Windows to Russia

More and more countries are banning GMO Foods. They are bad for you to eat, bad for nature and bad for the world. That is a thought going through my head as I sip that cup of coffee this morning…

For weeks now amongst all the other things happening around Russia, the subject of GMO Foods has been hot and heavy in the Duma. This is a serious issue and I am hoping for a complete ban on the Genetically Modified Organisms. I am one of the rare people in the world that has a biology degree that is with a genetic core and I know a few interesting issues that have to do with GMO’s. Bottom line is that we do not want to be eating them, as I really prefer to have a healthy life and I do not need any help in being unhealthy…

So I am making a statement here on Windows to Russia that it would be a good thing for Russians “not to be subjected” to the GM foods from the USA. Amongst those foods that should not be brought to Russia are Antibiotic laden Meats, steroid Foods and foods with different chemical additives…

I like the food we get here and it is fresh, plentiful and on every corner. It is easy to pick up fresh vegetables and fresh meat off the street vendors in Russia and I have shown numerous times how we buy food items. Nothing better then getting carrots from the person who grows them…

I will be keeping an eye on this subject…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Once again Russia and America play Chicken with Chickens!

Ractopamine, Russia and China

Russia: Don’t Try to Give me That Substandard Chicken!

[jwplayer mediaid=”45495″]

I love it and it looks some like square Dancing that I use to do when I was little. Then some of it is pretty free wheeling. We use to all gather in the barn and dance and dance and dance…

No music as it looks like it was filmed before they could capture sound while they recorded the video. So think silent film time and enjoy…

I can not tell you much about it, but I can say I like it and decided to post it…

Instead of wars we need to be dancing…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Black Radish and Honey… (Редька с медом от кашля)

1. Look for a big black radish, they grow huge. Scrub the radish and make sure it is clean on the outside and no rot. Cut the top off a quarter of the way down, then dig a deep hole down the middle. This hole is where you fill it with honey. Let the radish full of honey sit and soak. I put the top back on and drink several cups of coffee, It takes about 5 hours for the radish and honey to do their magic…

Then as your family member has a cough, you will cure that cough with this Russian home remedy. Give then a spoonful of radish flesh and honey every hour until cough subsides. This will also help very much with bronchitis…

2. Another way to make this for people who dislike eating radishes: Cut black radish cut into small pieces, place in pan and layer with honey. Bake in low temperature oven for 2 hours. Use just the juices produced and throw away the radish. Take radish juice for cough, one tablespoon at a time, 3-4 times a day before meals and at night before bedtime…

There is a couple of other ways to produce this, but you get the gist. It has to be black radish and honey. They have to mix together, either by heat, nature or self-crushing and mixing. It is the combination of the two that do the work and the juices that mix…

Some use red radishes and sugar and report not as satisfactory results. What can I say?

Use black radish and real honey and cure that cough… 🙂

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Andronikov Monastery is a former monastery on the left bank of the Yauza River in Moscow, and containing the oldest existing original building in Moscow. It is home to Andrei Rublev the most famous monk of this abbey…

The story goes: In the 14th century, a very high ranking church official named Alexei found himself on stormy seas on a journey back from Constantinople. Knowing death was close, he vowed in prayer that if his life was spared, he would build a monastery upon his return to Moscow. God saved him and in return Alexei built a monastery…

I also understand that the bell tower was once one of the tallest structures in all of Russia and now still one of the tallest bell towers in Moscow. Maybe the tallest…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee and was remembering the pictures that I took of one crazy looking Squirrel, a Ukraine Squirrel…

Now in America you have Squirrels, but they do not have these ears. This is one wild looking Squirrel and they look like this in Russia also. These photos were taken on a trip of ours into Ukraine and I could not pass up taking them, as the squirrel just seemed to love having his picture taken. Actually he was wanting food and if I remember correctly Sveta found a tasty treat for him…

Just thought I would share this with you…

Don’t you wish that you had a Squirrel like this in your yard?

