The Delights of Russian Cuisine

We are definitely into the school year now. Summer is forgotten. The weather is starting to get that cool, fall-ish feel. My child is the only one still wearing sandals. All the other kids are starting to be bundled up. We're hanging on, though. Who wants to give up on the warm weather already? It is nice at school, though, because we were burning up last week.

Sophia's been really good lately. She's been trying to talk. It doesn't really make sense, but she thinks she is speaking in sentences. She'll imitate words and get the beginning sounds right. Today I said "light," and she repeated "ligh". Pretty good. The other day I was saying "turtle" and she was repeating me. She understands so much. She's been really into cleaning. After I wipe her face and hands, she always wants to have the washcloth. Then, she goes around the house wiping things down. She loves to sweep and pick up dirt with the dustpan. (She really just spreads it around.) The other day I accidentally left the bathroom door open and found her in there cleaning the toilet with the toilet brush. She amused me this morning by frosting her pieces of bread with yogurt. Then, she would take the bread and paint her face with yogurt. It seemed like a logical system at the time, I'm sure.

We've been enjoying having our nanny. She's great. She's getting into the swing of cooking for us. She's most comfortable with Russian food, so we have to get used to that. It's good, but as I've probably mentioned before, it's all the same. Somehow, dill finds its way into every dish. Some examples of what we've eaten this week - potato pancakes with sour cream; cabbage, beet, carrot and pomegranate "coleslaw"; eggplant sauteed in a great deal of oil with this white, really salty cheese; stuffed peppers; chicken with carrots and tomatoes. We never know what it will be. Last week, she made me eggplant fried in a batter, spread with mayonaise and dill. It was good, but there was so much garlic, you could smell it from a mile away. She makes a lot of blinis which are really thin pancakes, like crepes. Last week we had them with mushrooms and some with a white cheese like cottage cheese. While I like her cooking and I'm so grateful to have it prepared for me, I still get tired of the same taste. Everything tastes like oil and dill. Everything has either cabbage or potatoes in it. So, that's Russian/Kazakh cuisine, I guess.

Our plans for the weekend are to hang out, plan, and play with Sophia. The usual!