Black Bread is : Oh So Good!

Black Bread in Russia is fantastic and the way that I make it is really easy. This recipe is not by any means as authentic as a Russian would make it but it is a good black bread. Once again Russia probably has more recipes for black bread than people living there…

Lets make some black bread the nearest way to Russian that I can. This is a recipe that I made up in chef school and the coffee grounds impart a unique flavor enhancement…

This will make one loaf of bread…

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water (around 110 degrees F.)
1/2 cup dark corn syrup (Light will work but color of bread changes slightly)
4 to 5 cups rye flour (dark unless no other choice)
At least a half (.5) ounce active dry yeast
2 teaspoon non heaping instant coffee granules. (For color and flavor)
2 teaspoons salt (I add a pinch more to the recipe, then toss a pinch over my shoulder for good luck)

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, put the warm water and corn syrup, and coffee, mix with spoon until combined…

Add the yeast to mixture and do not mix just yet, let stand until foamy, about 6 to 7 minutes…

Add 3 cups of the rye flour to the yeast mixture, and spoon mix until smooth. Stir in the salt…

Set the bowl covered with a cloth in a warm place. Let the dough rise for 30 minutes…

At this point you mix in more flour half a cup at a time…

When the dough is starting to get slightly stiff. Take the dough out of the bowl and lay on a floured surface and knead in more flour by hand as needed to form a really stiff dough and starting to be non sticky. (I like to knead the dough until it tries to stick to my hand but leaves no residue.)

This process will use a varied amount of flour…

Form dough into a ball, I make sure that the ball is non sticky on the outside by rolling it in the flour that is on the counter surface. (Not kneaded in but on the surface so non sticky.)

Then Lightly grease a large mixing bowl – the same as the one you just used is fine…

Place the dough in the greased bowl, and cover with a towel. Place in a warm place to rise, as long as 2 hours. (The dough should at least double in size.)

Once again put the dough onto a floured surface, and knead out the built up bubbles…

Then roll dough into a loaf shape, and place into a greased 8.5 X 5.5 inch loaf pan…

Cover the pan with a cloth, and let rise for the third and last time in a warm place until doubled in size. (This takes about 1 to two hours.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F…

Then remove cloth and bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven. On center rack or where you know best to bake in your oven…

A fully baked loaf of bread will have an internal temperature of about 200F, so just insert a thermometer into the center of the loaf and check the temp. If not quite there bake a few more minutes…

This bread will not brown very much because it is brown! 🙂

Yummy with real butter…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Inside is What Counts!

When I was 6 years old my grandpa who loved bananas, explained to me about bananas. It was something like this:

Grandpa looked at bananas three different ways.
First is when they are green. You know in your mind what a banana tastes like and you always try to eat them a little bit green. They just are not good green and grandpa said they were actually bad for you at this stage. 🙁
Second is when they are yellow all over, look perfect and taste great. This is the way most people like them. Grandpa said that they still were not good for you at this stage.
Third is when the skin has turned almost black and they are unbelievably sweet and delicious!
Grandpa was the third type of guy. That banana was no good until the skin was black and the banana was ripe.
He explained that a banana was not correct to eat until it had properly ripened and to eat it before that point was a crime. 🙂
Grandpa said that bananas were like people and you have to look below the surface.
I took his word on all this and sat on his lap many years eating those black bananas. I was always amazed when he would peel the banana and it was virtually perfect inside. (maybe a few brown spots) He would give me half and he took half. Those were bananas that made life…
It was not until later in my life that I realized that most people around me could not muster up the courage to eat a banana that was very ripe. They just turned their head and went yuck!
They never knew that a banana could be so wonderful and sweet! Oh they knew that bananas were good and that they loved bananas, but they never could get past the over ripe look and outward appearance.
Seems that is a common state of affairs in the world. If it does meet the social, physical and political standards then it is bad. So bad that we can not attempt to try it…
Why have I brought this up? That is a good question and you betcha that it has to do with Russia!
Russia has been painted to have that same brown and black skin that a overripe banana has. The Western press has successfully made sure that you have an altered view of Russia that might as well be a black banana sitting on the table.
Now a ripe banana has good uses and one of them is banana bread or muffins. But this is just par with Russia because all that does is put a facade on a delicious ripe banana so that you will eat it.
No one in the West is going to enjoy the banana at its best, except a handful of people that are capable of seeing below the surface…
I am glad that I am one of those people!
Windows to Russia

Russia is Ahead in Medal Counts at the 2010 Paralympics!

