Month: June 2013

Normally while drinking a cup of coffee for breakfast, the thinking’s of cottage cheese (Tvorog) would not be brought up. But living in Russia has changed those thinking’s…

In Russia cottage cheese is more than a, “I eat it for losing weight and its great with tuna,” food substance. In Russia it is a mainstay in the food chain…

Sveta just adores Tvorog and would eat it 3 times a day and smile the whole time. I have learned to eat it three times a day and now I smile also… 🙂

Before we get to a recipe for Russian Tvorog (cottage cheese). Lets touch on what the difference is between Russian cottage cheese and what we are use to in America…

Cottage Cheese…

Russian cottage cheese is much dryer looking and is like a paste that can be formed into balls and blocks very easily. Russian cottage cheese has flavor and does not make a soppy mess of your plate…

In all fairness cottage cheese is not tvorog and tvorog is not cottage cheese. It is just that translation between the East and West ends up calling them the same. Another way to look at them is Curds and Whey and Quark cheese…

Now that we all are confused lets make some Tvorog:

Cottage Cheese Ingredients:

* 4 liters of raw whole milk  (important raw is best and about a gallon)
* 400 gram package of sour cream (kefir can be used as well? (your taste buds is what counts), that is about a pound of sour cream)

Cottage Cheese Lets Make:

1. In a large pot that is able to be heated in the oven – mix the milk and the sour cream together. You should add the milk to the sour cream a little at a time. That way the sour cream is broken down first and you do not have lumps. Stir thoroughly and it will be a thin mixture when done…

2. Now you need to set aside the mix in a warm place. I cover with a cheese cloth or cotton cloth, it will do also. This keeps the dust and dirt out. Placing it near the stove or oven is a good compromise for a warm spot. Let it stand and do not bother it for about 2-3 days until the mix starts to curdle. (I know, Yuck!) You will know when it is curdled… 🙂

3. I say give it 3 days. (That is what I do.) Once it has curdled sufficiently, place the pot in a 250 F (120 C) oven for about an hour. Remove from the oven and let it cool overnight. (Do not let oven get too hot or it will burn)

4. Now we will separate the curd from the whey. (This is what makes Russian cottage cheese better than American cottage cheese.) For this, you will need that cheese cloth that I said to cover the pot with. Just use another pot and or big mixing bowl. Use the cheese cloth as a filter over the new bowl and pour the curds and whey into it, through the cheese cloth. Make sure to tie off and hang above the bowl…

Let it drain for the whole day and or night, and wallah you have a delicious tvorog. To go a step farther you can make farmers cheese. Just squeeze or press the cheese cloth between several clean boards. Leave the tvorog another day while it drains more moisture off. The more moisture that you get out of the tvorog the better when it comes to that rich flavor. The tvorog will keep in the fridge for about a week. But ours never lasts that long… 🙂

The best way that we here in Russia buy tvorog is off the back of a truck that you will find all over Moscow. We have one that sells raw milk and tvorog everyday just around the corner…

That is what I love about Russia…

Yummy for your Tummy!

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 86.3 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered easy to read…

Sveta Drinks Tea and I Drink Coffee… (windowstorussia.com)
Thoughts by Coffee in Russia… (windowstorussia.com)
Thoughts from Russia with Coffee… (windowstorussia.com)
Coffee Thoughts in Russia… (windowstorussia.com)
Emails and Coffee… (windowstorussia.com)
Coffee Thinking’s in Russia… (windowstorussia.com)
Oladushki: Another Russian Pancake… (windowstorussia.com)
That Cup Of Coffee and the START Treaty… (windowstorussia.com)
Russia – Georgia: World “Wake up and Smell The Coffee!” (windowstorussia.com)
Sveta and I Live in Korolev, Russia… (windowstorussia.com)

Non Lawsuit: If Iran sees that Russia has changed its position on the delivery of S-300 missile systems, the Islamic Republic will also “change its conduct,” Iran’s Ambassador to Moscow Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi told Interfax News Agency…

He said that Iran resorted to judicial prosecution after Russia refused to deliver the systems to the Islamic Republic according to the stipulations of a previously signed contract. Russia refused to deliver the systems under the pretext that they were covered in the UN Security Council sanctions against Tehran…

