Just Coming out of the Kitchen ...

and it's the END OF MARCH?! ... this was too many caterings ... 6981 emails?! oh please let hubby have paid the suppliers ... well ... well my hips aren't any wider than they were in January so that must be a good sign. I am wiping remnants of .. is that spelt correctly? .. of cream cheese icing from my lips as I type and there were carrot cakes for 150 just picked up. thank god for carrot cake. i seem te recall eating a salad yesterday of cress, kale and baby romaine with roasted tomato and some sort of grilled cheese i threw together in the panini press with brie, souer angel and chedder. i think the brie was overkill but certainly the onion marmalade wasn't ... :o) and now i'm off to bed. just as soon as I finish the rest of this Woodford bourbon that's wallowing in the bottom of my glass. good night girls! damn but we work a bit too hard me thinks. Ja. Da. eto pravda ... :o) katrin

merry christmas to you!

oh no! my blog disappeared! it was turned off by blogger.com due to "suspicous activity"! i only discovered this yesterday. I received no mail from them about this. poor deal!! I still do not know what happened. but at least we're back! did anyone else have this problem?

I am totally overwhelmed with work and family. but for both I am thankful. :o)

Merry Christmas to you and yours. Keep your family close and be thankful for all your blessings. No matter how small, they are blessings. poka! katrin.

ps - christmas cookies spend a moment in your mouth but months on your hips! :o)

advent baking time again

i can't believe it's christmas already - the christmas markets are going up and officially while we're celebrating thanksgiving with friends, outside people will be drinking glühwein and eating stollen just around the corner - when did the two holidays suddenly merge?? i feel really sad for those people who will be working this thanksgiving - it is a tragic way to remember those people crushed in last year's stampedes by opening even more stores ... Sears I am truly disappointed! well. What would Mum have said? This is the 7th year she will be missed during the holidays - but I have her butter tart recipe!

Hubby likes dripping chocolate over them, and the girls like them with some jam - but I like them just as I remember mum made them. I still can't get the pastry just like she did it. here's to you Mum! and here's to all of you my friends - probably my last blog before Christmas unless Nikolaus brings me some more hours to the day on the 6th. :o) poka! katrin

Butter Tarts
50 gram walnuts
75 gram golden raisins
50 gram corn syrup
100 gram brown sugar
100 gram melted butter
1 egg
splash of vailla
pinch salt
1 tsp brown vinegar

mix ingredients together and add to tart shells until 2/3 full.
170 C for 20 minutes or until golden brown

pastry shell - I will leave this up to your own family tradition.
That's the most important part about christmas. your family.

Krem de la Kremlin!

Let's keep it short and sweet. Moscow, shopping, eating. WoW! Pics today, words tomorrow. Vodka was an adventure and I can still taste the caviar. While this might be banal stereotyping I can only say it's my side of heaven. Pass the buttered toast! More later and Ваше здоровье! ;o) poka! katrin (click on the pix to enlarge them - they're really MUCH larger)

Vodka: www.brestvodka.com/products/vodka/Belorussia (I know, it's Belarussian but it's still the best!)
Caviar: caviar-market.com/beluga1.htm


ГУМ :: Главный Универсальный Магазин
Red Square, #3, metro Ploshchad Revolutsii. www.gum.ru
Like Harrods! Almost empty when we were there, but this was two days after Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger's visit. There is a GREAT place to eat, a mockup of a soviet style canteen in GUM: Столовая №57 www.gum.ru/shop/392



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So these beautifully packaged chocolates cost a bit less than 200 dollars a box ... !



The most amazing food store is on the main boulevard of Moscow - the Ulitsa Tverskaya. You can buy your normal groceries in addition to all the yummy favourites you read about in the inflight magazine!
Yeliseyevsky Gastronom, Ulitsa Tverskaya Dom 14 Moscow www.trazzler.com/trips/yeliseyevsky-market-in-moscow









We walked past the McDonalds but not in. :O) We settled for a clubhouse sandwich and ceasar salad at our hotel instead. At the bottom right of the picture above is an FSB Mercedes - a regular sight parked on Moscow sidewalks.

Alsace Has Seen Better Days

It’s been 7 years since I was last in Alsace. This sounds like a long time but it was probably 7 years since I was last in Paris. It’s certainly been more than 7 years since I was last in Florence. What HAVE I been doing all this time? Well there were three girls to raise, and work, and, okay, we’ve been to Russia at least 7 times in as many years. I don’t know if this counts. I do know that Alsace is much different than I remember it. Or perhaps we always remember things differently to how they are.



The weather was hot and sunny and the girls were mostly in a good mood. Hubby drove the entire 1600 kilometers without complaint. However he balked at the chance to see Heidelberg on the way. We hit Strasbourg and got caught first in rush hour and then a 9 kilometer construction zone which added 2 hours to our trip to Basel. Switzerland btw, even at the corner of Germany and France, is green and clean and wonderful and you should drive to Basel whenever you can.

My French is rustier than my bike, and I found myself using English more than German for whatever reason. The girls have as little French as I but hubby is quite fluent which always came in handy. However it was in Russian that I exclaimed while toweling off after my shower in the hotel gym a large and very hirsute and naked young man came in through the door which did not have a lock!



On the minus side: Where did all the roundabouts in the roads come from? And when did the food become so tourist class? I couldn’t eat another frozen tarte flambee if my life depended on it and I was completely disappointed by tasteless choucroute which last visit I so enjoyed. I ate raw duck and overdone deer. The wines were insipid and I felt so completely uncomfortable and unhappy I didn’t steal ONE bunch of grapes from the miles of vineyards that spread in all directions.

On the plus side: Walking in the early morning sunrise through hilltop vineyards. Our wine merchant was still in Eguisheim, and the butchers who make quiche you can sit outside and eat at the edge of the fountain, and the hotel in Riquewhir was still there - though the swimming pool seemed much smaller – perhaps we were simply more people? Or larger? :o)

Poka! Katrin