This widget will update as the medal counts changes…

Paralympic Games 2010:

When I was in the states years ago, I became a big sponsor of the Paralympics and also of the Special Olympics. I have had the pleasure to cook, organize and feed multiples of thousands of these Olympic contestants in my time. One of the most memorial times for me was the paralympics after the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta Georgia. Right Now the Paralympics is going on in Vancouver Canada…

The Paralympic Games are held every four years, following the Olympic Games, and are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The Paralympic Games are sometimes confused with the Special Olympics World Games, which are only for people with intellectual disabilities. (Link)

I have always been impressed by the organizations but have always been dismayed by the lack of public attention that everyone gives to these two wonderful programs for disabled people.

I was shocked as I turned my attention to the Paralympics and saw that Russia has excelled in the medal counts so far…
Go Russia!
Windows to Russia!
PS: (Look at Ukraine also!)

Russia: Village Or Towns?

Hello,

This is some Videos of what the Villages and Towns in Russia look like from the main Highways! This was taken on one of our trips to Northern Russia and we were in our old model 2410 Volga!



Towns will extend along ways on the length of a road, but not go very far from the road. Villages many times will be located several km from the paved roads on dirt trails. (this is my observation and I am sure Russians look at it differently)

Some towns have paved roads, where I have yet to see a village with paved roads. I get very confused what is a town and what is a village. (My Wife Knows)

Now you have seen a little more about Russia!

Kyle

comments always welcome.

Russia, They Shop Till They Drop!


Hello, (repost)

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee and was thinking about Russians and Shopping!

Last night my Wife and I went to the local Walmart type store in Moscow. Ашан: pronounced Auchong, for Americans.

My wife took pictures with her new camera that we just bought her. (no one is safe any more) They are good pictures. It shows how Moscow, Russia people look. It shows the typical cigarette ads that are everywhere. It shows the volume of people that you find everywhere. It shows the two of the most favorite eating out places. It also shows the largest retail dealer in Russia.

That mass of humanity extends all the way to the back of the store. I know because we just left there.

Now I will not say we, because my Wife is petite in structure and she is Russian! So, she evades the attacking Babushkas with no problem. Not me, I am a big bear and ill trained at cart fighting. I was hit by no less than 100 shopping carts, I was pushed out of the way by the same 100 Babushkas. I also, made the mistake of venturing off alone and was trapped for 10 minutes by a wall of carts and Ladies speeding faster than a Nascar race on the street outside. I was not safe and I did not have my Wife to protect me. :))

I did an article months ago. Link: Babushkas!

A shopping trip to Aшан, is an experience you will never forget. I know that it is my favorite store and have fun when we go, beside I always get to eat at McDonald’s or Kentucky Fried Chicken, inside the mall. Yummy!

Kyle

comments always welcome.

From Russia: A Memorial to the 9-11 Terrorist Attacks! (Struggle Against World Terrorism)

Hello, (repost)

A reader of ours Matt – left me a link to an interesting article. So I did so research – It is about a monument that Russia gave to America and I have never heard of it and have never seen it published in the main stream media.

“To the Struggle Against World Terrorism” was conceived as the events of 9/11 unfolded and as an artist from Russia, Zurab Tsereteli walked the streets of Moscow. He was struck by the outpouring of grief he observed, a memorial with an image of a tear formed in his mind.