So a Lawsuit will become a non lawsuit, if Russia does what is correct…

Non Lawsuit is a power play by Iran to help Syria and give Russia a way out of Medvedev’s naivety when he was president of Russia…

“Under the contract, if either party fails to abide by the obligations assumed, the other party will have the right to turn to court,” Sajjadi said…

The Iranian ambassador’s remarks came after Russian Technologies (Rostech) CEO Sergei Chemezov said on May 30 that Moscow seeks to reach a settlement with Tehran to withdraw its lawsuit against Russia’s state-run arms export company Rosoboronexport over the canceled deal as Russia’s chances “to win the case is very slim.”

Interesting and accurate on the part of Iran. This was a very bad issue during Medvedev’s presidency and it amongst a few other maneuvers by him, labeled him as the Western Wannabe Russian President. Iran has been very patient about this issue and now Iran is giving Russia the way out of the lawsuit and will turn it into a non lawsuit issue…

Do what is right Russia and make sure that these S-300 missile systems are in Syria and give Syria a chance to defend herself against tyranny…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 42.4 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered difficult to read…

Metro Fires in Moscow have been an issue all day today and Sveta took the bus all the way to work today. I did not have to try to change Sveta’s mind about riding the metro today. Sveta’s mother called and said stay off the metro. Oh by the way a metro is a subway in America…

I am relieved that she decided to take a bus and since the initial fire there seems to have been several more. I am not sure what is really going on, but fire is fire and so far 30 people have had smoke inhalation issues. I hear rumors that it is power cables catching on fire and since the metro runs on electricity, that can not be a good thing at all…

I suspect that she will take the bus home tonight. I am sure her mother who is watching all that is happening will make sure that Sveta goes the best route. Sveta’s mom is a wonderful person and mother, she will make sure her kid is okay and Sveta always listens to her mom… 🙂

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 77.4 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered fairly easy to read…

Metro – Video on the smoke and fire: Update…

On the news: Fifteen people harmed by the Moscow metro fire have been hospitalized, and three of them are staying at an intensive care unit, city health department chief Georgy Golukhov reported as of 1:30 p.m. Moscow time…

“Timber Smuggling” in Russia: I read Hardy Boys books to Sveta all the time. Sveta just loves those books and we have now read 18 of the books. So with my coffee this morning, I was thinking about an article that I found in the news. Then I smiled as I realized that this could have been one of the last books we read. In fact it was one of the books about Canada and the USA and this real life story is about China and Russia. The main difference being that Smugglers were using the logs in Canada to smuggle jewels and other items into America to sell them. You never know what they are sending to China from Russia in the logs? Interesting in my eyes…

Eight members of an illegal logging gang  have been detained in Khabarovsk in Russia’s Far East, for cutting timber smuggling worth an estimated 30 million rubles ($939,000), local police said on Wednesday. “The organized criminal group, led by the founder and director general of a large company, were in action for a year,” police said in a statement. The criminal group, consisting of Armenian and Azerbaijani nationals, supplied the illegally cut timber to China. A local forestry official is suspected of have been involved in the group’s activities and have warned his accomplices about impending inspections, police said…

Timber Smuggling is big business:

The world never has enough wood to burn, build with or produce paper with. In effect the vastness of the Russian country makes it ideal for the process of “Timber Smuggling.” No other country in the world has borders as long as Russia and that is a formidable undertaking to keep an eye on what comes and goes all the time, across the borders. China has the need for such a tremendous quantities of resources that  “Timber Snuggling” is a natural thing to do. Now that does not make it legal, it just makes it profitable…

I know people think that a few trees gone mean nothing, but there are some very rare animals that rely upon the safety of these forests. One of these animals is the “Amur Tiger,” I also see that the Far Eastern Leopard is about extinct and these timber smugglers endanger the big cats…

So I thought that I would toss this information out today, as it just struck home with the Hardy Boys books that I am reading to Sveta. Many of those Hardy Boys books are about smuggling and that seems to be a natural thing going on in Russia. Be it “Timber Smuggling” or anything else…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 63.6 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered OK to read…

Politician – Be they in America or be they in any other part of the world. They are vain, rude, conceited and egotistical. A politician is a class of human that has no connections with real people and these are the people that we elect to run our world. I have talked about this before (Narcissistic) and nothing has changed. Since that article of mine, I have seen a couple dozen more from big name writers saying the same thing about politicians, from Obama on down the list…

The reason I am thinking of this again over coffee this morning is about what is happening in Turkey. You know – Right?

