Alinka

Oooh... those! Eggs! Beautiful.

He-he, I especially like the perfect rows of strawberries .

Megan, pancakes for dinner - and what's wrong with that? When I was growing up in Russia, pancakes, bliny, or eggs were never breakfast food specifically, rather whenever inspiration would strike my mom . kaneel, those look delicious! I love crepes.

Weekend brings this thread up . My husband made these pancakes this morning. They are from a box, but boy, were they good! I wonder whether it's because they are made from whole wheat flour, flax seed, soy chips, cornmeal (which gives them this wonderul bite), with butter and maple syrup, or because someone else made and served them to me?

RuthWells You must spread some jam, or honey, or at least Nutella on it for it to count as dessert. Patrick, those caramel brownies are beautiful. Can you share the recipe?

So it was Orthodox Easter yesterday. Here are some nice kulichi photos here: http://www.cook-talk.com/forum/index.php?s...pic=2492&st=120

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous Easter pastries, everyone! Yummm... Orthodox Easter is next Sunday; it falls on 23 April this year .

Abra, it is my great pleasure to share the recipe with you: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/106179 These are some of my favorite cookies. Always popular. And so easy to make, I almost feel guilty . Regarding the paskha, I think Pille will be able to help you more than I can: I've heard about it, but never made it...

Pookie, that bacon looks great! Crunchy, salty... yum. Chufi Klary, thanks for the info about rhubarb. I will see if we have it in the store when I go grocery shopping this weekend. I can't have breakfast without coffee. And I can't have coffee without something baked: toast, bread-and-butter, cookies, coffee cake - in short, anything with flour in it . Didn't have anyting bready at home this morning, so I baked these buns. I got the recipe from a girl who lives in Germany. She called them Gefüllte Buchteln. She also pours vanilla sauce on top of them that she prepares from a package, but I didn't get a chance to look for that in the store. Even without the sauce, these were lovely. I made them with different fillings: fig preserve, blackcurrant jam, red bilberry preserve, and marmalade.

Wow, that's what I call individual approach - even in Russian! Thank you, Pille. They say that flakes are the same as rolled grains. I've used rolled oats to make these cookies before, so I know it works great.

And, if you don't mind, I'll perform further translation: people on the Russian cooking forum have asked for the recipe .

Swisskaese, lovely cookies! And I love ginger, so I just can imagine how good the cake is. Pille, I was intrigued by the crust and was curious to try it, it looks really yummy, but I did not understand the "porridge" part. I think "porridge" is what we call hot cereal here. But I am not sure where to get rye flakes. Even your explanation did not help: "various flaked cereals that are used to make breakfast porridge in the Nordic countries. I used 4-cereal flakes (50% rye, 30% oats, 10% barley, 10% wheat)" Can you show the picture of what it looks like so that I can see what we have here that's similar? By the way, a friend of mine who lives in Tallinn saw the pie, and she asked for your Estonian blog address .

Pille's blueberry tart made with pie dough. Pille, thanks for translating the recipe! Although from Russia, I speak no Estonian .

I secretly confessed to Susan some time ago that I take close-ups vs. wide shots because my plating sucks and I don't want to show the whole plate . Chufi. Shame on you. You keep showing these gorgeous photos of the things you do to rhubarb, yet you are not sharing the recipes. Maybe now I want that crumble? I'm not sure we have rhubarb now, but anyway. I did see some stalks at the supermarket, maybe last year, so I need to check again.

It certainly looks that way!

K8memphis Those are way too cute! ludja The method really works. We used cut off a panyhose leg, put an egg with a leaf stuck to it insde (at this time of year small pretty leaves just begin to appear on the black currant bushes); twist; put the next egg in, etc. In the end you get a long string of eggs .