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

A popular Russian/Georgian/Ukraine food that most likely started in Georgia. The Chebureki consist of a thin layer of dough and a ground meat filling, then deep-fried in a skillet of real butter. I call them a meat filled turnover as they are made the same, except the filling is meat and sometimes cheese, instead of fruit…

Ingredients:
4 cups white sifted flour
1 cup water
1 egg, slightly whipped
2 tablespoons real butter
a half spoonful of salt
meat filling (The filling is your choice of meat or meats and your choice of seasonings. I use a mixture of everything!)

Method:
In a large pot, bring the water to a boil, adding the butter and salt and stirring until melted.

Quickly mix in about a half cup of the flour and stir until smooth.

Add the egg and the remaining flour, using more flour as necessary to make a not-too-stiff dough, and knead until soft and even.

Let rest in a covered bowl at room temperature for one hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling by taking several handfuls of fresh mushrooms, trimming the ends and slicing thinly, and frying gently in butter with the addition of some finely chopped Spanish onion.

When softened, season to taste with salt, black pepper and some chopped mixed greens consisting of flat-leaf parsley, coriander and celery leaves.

Let everything cool down so that you can handle it…

To make the chebureki:
1. Roll the dough to a thickness of about your little finger.

2. Roll the dough into a thin sheet, cut a circle, no make it bigger than that! Yes that is better… 🙂

3. Place a dough circle into the open counter, add a generous spoonful of the filling in the middle.

4. Fold the dough in half and press a little around the edge to seal. I wet my thumb and finger and pinch it shut…

When all of the chebureki have been created, heat some vegetable oil and or real butter in a large pan and fry over medium heat until golden delicious brown…

Now the only problem is that people will sneak into the kitchen and steal these as you are not looking, so you better make a double batch of them…

Yummy…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I Decry Minibuses in Russia…

• The Changes To Moscow Congestion and Traffic… (windowstorussia.com)
• Russia: Her Drivers! (windowstorussia.com)
• Russia: Siberian Traffic Officers Tell True Ladies, How To Drive! (Ouch) (windowstorussia.com)
• Russia: New Metro (Subway) Rules! (windowstorussia.com)
• Emails and Coffee… (windowstorussia.com)
• Long Haul Trucks in Russia Now Allowed From America… (windowstorussia.com)

On Thursday September 8th, 2011, Russia marked 70 years since the beginning of one of the longest and deadliest sieges in the history of warfare – the blockade of Leningrad by Nazi troops…

Now on Monday January 27th, 2014, Russia marks the end of that deadly siege…

­Bombed out, isolated and taken to the brink of starvation, Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, survived 872 days cut off from the rest of the country…

When the German army encircled the city it was not the shells and bombs that the inhabitants feared most, it was hunger…

“It got far worse when the famine spread. There is nothing more terrible than famine, than to be there when your nearest and dearest starve to death,” remembers blockade survivor, Irina Skripachyova…

Those trapped inside the city had to resort to whatever means necessary to survive…

“A horse slipped on an icy street and collapsed. Immediately, people rushed out of their houses to chop it up. Our dad went out with an axe. He managed to get something like a hoof. The whole family lived off it for a week,” recalls Zinaida Goncharova, another blockade survivor…

Sometimes the need to eat saw people take drastic action…

“There were days when I would step outside my house and see dead people lying in the snow, with their buttocks severed for meat. This isn’t something we should try to cover up with heroic stories. That would be unfair to the history of the siege, and the people who endured it,” says Viktor Vilner, reflecting on what he saw back then…

70 years ago that terrible siege ended, but the memory has lived on within the Russian people..

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Big Mac price: I have found it interesting and I have also found it very important. The price of a Big Mac in Russia is much less than what you will pay in America. Now why is that? The burger is exactly the same. I mean exactly the same and having been a regional manager at one time for McDonald’s I can say, “They are exactly the same!”

I used The Big Max Index and information from the Economist and found that $4.62 cents buys you a Big Mac in America (Average price!). Then I found that they tell that Russia is selling them for $2.62…

So I walked up to the local McDonald’s and looked at the menu…

89 rubles is what I would pay! (Exact converted price below, at time I wrote this!)