Politician in Turkey: Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Hundreds of thousands if not millions are taking to the streets in anti-government rallies across Turkey to show discontent with the 10-year rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  This is now in day 5 and is growing. The people want answers! And the answer they are getting?

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says it means nothing, he sees nothing, they are scum in the streets and no one cares. The people who are doing this are thugs. Paid to cause issues and are infiltrating the good people of Turkey…

This is the same politician that has done all he could to start a war (NATO) with Syria and he has denounced constantly and consistently the fact that Syria’s Assad has not stepped down. The fact is, Syria’s Assad has as many people who support him in Syria, as Erdogan has pushing against him to leave in Turkey…

“What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander” – (The old goose cliché means that one person cannot assume to rise above another.)

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 66.6 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered OK to read…

Comments about my death is common. I get several a day and sometimes when I write a really good post. I get a hundred death threats. It is really sad that this happens and it happens at its worst, when I talk good about Russia…

Oh! I get good comments, but they are never more numerous than the death threats. I received several thank yous today about he cemetery article earlier this morning. They were from Russians who mainly live out of Russia now (but not all) and they enjoyed the walk down memory lane. I appreciate those comments and they come in many forms mainly on Twitter, Facebook and e-mails. Putting them on the blog is just inviting the demons to come out from America…

So while comments are still a pain, they are under control now and will stay that way. No e-mails that can be tracked, no comments…

Example of Death type comments that came today:

Kyle U Commie – I relish in the pleasure to kill you – one day – Never love another country over the US your birthplace – We will defend the US until our death – We are many – We are strong – People like you make that desire to kill even happier – GOD BLESS AMERICA – GOD BLESS HER PEOPLE – DEATH TO ALL TRAITORS! Russia is the cesspool of life – Only the USA has a right to the worlds resources – Obama has sold out our country – Ones like you help him – The day is near – Death is imminent!

I always smile when I get these type of comments. I think of someone who forgot to take his meds or maybe he is taking them and getting sicker in the head like the rest of the nut-jobs that are becoming prevalent in America. I see all caps as screaming at me in text and most people I know take it the same way. Besides this nut-job added a bonus and equated me with Obama…

You know that you are important and stepping on nerves when you get threatened all the time and I get threatened in many ways: Why now I have to pull Google Adsense off of all articles on Windows to Russia News site that have to do with the Pussy Riot issue. I started by only pulling the ads on the ones they force me to do, but now they are trying to censor all those articles (hundreds) and it is mainly on Russian News From Russia and I have had to simply for the time being. Yank the ads completely from that site. Otherwise Google said they would block my Adsense. Cool huh? I would miss out on 50 cents a day in money…

No lie! I get threatened about that stuff all the time. I get death threats, letters from lawyers, hate mail and blow up Russia stuff all the time. Then I get something like this on Twitter…

Started: I’ve been lucky in these cemeteries, with butterflies rather than mosquitoes RT ‏@kylesvet Cemetery Russian Style.

Back at: @RussianKnows Yes there was a lot of butterflies also 🙂

Back at me: @kylesvet Glad to hear it. Butterflies & bees add peaceful touch to these resting places. Thanks for bringing back memories with your post.

