Cooking! (a post by B)

Well, it's that time again for me (B) to do this post. So, I was sitting in bed last night trying to think of what I could write. At first I couldn't think of anything but then I thought "what do I like to do the most". The people who know me already know the answer to this question: COOKING AND EATING. Basically anything to do with food, I enjoy.

Some of you may not know that I never really started cooking until J and I got married (6 years ago Sunday Aug 31st). But once I discovered it, I became addicted! At first I always had to follow recipes because I knew nothing when it came to cooking. Then I started experimenting which proved to be, um, well, interesting. However, when we got to England, I really started learning. Since we did not have much money and couldn't get Bojangles, I had to be inventive with whatever was available and cheap.

It proved to be a learning time as a chef but we usually ended up eating tasteless baked beans or spaghetti. Then we moved here. Now, we have cravings ever so often for good American food so I have tried to learn how to make things like chicken parmesan, chicken cordon bleu, baked spaghetti, all kinds of desserts, and then there are my own inventions.

The boys love helping me cook!

Unlike in the US, where you can buy already-made sauces or foods I have to make everything from scratch. For example, one dessert that wouldn't take me long to make in the US would be punch bowl cake. At the bottom of the post, I've posted the recipe I used in America, as well as the one I've used to make it here, so you can compare (and anyone who wants to borrow the recipe, I highly recommend it, it's quite delicious!).

Another example is soups. I have to make my own sauces and soups which can be time-consuming. Now, you may be thinking "that poor girl" but let me assure you, I AM LOVING IT! I have always wanted to be able to cook from scratch, and now here I am, coming up with my own recipes and some of them have actually turned out to be good (according to our Russian friends, who wouldn't lie about that kind of stuff). ;-)

I am still trying to find Russian recipes and luckily my new language helper (Lena) loves to cook and eat almost as much as I do and she said she will teach me some recipes.

So, there you have it. It is a little longer than my normal post but then again it's what I love to do! I'm stopping now but I could talk about this all day. If you are still reading this I would love to know your favorite recipes (this doesn't include Bojangles or Taco Bell, as that won't do us a lot of good. Sorry, Rachael). I will leave you with some random pictures because I like these pictures, not that they have anything to do with this post.


It was our anniversary last week and we decided to go fancy: the cafeteria at IKEA. It's about the only restaurant in Moscow that you can go to for less than $15 a plate, so we each enjoyed some meatballs and borshch. It worked out that someone left some crawfish untouched on a plate near us, so we even got to try some of those.

Of course, Steven may look like J, but that doesn't mean he only takes after him. Here he's enjoying a mouthful of butter during one of our cooking episodes (like mother, like son - isn't that the saying?).

And of course, the required video of him helping to mix the batter.

So, that's about it. As for our lives, we're still just plugging away at our culture and language study. It's starting to get cold here already (this week we had a high of 7° C one day; that's like 45°!). Anyway, that about sums it up, so I hope you enjoyed reading this and thanks for thinking of us.

And below, as promised, for those interested, you can check out the difference between cooking here and back in the US. I've copied in the American and Russian versions for contrast.

Punch Bowl Cake: America

1 Pillsbury Plus Devil’s Food or Chocolate cake mix (w/pudding in the mix)

2 small boxes of Chocolate Fudge or regular Chocolate instant pudding mix

3 cups of Milk

½ cup Amaretto liqueur

1 large tub of Cool Whip

12 Heath bars (don’t substitute any other toffee bars for Heath bars!)

Instructions:

• Make cake according to directions and bake in jelly roll pan; let cool to room temperature;

• Mix the two boxes of pudding mix with the three (3) cups of milk and ½ cup of Amaretto for at least 2 minutes (or for however long it says to mix on the box). Chill in refrigerator until thickened;

• Chop Heath bars (if you use a food processor, don’t chop too fine);

• Cut cake into 12 pieces;

• Layer pieces of cake, then pudding, then Cool Whip and then crushed Heath bars in a punch bowl; Repeat two more times (i.e., should end up with three layers); remember that layers increase in size;

• Cover with Saran Wrap and chill in refrigerator at least four hours, preferably overnight; and

• Enjoy!

That was easy! Now here is how I make it here:

Punch Bowl Cake: Russia

Chocolate Cake (double recipe, from scratch as below)

Chocolate Pudding (double recipe, from scratch as below)

Whipped Cream (from scratch as below)

Chopped Walnuts

Instuctions:

• Prepare Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Pudding, and the whipped cream (recipes below).
  
• Allow the cake and the pudding to cool to room temperature.
  
• In a deep dish, crumble the cake and cover the bottom of the dish. Then add the pudding. Then add the whipped cream. Then add the chopped walnuts.
  
• Repeat this process until you have 2-3 layers ending with the chopped walnuts.
  
• Refrigerate overnight.

Chocolate Cake Recipe:

1¼ cup (170 g) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (dutched/dark)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
½ cup (1.2 dl) milk
½ cup (1.2 dl) vegetable oil
2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 150 deg C

2. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl.

3. Add milk, vegetable oil and eggs.

4. Mix everything together until smooth, either by hand or by using an electric mixer at slow speed.

5. Transfer to bake tin and bake at 150 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 35 to 45 minutes.

Chocolate Pudding Recipe:

5 TBSP (75 ml) cornstarch (Maizena)

1/3 cup (80 ml) sugar

¼ tsp (1 ml) salt

2 1/3 cups (580 ml) milk

5 oz chocolate (this can be 5 oz of a chocolate bar)

1 egg

2 TBSP (30 ml) sugar

1 TBSP (15 ml) margarine

2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla

1 TBSP (15 ml) Rum

Instructions:

• Mix first 3 ingredients in a pan. Then add milk and chocolate.
  
• Cook on med-high heat until thickened, stirring constantly (this will take about 5 min). Remove from heat and let cool.
  
• In a separate bowl, combine the egg and 2 TBSP (30 ml) sugar. Beat with a mixer or by hand until light.
  
• Add 1 TBSP (15 ml) of the chocolate pudding to the egg mixture. If you can do this while mixing the egg mixture it is better. Continue to add the chocolate pudding to the egg mixture a little at a time until all the chocolate pudding is mixed with the egg mixture.
  
• Then add the margarine and vanilla. Mix well.
  
• Cook on low heat for about 5 minutes.
  
• Remove from heat and add the Rum. Mix well and let cool to room temperature.

Whipped Cream:

3 cups cream (33% of higher)- room temperature

4 oz white chocolate

1 TBSP (15 ml) milk

3 packets of cool whip mix

Instructions:

• Melt white chocolate and milk until smooth. Add to cream and mix well.
  
• Then add cool whip mix and beat with mixer or by hand until thick.

So there you have it! As you can see, it's approximately 5 times as hard here, but every bit as good in the end. Maybe even better, since you work up an appetite in the preparation!