MamaC, the walnut bread is gorgeous, as is the pasca. The filling sounds delicious! I love the yeast dough pastries with tvorog (somewhat similar to cottage cheese), and raisins are often added, but I never heard of also adding rice! Do you have the picture of the cut piece to see what it looks like inside? lexy Thank you for explaining how to add saffron correctly! I just added the crushed threads to the liquid ingredients of the dough. Actually, I am still learning about the Easter traditions for baking. My mom hates to cook, and she would basically bake once a year, for Easter. Her kulichi (pl. from kulich) were very basic, just enough to observe the tradition, I suppose . For example, a lot of times people would sprinkle the white glazed tops with colorful sprikles, but she never did. To me, kulichi always seemed kind of boring and dry. What I did like, and still do, is other yeast pastry that mom baked for Easter: different rolls filled with raisins, sugar, nuts, or tvorog. She's normally bake a bucketful - I'm not kidding, we'd keep them in a real bucket, covered with a lid, and eat them the entire week. And then we'd toast in the oven what was left over and continue eating . Here is my take on my mom's pastries:

That's right. Here is our table for the Orthodox Easter last year. In the center of the table there are the two kuliches I baked, plus boiled eggs. The eggs are supposed to be decorated or at least colored in bright colors actually, but my friend who was responsible for providing those is not very handy with food coloring . And when I was growing up in the Soviet Union, we did not have food dyes, so mom would boil eggs with onion peelings to make them intense brown. I remember I was so jealous of the kids who had eggs other than brown . Here's the inside of the kulich: All yellow from egg yolks and saffron. And, filipe, no, chocolate eggs are not universal: they have not been traditional to Russia .

Kiev Cake Serves 8 as Dessert. In one of the Russian cooking forums this cake was a hit. After seeing countless pictures, I finally got around to making it. Did not bother with decorating, because I was making it to just see how it tastes. It actually reminded me of Russe Praline from The Art of the Cake: Modern French Baking and Decorating that I made some time ago. For meringue: The following ingredients and baking instructions are for ONE cake layer. We will need TWO of these, i.e. all amounts need to be doubled. Due to the volume of the whipped whites, it’s easier to make one layer at a time. 4 egg whites 1 cup super-fine sugar 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 cup chopped nuts (in the original, hazelnuts or cashews are recommended, but I used almonds and walnuts; both worked fine) 2 tablespoons potato starch (I used cornstarch) For buttercream: 3 egg yolks 1 cup sugar 1 cup milk 300 grams butter (1 stick is 113 grams) 1 tablespoon cocoa powder Make meringue: Preheat oven to 275 F. Beat together egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until soft peaks are formed. Still beating on high speed, gradually add sugar intil whites form stiff and glossy peaks. Sift starch over whites, then sprinkle nuts on top. Fold nuts gently but thoroughly into meringue. Spread evenly onto baking sheet lined with parchment. Make sure there is room for meringue to spread when baking. I drew a 10-inch circle on the parchment, but I think this cake works better in a rectangular shape. Bake 1.5-2 hours, until firm and pale golden. Cool on rack; peel off parchment. Make buttercream: Stirring constantly, bring milk, sugar and yolks to boil; cook until thickens. Beat cooled mixture into butter; add cocoa. Assemble cake, layering meringue with buttercream; sprinkle with crushed meringue trimmings or nuts. Keywords: Cake, Eastern Euro/Russian, Intermediate ( RG1690 )

Oh, come on, Megan . Looks like for the Sunday breakfast we girls had us some bread with eggs .

My somewhat healthy (it's made from whole wheat bread, after all ) breakfast: French toast with honey, blackcurrant jam, and mango. Real whole egg for soaking, no boring egg whites for me, thank you - weekend splurging .

racheld Yeah, "the puffiest, most golden brown little French Toast pillows," with a "ig dusting of powdered sugar, honey and fig preserves for topping" sounds very modest, indeed... Why am I so hungry?! For puffy French Toast pillows, no less!

Oh, please eat lots and lots of salmon roe, pretty please! ← You mean, zees? (Sorry, I'm just recycling an older photo: ended up being too busy to take pictures of my food here .) Megan, that scone looks so good, I can almost taste it: firm yet flaky, with super-sweet crunchy glaze...

I'm here for work. Was eating at a factory cafeteria today and acutely regretted not having my camera with me . Felt like I went back to the Russian summer camp 20 years ago . And that is after a week of dining in some really good restaurants and seeing many more: bistros, sushi bars, trattorias, coffee houses... Fortunately, this is not my last day in Moscow, so stay tuned

My "most important meal of the day" was blini with potatoes and mushrooms: Eaten on the balcony of a cafe inside the GUM shopping mall on the Red Square in Moscow :