Windows to Russia

Russian Beet and Potato Salad

If it has beets in it? You can make a safe bet that it has something to do with Russians. Russians love their beets and when in Russia you just have to try the various beet foods. From this salad recipe to borscht. You cannot go wrong and eat beets…

This is one of those very simple and excellent salad recipes that I like to post on WtR…

Ingredients:

1/2 cup eggs, hard boiled and diced small
1 1/4 cup potatoes, cooked and diced small
1 1/4 cup beets, cooked and diced small
1 cup green peas, canned, drain most water off
1/4 cup carrots, shredded raw
1/2 cup thin flowing yogurt, plain no sugar
1/2 tsp salt to taste
1/2 tsp black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp apple vinegar
6 each green onions chopped, including greens

Lets Make:

Grab a big mixing bowl and add all ingredients together in it. Mix by hand thoroughly, then cover, refrigerate 12 to 24 hours to chill it. Then and serve for breakfast, lunch and or dinner on a bed of cabbage leaves…

You can use lettuce leaves, but Russians love their cabbages and almost anything salad has cabbage in it or with it. Comes from the days of very little lettuce available…

Goes great with any meats and I like to add a pinch (actually three pinches) of garlic powder to give it even more flare for the taste buds…

WtR

Russians love mushrooms and Russians all grow potatoes. So when Russians are out gathering mushrooms, what is better than mashing some potatoes and adding mushrooms and frying it in a skillet?

Lets make, Russian Mashed Potato and Mushroom Croquettes…

Ingredients:

7 medium to large potatoes, peeled and quartered
Water to boil potatoes with
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 pound (450 grams) of mushrooms
Oil to cook and fry with
1 Tbsp water
Salt, pepper and if desired garlic, to taste
1 cup flour

Lets Make:

Boil potatoes in water till tender. They slide off when a fork is stuck in them…

Drain and mash potatoes…

Now saute the onions and mushrooms in some oil and the tbsp of water over medium-high heat for three minutes…

Now in a large bowl, stir the mashed potatoes, the sauteed onions and mushrooms, the seasonings and flour all together in that large bowl…

If too hot to handle? Let cool…

Now form croquettes. (A small ball shape.)

Heat oil in a large frying skillet and fry croquettes/balls over medium, even a low heat for 8 – 10 minutes on each side or until light brown. Try to turn only once. I drop them into the skillet and flatten them slightly…

Serve with sour cream and or chopped onions greens…

Russians dip these small ones into a small bowl of sour cream. The large ones just spread sour cream on top. You can use mustard, ketchup and whatever…

WtR

Just Thinking Today…

We all see the signs of power, leaders and resources are shifting. We are living in a repeat of time, we are the reason for it, look around and bask in it while you can because the world is shifting. It is going to be changed…

At this moment in our lives the old ways are fighting for their very survival, the new ways just have to keep unresponsive, calm and simply watch the old ways collapse…

It will not be easy to deal with a dying Empire. Much death and destruction can come from the thrashings of death…

We truly live in interesting times and should be recording what is happening in detail. That way maybe we can learn and not do it again. I am not sure we are able to break that circle of life, I am not sure we are mature enough to learn yet, for war is inevitable. It is ingrained with in our DNA it seems…

Enjoy life for it is precious and we really have no way to unify and stop the ones that hate change…

WtR

Just Thinking…

The “American Dream” is just that, a dream. America has been a full blown terrorist police state regime for many decades now…

As my wise and in the distant past American Confidants once told me in the past, “Nothing will change until you do!”

So, “Suffer and be subservient.” and or “Rise up and take back power!”

There are no other ways out…

WtR

I walked to the missile research complex. I have never been inside and most likely will never be. I have talked about this place before….I got a bunch of hate comments at the time and called every name in the book….sad it is…

This is one of the various complexes and I believe it is the largest and original one in Moscow. This places has thousands and thousands of people that work there. That is what makes Korolyov famous…

Korolyov use to be called Kaliningrad (Калинингра́д). The historical Russian Mission Control Center is located right here. That is your tidbit(s) of information for today…

There is a museum that has artifacts from Lenin’s era and a beautiful park attached to this road. I find it one of the peaceful spots that I walk. Most people do not wander from the main road and walk back in this area at night…

I love my new ZTE Axon 19 Pro 5G. It takes fantastic night images. Never had anything like it before. So the phone is a keeper… 😉

Sveta is still being a good babushka and spoiling her grandkids. Looks like maybe she will stay another week or so and in between times, I will start working on the loose tiles in the bathroom. I noticed the other day that some of the tiles have come loose and I will get some grout and floor tile adhesive and go to work…

We have been in our flat for over ten years now and it is starting to show. The original cheap, getting barely by construction is starting to give out and I have to start rehabbing the place…

We are one of the very few who lived with the way it was all built. It was built to basic standards to call it done to sell and most people spend a fortune to rebuild the places at the start of living there. I also see that even the ones who spent a fortune at the beginning are now having to redo also. So Sveta and I saved all that money ten years ago and now I will do the work… 😉

It is nice having a paid for home: lock, stock and barrel…

WtR

This recipe will allow you to make one of the iconic candies that Soviets and now Russians love. It is very simple, it lasts forever on the shelf and variations of this candy can be found in every store across Russia…

