.

2 ½ tsp yeast (or one envelope)

½ tsp sugar

1 cup lukewarm water                                                   1 tbsp sugar

1 cup boiling water                                                         1 cup cold water

1 tbsp cooking oil                                                            7 to 7 ½  cups flour

2 tsp salt                                                                              2 egg whites

1. Prepare your oven by putting one rack at the lowest level and a second rack at a middle level.
2. Stir ½ tsp sugar into 1 cup lukewarm water.  Sprinkle the yeast on top and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes.
3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together 1 cup boiling water, oil, salt, 1 tbsp sugar, and a cup of cold water.
4. Set oven to 350 degrees and heat for one minute.  Then turn it off.
5. Grease a second large mixing bowl and set aside with a clean tea towel.
6. Stir yeast into the large mixing bowl.
7. In small bowl, lightly beat the 2 egg whites.
8. Use electric mixer to beat in 3 cups of flour.
9. Add the egg whites and beat thoroughly.
10. Stir in 3 more cups of flour.
11. Knead in the last of the flour (about 1 ½ cups).  The dough should be moist but not too sticky.

12. Place dough in greased bowl.  Cover with tea towel and place in oven to rise until double.  (Mine took one hour.)
13. Grease a baking sheet.
14. Punch down in the bowl.  Cover again and return to oven to rise a second time.  (It will not take as long the second time – mine was ready in 45 minutes.)
15. Divide the dough in two.  Use a rolling pin and a well-floured surface to roll each part into a rectangle. 
16. Then roll each piece tightly into a roll.  (I rolled one from the short end and the other from the long end  -- it didn’t seem to make any difference.)  Be sure to pinch well at all the seams – or the bread will pull apart while it’s baking.
17. Cut diagonal slits across the top of each roll (about ½ inch deep).
18. Place the rolls far apart on the baking sheet to allow for expansion.  Cover with the tea towel and return to the oven to rise again for 30 minutes.
19. Take the bread out and preheat the oven to 400 degrees for 10 minutes (giving the bread this time to keep rising).
20. Boil some water and pour it into a casserole.  Put this on the bottom rack in the oven.  Savella says  “This bread requires steam for crustiness.”
21. Bake the bread for 15 minutes.  Then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 40 minutes.
22. Remove bread from oven and brush the loaves with cold water.

23. Return to oven and bake a final 5 minutes.

                                                 ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!

****************

Mom also wrote this about the matchmakers and old-time weddings:

There is a joke about the talk and the entertaining before the first meal.  The starosta said, “I like bread with a deep crust.”  It goes like this:  “Oh, I like bread with zakaletse.  The girl, she is nothing.  Mother is “zakalits na palits”. 

Sounds naughty . . . but  I’m only guessing.   Do you know what it means?

CABBAGE SALAD, KIEV STYLE

In Kiev, at the bottom of steep, cobbled Andriyivsky uzviz, sits a sweet-faced old lady with the abandoned dogs she has rescued.   She was there in 2004 and in 2008.  This is her life.  As you walk by, you can make a contribution. 

At the top of Andriyivsky Street stands beautiful St. Andrew’s Church, built in 1754 by an Italian architect.

  Andriyivsky uzviz

***************

KIEVSKI KAPUSTYANI SALAT

based on a recipe in Bohdan Zahny’s The Best of Ukrainian Cuisine

½ lb carrots, sliced in circles

1 lb cabbage, julienned

½ tsp salt

1 lb apples, peeled and julienned (2 apples)

2 tbsp lemon juice (separated:  use 1 tbsp with each apple)

2 tbsp crushed pecans

¼ pound freshly grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese

4 tbsp mayonnaise

3 tbsp sugar

¼ tsp pepper

3 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tbsp chopped basil

1.  Heat 1 cup water in a small saucepan with ½ tsp salt.  When it’s boiling, add carrots and cook covered for 3 minutes.  Check if they are tender, then drain, and set aside to cool.
2. Julienne cabbage, put in large bowl, and sprinkle with ½ tsp salt.

3. Put 1 tbsp lemon juice into a small bowl.  Cut up one apple and stir it about in the   lemon juice (to prevent browning).  Do the same with the second apple.
4. Mix the apples in with the cabbage.
5. Add the cooled carrots to the bowl.
6. Stir together sugar, mayonnaise, and pepper, then add this to the cabbage, and stir well.
7.  Decorate the top of the salad with the crushed nuts, parsley, and basil.

Ukrainian restaurants offer many amazing salads.

  

BORSCH with EGGPLANT

Since I love eggplant, it wasn’t difficult to make my second choice from the many borsch recipes offered in Bohdan Zahny’s The Best of Ukrainian Cuisine. 

Surprisingly, there is no vinegar or lemon juice in this excellent borsch, but we did not miss it.

BORSCH Z BAKLAZHANAMY (Borsch with Eggplants)

½ pound beets

½ pound eggplants  (this is double Bohdan’s amount but next time I would add even more)

½ pound potatoes  (if desired – I didn’t use potatoes)

½ pound cabbage

½ pound green pepper  (but Bohdan suggests 2 green peppers)

¼ pound carrot

¼ cup tomatoes

¼ pound onions

8 cups degreased chicken broth

1 tbsp tomato paste

1/8 tsp pepper

3 bay leaves

1 tbsp sugar

1/3 cup sour cream 

1 tbsp each dill and parsley for garnish

1.       Julienne beets and cut the eggplant into large dice.  Set aside on one plate.  (Large pieces of eggplant mean you'll get to recognize their melt-in-the-mouth texture in the midst of all the other vegetables.)

2.      Cut into small pieces cabbage, green pepper, carrot, tomatoes, and onions.  Set aside on another plate.

3.      Chop dill and parsley and set aside.

4.      Peel and julienne potato if using.

5.      Put beets, eggplants, tomato paste, pepper, and chicken broth into Dutch oven and bring to a boil.  (also potato, if desired)

6.      Add bay leaves and the rest of the vegetables.  Cook for 15 minutes.

7.      Taste for salt.  Add ½ tsp if needed.

8.      Add sugar and cook another minute. 

9.      When serving, put a tsp of sour cream in each bowl and garnish with parsley and dill. 

PICKLES # 1 : Marinada v Ohirkiw

AUGUST 28:  My nephew Lorne’s birthday

George, Aline, and Lorne

**************

Yesterday, my sister-in-law, Aline, sent me a recipe for some of the pickles she’s been making.  The name of the pickles struck me as a perfect description of George and Aline’s feelings in the picture of them with their first child.

MILLION DOLLAR PICKLES

Aline got this recipe from the Ukrainian ladies cookbook of Roblin, Manitoba.

24 cups sliced cucumbers (Aline uses big cucumbers)
12 large onions, sliced
3 green peppers, chopped in squares
Put 1 cup salt over these ingredients and let stand 3 hours, then drain and wash.

Sauce:
1 1/2 qt. vinegar
6 cups sugar
1/4 cup mustard seeds
1 tsp. turmeric
1 can pimiento, juice and all
1 red bell pepper (sweet)  chopped in squares
Boil the sauce, then mix the vegetables in  and bring to a boil.

Fill jars and wipe the tops.

Seal with snap tops.  Aline likes the snap tops because everything is so hot and you close it up and the tops pop telling you that it’s sealed.

                                                           Wait a week before using.