Shortly after the attacks, Tsereteli visited ground zero and found the perfect place for the gift from the Russian people, the memorial is made of steel sheathed in bronze. Standing 100 feet high, its center contains a jagged tear. In it hangs a 40-foot stainless steel teardrop, representing sadness and grief over the loss of life, but also hope for a future free from terror. Etched in granite on an 11-sided base are the names of the nearly 3,000 killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Yet I can not find anything hardly at all on this. It is true and has been verified. Where is the Western Press and their articles of thank you t Russia?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=To+the+Struggle+Against+World+Terrorism&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=

Try this Google link above for the monuments title. Nothing except Wikipedia and Russian web news sites.

Now here are web links that will give you all you need for information on the monument. Even President Putin from Russia was there…

I am really stunned at America and the Western press. I thought that I had seen it all and then this pops up. Lets squelch the good news about Russia. No wonder Putin thinks America is a bunch of losers!

Windows to Russia wants to thank Russia for the monument.

It was a beautiful gift from the heart!

Windows to Russia!
Kyle & Svet

Comments always welcome.

PS: Thanks to Matt for letting me know about the article.

In Russia March 15th 2010 and looking a lot like Christmas!

How about March 15th 2010 and looking a lot like Christmas…

Try these pictures on for size. I went to the 12th floor today and was going to take some more pictures of the new flats being built. It started to snow like crazy and continued for a few hours. I decided to take a few super zoom shots of the men working on the tower because the weather did not cooperate for decent normal shots…

First few pictures looked pretty good and then the world became a beautiful blizzard:
Below – The beginning tower of a huge complex of flats it was hardly snowing. The next pictures are guys who are working in the tower…

Below – The snow storm became almost instantly and was a white out. A worker clearing snow from about 11 stories up the tower. Toss it over the edge…

Below – Workers getting ready to do something?

Below – OK! They are moving bricks. One slip on that ice and snow, is a long way down…

I did not get the pictures that I really wanted, but I got some just as good. Can you believe that it is the 15th of March? I bet you are planting a garden back in America…
Windows to Russia!

In Russia You Can Not Just Blame The "Blue Light" Cars!

I had three people send me the same link to the same article by e-mail. So I think I will talk today about a subject that has irritated me since I have started driving in Russia almost 4 years ago… (Driving on the wrong side of the road!)

Lets start with the article:

MOSCOW, March 6 (RIA Novosti) A video recording has appeared in the case of a car accident involving the chauffeur-driven Mercedes of a vice president of Russia’s largest independent oil company, LUKoil, that resulted in two deaths.

Yes the “the chauffeur-driven Mercedes” in the article was a Blue Light car and while I think that the people driving and riding in these blue light cars are a huge issue. I think that the blue light is just part of the problem…

Lets back pedal first: When I first started to drive in what I call the “everyman for himself” driving experience in Russia! It was only the fact that I had been taught from a very young age to drive defensively that I survived.