The best made candy is what you make yourself and you will find no easier candy to make…

Ingredients:

• 4 oz real butter
• 4 oz sugar
• 1 oz real honey
• 14 oz sweet condensed milk

Lets Make:

1. Mix butter and sugar in a sauce pan, on low heat. Stir until the butter melts and the mixture becomes well mixed…

2. Now add the honey and all of the condensed milk. Stir continually and bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat…

3. Then turn the heat back to low and cook the mixture for 10-15 minutes or until it becomes a deep brown color.

4. Important: Stir continuously to avoid burning at the bottom of the pot. Keep stirring please…

5. Have already ready: Grease the mold that you’ll pour your caramel into, (preferably a glass one). Pour the mixture into the mold once it’s done and brown, and let cool completely…

6. When cooled remove from the mold….Cut the caramel into tiny squares and wrap each in a wax paper….if you desire to do it the Soviet way…

The candies are very popular, just drop one in a cup of hot tea. It does not melt fast at all and it will flavor your tea to the last sip…

WtR

Russian candy or Russian chocolate (Finnish: kinuski; Russian: ириски-тянучки iriski-tyanuchki) is a very sweet toffee-like dessert made by carefully heating equal amounts of milk or cream and sugar.

Source: Russian candy – Wikipedia

With all the US metal tubs floating in the Persian Gulf you would think one of them would spot a swarm of cruise missiles coming from Iran?

Saudi Arabia better rethink its defense partner…

Seriously folks: If our ships cannot detect these missiles? How are the ships going to detect these missiles when they come for our ships? You cannot fight what you do not see…

What the Saudi report basically says is that “the weaponry could’ve been supplied, and probably was, by Iran in exactly the same way that [the UK] and others have supplied arms to Saudi Arabia, which had been used in this four-year war against Yemen,” Matthew Gordon-Banks, former British MP and senior research fellow at the UK Defense Academy, told RT.

Source: Riyadh gave NO PROOF Tehran launched oil-plant attack – but still ‘expects US to do its dirty work for them’ — RT World News

By that standard: All the weapons that the US supplies to half the world. Means we are complacent in war crimes and should be condemned also!

Better yet: The US better rethink what will happen if they have all their warships sunk in the Persian Gulf…

We (US ships) never saw these missiles? We won’t see them when they come for us…

WtR

PS: Yes I know cruise missiles fly below radar! Then we better get better radar or quit messing with the locals around the world…

The steam heating lines are fired up and all the ventilation shafts fog when it is cold…

+ 6 this morning and it looks like it could even freeze next week. Not a hard freeze, but below zero regardless…

I love winter, but I need to get to the Tiny Russian Village before the snow hits…

WtR

Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested Saudi Arabia should buy Russian air defense systems to protect its oil facilities from drone attacks, pointing to Iran and Turkey, who operate S-300 and S-400 missiles, respectively. “Saudi Arabia needs to make a smart decision, as Iran did by buying our S-300, and as Mr. Erdogan did by deciding to buy the most advanced S-400 Triumph air defense systems from Russia,” Putin told reporters in Ankara on Monday. “These kinds of systems are capable of defending a

Source: Putin to Saudi Arabia: Our air defenses can protect you, like they do Turkey and Iran — RT World News

The level of trolling of Putin reaches a new high, joking that #SaudiArabia should buy the same S-300 anti-missile defense system that Moscow already sold to Tehran (amid the laughter of Iranian officials, including President Rouhani) | #OOTT #oil #Iran #Russia pic.twitter.com/EcpTG5heAa

— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) September 16, 2019

But he really means that Russian will sell the S-400’s to Saudi Arabia….he just could not resist a dig at America…

The American defense systems are looking very bad right now in the worlds eyes…

WtR

Interesting jam made from pine, cedar, or fir cones is a traditional Soviet treat (Georgia, Siberia and the Caucasus is predominant spots to use this Varenye) and they say it is good for your health. Sometimes it’s called pine honey because of its texture (if made thick). To make this, you need young green pine cones. They usually collect them in May and or June at the latest. Cones should be soft, easily punctured with a nail, and no more than two or three centimeters in length…

How to make Pine Cone Jam:

For one liter and or about a quart of varenye you only need 0.5 kilo of cones (20-30)…

Cone and sugar ratio 1:1 (half kilo of sugar to half kilo of green pine cones)…

Wash the cones carefully in hot water and place in a stainless steel pan. Why stainless steel? They will ruin enamel/aluminum pots when boiling, as they are full of lots of resin…

Add the sugar and bring to a boil. Do not add water, unless you like thinner jam…

Then cool until at a warm safe to touch the pan temperature…

And repeat the process three times….until the cones change color to dark brown and become very soft and a toothpick will go right through them..

You can add lemon, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and or other spices, as well as any type of berry fruit. Like blackberries, raspberries and even gooseberries. To change the flavor…

Canning is as normal for any jams you would can and or just refrigerate the liter of jam in a glass jar and eat it within two weeks…

It is really very good, for those making faces at why would anyone eat Pine Cone Jam (Varenye)?

WtR

PS: Varenye or Varenya is a name used for any popular whole-fruit preserve. It is a term used commonly in Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus)…