So the Russian price is pretty accurate…

That means I expect the American price to be just as accurate…

That means that Americans pay a hell of a lot more for exactly the same burger, from exactly the same company, exactly the same ingredients and exactly the same taste, flavor and quality. Exactly my point! Why?

Russia is not the cheapest place in the world for a Big Mac, but most of the world eats cheaper Big Macs than you do in America and that should be a warning sign to everyone and do not give me any bull about how some make more than others and some are in better countries than others and all that bull crap. The fact is that a Big Mac can be produced cheaper and sold profitably all over the world and we do not look around us as we spend way to much money for a product…

Good grief look at India: Big Mac $1.54, wish that price was back… (Though no beef usage might make a difference in that price!)

Make any excuse you want, but the eastern world eats cheaper Big Macs than the western world and I am here to tell you that while McDonald’s is hardly profitable in America it rocks and rolls profit wise in countries like China and Russia. I am not in the loop with McDonald’s as I use to be, but it seems as with most world companies, the eastern world is carrying McDonald’s, as with most western based companies and fueling their growth…

This McDonald’s near our home, just does a phenomenal business. It is attached to a mall and they make some serious gross sales and that translates into serious profits…

You should be thinking about what is real and ask a question, “Why do I pay so damn much for a Big Mac and those guys over there pay less than half what I pay?”

Now that is reality and GDP has no bearing on those feelings…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The Russian Krendl Bread is a bread that is not exactly easy to make and that puts off the doers, so the eaters never get this bread very often. Russians serve this at the holidays and during the other religious times. It is rich and delicious…

Lets make a Russian Krendl and I think that you will find it disappears as fast as you can make it. My suggestion is that if you are an eater and not a doer, give many hugs and kisses to the doer, for then they will make more of this wonderful bread and to eat it out of the oven with fresh butter, is heaven…

Ingredients:
Active dry yeast – 2 ounce
Warm water – .5 cup
Salt – 1.25 teaspoon
Sugar – 3 tablespoon
Vanilla – 2 teaspoon – (fake or real)
Warm milk – 1 cup
All-purpose flour – 6.5 cups – (I sift)
Egg yolks only – 7 – (slightly beaten)
Butter – 1 cup – (Melted and cooled – your choice to ruin the recipe with margarine!)
Sugar cinnamon mix – .25 cup of sugar plus 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Fruit jam filling – 1 cup (I use fresh fruit mushed up and drained well – your choice!)
Egg yolk – 1 – (beaten with 1 tablespoon water)
Water – 1 tablespoon
Powdered sugar – 6 tablespoon

Lets Make:
First make sure you have lots of room to make this recipe…

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Then immediately add in salt, sugar, vanilla, and milk. Mix gently but well…

Then once thoroughly mixed: Beat in 2 cups of the flour to make a smooth creamy batter. Once that is accomplished, blend in egg yolks and .5 cup of the butter, then beat in 3.5 cups of flour to make a soft dough…

Turn dough out onto a well floured board; knead until smooth (10 minutes), adding flour as needed to prevent sticking. Place dough over in a greased bowl; cover with a cotton cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 35 to 45 minutes)…

Punch dough down and divide dough in half…

Roll each half into a 9in by 30in rectangle…

Brush each rectangle with the other half of the remaining melted butter, then sprinkle each with half the cinnamon-sugar and half the fruit filling…

Starting with a long side, roll up jelly-roll fashion; moisten edge with water and pinch to seal.
Place each roll, seam side down, on a greased baking sheet…

Cover and let rise until almost doubled (about 35 to 45 minutes)…

Brush loaves with egg yolk mixture…

Bake in a 350° preheated oven center rack, for about 40 to 45 minutes or until loaves are beautifully browned and sound hollow when tapped…

Let cool on racks for 20 minutes, then brush each with half of the powdered sugar. Or just shift on top of them. If you are able, make a glaze to pour over top. Like a cinnamon roll…

Slice them in half inch thick slices and watch them disappear when your favorite eater finds them. Oh and served warm is the “Cat’s Meow!”

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…