Driving defensively is not in a Russians vocabulary. So I had to learn about how to drive in a very aggressive defensive mode, to survive the offensive driving that I was encountering everyday on the wild-west streets of Moscow and Russia.
That said, lets talk about what I call the K-mart “Blue Light Special” for important Powerful Russian Rejects! What is a blue light? Good question! (Try this – Link)
Svetlana and I have come close to being wiped off the road 5 times by a “Blue Light Special”. But that pales in comparison with the about 50 comparable times that the normal Russian drivers did the very exact same stunt. Only because I and Svet look around for them do we skirt the issue!
But we are talking about blue lights in this article, so the first and most memorable experience for Svet and I with a blue light, was coming around a corner on a 4 lane byway. The opposite traffic was at a stand still and we had good traffic flow on our side. As we rounded a corner, a black Mercedes with a flashing blue light appears traveling in our lane straight at us. The Mercedes was illegally traveling against traffic to bypass all the stalled traffic. I was traveling about 120km per hour at the time and he was doing about 250km per hour. He had no where to go because the road that he should have been on was packed and he could not re enter traffic. So it was up to me to find a way out of the death trap and with inches we made it… (Old Volga’s handle better than you think!)
Svet and I survived and from that experience we learned what conditions to watch for to avoid a “Blue Light Special”, for that matter any Russian driver! One thing that is a fact. When there is a traffic jam, many Russian drivers will take anyway they see open.. Link – Link – My Blue Light Article – Link 🙂
Back to the article: From what I see on the news in Russia is that this wreck was another example of a individual that feels he or she is above most of us here in Russia and their use of a blue light was just a helper ticket to kill someone, because they think they are special to get to bypass the normal rules. It is a shame that people have to die because of this type of stupidity.
This is with out a doubt an near perfect example of the blue light causing a wreck! But remember that “Blue Light Specials” are not the only rejects that travel the wrong way in traffic to get to their special destination quickly. Nearly 25 to 30% of the Russian drivers will do exactly like a blue light driver will do, except they are worse because they do not even have a flashing blue light to tell everyone that they are around.
But people have to start somewhere and get angry about situations that are just not right. This is one of those situations and when they get the “K-mart Blue Light Specials” under control. That will help get the blue light wannabe’s under control! That is where the laws have to change and take the blue light off the road except for emergency vehicles such as cop, fire and ambulances!
As I said earlier, Svet and I have had about 50 hair raising experiences with normal drivers pulling the same stunt. A four hour drive through Moscow will net you the view of one serious wreck per hour and two to three fender benders in the same time frame. In fact the usual reason for traffic blockage is a wreck, which in turn causes two or three more wrecks. Which is caused by aggressive offensive drivers that have no common sense and courtesy for the other drivers. But a blue light, while a big issue of that aggressive driving is a lessor cause of wrecks overall.

This is a normal experience in Russia, but it should not be a normal experience. Maybe this time as the people and news are screaming – Medvedev and Putin will take note.

I use to run a business on the premises that I can not expect employees to follow the rules if I do not follow the rules (The same hold true for societies)…
Windows to Russia!

Is Georgia is Being Tramatized by Saakashvili?


Saturday night during the news hour on Imedi TV channel, Made a broadcast that Russia had invaded Georgia after a “terror attack” on the president of South Ossetian republic, Eduard Kokoity. The news report started out and stated that Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili and his government had been evacuated.

They did have a short disclaimer (like this statement) about not being true at the end of the newscast, very short! And at the beginning of the news cast was a statement that the program showed a sequence of possible events that could only occur “If Georgian society is not brought together against Russia’s plans.”} <---- Kinda small and short like this! Within several minutes into the news report, they “reported” the death of Saakashvili and creation of the People’s government headed by one of the opposition leaders, Nino Burdzhanadze. (Nino Burdzhanadze is pissed!) By this point Georgia was a madhouse of instigated turmoil and the damage was done…

On Sunday after all was over with and a form of calm had set in, Mikhail Saakashvili claimed that such “staging” of a war situation might be useful to protect Georgia from a new war with Russia. But he made clear that he had nothing to do with it and next time that the news station should do a better job of letting people know that is was a false report!

OK! I really believe that Sassy had nothing to do with it…

Windows to Russia!

Russian Road Police Eats His Bribe!


A traffic police officer from the Chelyabinsk region, caught in the act of taking a bribe of two thousand rubles, ate the money right in front of the police.

On March 2, 2010 a traffic police officer stopped a car driven by a resident of Kasli who broke the rules of the road (passing in a no passing zone). The officer demanded a bribe of 2,000 rubles for not filing a report on the incident. The driver then left to get the money.
Instead of getting the money, the driver went to the police for help. The Economic Crime Department worked out a surveillance plan to arrest the corrupt traffic officer. The driver was given the sum, three bills adding up to the 2,000 rubles, which he passed to the traffic officer that same day.
During the planned arrest the officer locked himself in the company car and, covering his face, choked the money down. Having destroyed the evidence, he voluntarily surrendered to the police.
Gotta Love it…
Windows to Russia!