Now those comments were worth all the damn death threats and that is why I love Russia…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 76.6 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered fairly easy to read…

Cold War: This time Russia has nothing to lose and everything to gain:

That cup of wonderful coffee this morning led me to do some thinking’s and those thinking’s went down the path of the old cold war. The new cold war that I am seeing developing and it is being finagled a little bit by Putin. Remember to think Chess not Checkers as you play the game! Oh and also throw a little Shell Game in once in awhile and you have the makings of a new cold war…

I am not going to go into the details and explain what a cold war is, but you can Google and find out all that you want to find out and make your own conclusions. I am just saying that the world is beating America at her own games and it is a multifaceted attack going on…

The US is broke and yet at the same time she is spending money like there is no tomorrow. We bribe terrorists, we bribe countries, we bribe to buy friends and allies, we bribe with money and weapons and we live in fear as we play the game of buying our friends. Everyone knows that bought friends are fair weather friends at the best and a knife in that back at the worst…

Russia under Putin, knows that America is flat busted and that if the USA is kept spending money she does not have. One day she will crumble. Putin is slight of hand undermining things by playing into the hands of the lovers of cold war in America and that, America has plenty of. Then the terrorists all over the world know that nothing is forever, keep pushing the right buttons and the US spends money like crazy as she cowers in fear of “Terrorist Attacks!” Why the “Terrorists” just made new threats the other day and it all is to drive that spending of money, that is not available to spend. The whole world is holding out her hand and taking all that she can get, while the getting is good. For they all know that the USA is like the Titanic and while it may take awhile to sink, sink it will and the band will play as it is going down…

Have you ever noticed that the terrorists say, “We will get you when you least suspect it!” Then when they say that. We spend more money, lock more doors, install more cameras, pay more bribes and take a few more freedoms, all in the name of “The War On Terrorism!” Putin and now China are talking about weapons and army and warships. So while the terrorist are hitting the low buck issues, Russia and China are smacking the high dollar issues. And America is like a Bluegill, after that worm and has caught herself on the hook…

We need another “War on Something!” Like we need a hole in our head…

Lets see as I think about how many wars I heard about in America:  War of Drugs, War on Terrorism, War on Poverty, War on Drunk Driving, War on Cancer, War on Teen Pregnancy and War on Email Spam (Just to name a few! Lets not forget “Cyber War!”). These wars are spread all over the world and cause more wars as we piss the world off…

Now we can add a “Cold War” back to the list of wars. We (The warmongers!) missed that war and Putin has done the war mongers a favor and pulled their strings. The “Cold War” is coming back and it is in the form of Syria. You know that proxy war I have been talking about for two years on this website…

Russia is no longer the Soviet Union, but the USA is no longer the America we knew in the old cold war. The US is now much more like the old USSR and Russia is much more like the old America. The term USSA is becoming very common in the world and believe me, the people of the world see it…

Want to know what is strange: The US government falls for it all “hook, line and sinker…”

Now I have a question and a thought! Does the USS of A think it can go into a “Cold War” against Russian and China at the same time? That is what it is starting to look like…

Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay!

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 78.3 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered fairly easy to read.

Cemetery: a place that really is not a whole bunch of fun to be in, but yet still interesting and catches the soul, mind and thoughts like no other place on earth. That is how I look at a cemetery and yesterday Sveta and I spent most of the day running around a cemetery…

Sveta has been talking with her Uncle who is in his 80’s and he wants to have a head stone put on a family members grave. Sveta has purchased the head stone and it is in our flat waiting to be installed. I am going to install it and yesterday Sveta and I went to the cemetery to see what I would have to gather together, to allow me to install the head stone…

It was a very interesting trip and the first time that I have been to one of the family grave areas. Lucky it is cool, but 10,000 mosquitoes made a meal of me and seriously, I had to take an anti-allergy pill, plus I got very sick. I was bit that many times…

Cemetery:

The first image is the Graves that we were looking for. There are three people buried here in this tiny spot. Two people are on the stone that is visible and we will install another stone laying flat to remember Sveta’s aunt by. The other two photos are to show you how different a Russian cemetery is from one in my native homeland the USA…

There is no pattern and rhyme or reason to a normal Russian cemetery. I realize that Russians may see a sense to it all, but I do not. It is almost impossible to get around in and everything is fenced and gated. It was definitely a trip for the brave or a normal Russian…

I have discovered that Russians definable look at life different than Americans. That is what I love about Russia. The trip to the cemetery was wonderful and it is very close to our home. We have a list of what we need and a trip to the home store will get what I need…

I feel honored to be able to do the work, it just might have to wait until the mosquitoes go away. They just loved this American in Russia…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 71.9 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered OK to read.