Learn Russian

Why do you think it's weird? It's not, for two reasons. A. Birchtree is a symbol of Russia, therefore it is a very appropriate name for a Russian store. B. In the USSR there was a chain of stores where you could buy imported goods, not for Russian money but for special certificates, with which the Soviet people who worked abroad were paid. I think I'd better explain this once more: Soviet people worked abroad of USSR and the USSR got paid with dollars. The people did not get the actual foreign money: the state kept the dollars to itself (as any decent slave owner would) and reimbursed people with "certificates" for which you could buy something in "Березка" stores. Imported goods not generally available in ordinary stores. Not everybody could have access to "Березка" - only those lucky bastards who had a chance to work abroad. That's why for most people who is 30 or older the name of Березка has some particular connotations, of prestige and wealth, as only the chosen had access to these goods.

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juniper949.livejournal.com

One really really easy Russian dish is a tomato and cucumber salad. All you do is slice tomatoes and cucumbers and mix it with fresh dill and some salt and use sour cream as a dressing. I used to eat that all the time when I lived with a host family. There are lots of other salads you could make. Try looking "vinagriet" up on the internet. You might want to try some different spellings though.

If you want to make dessert, you could probably find an easy "tort" to make on line too.

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>Try looking "vinagriet"

Did you mean винегрет? Its primary element are boiled beets which not many Americans are fond of :)

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battersby.livejournal.com

I guess I'm not really an American! :P

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I said "not many" -- be proud of being a minority :)))))

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juniper949.livejournal.com

Yes that is what I meant. I know its primary ingredient. However, most American's I know who have tried it have liked it despite not liking boiled beets. In any case, good luck finding an easy dish.

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>In any case, good luck finding an easy dish

Looks like you wish good luck to the wrong guy. I wasn't looking for any dish, be that easy or not, and I hate винегрет :)))

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evaluna68.livejournal.com

Take a whole mess of as many different kinds of mushrooms as you can find. Saute with garlic, sour cream, and maybe dill of you're feeling adventurous. Eat. :-)

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kart.livejournal.com

http://www.pierogies.com/ (http://www.pierogies.com/)

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You could always do blini with jam or sugar. Tasty, and pretty easy, although better if warm I think.

Or try pierogies with frozen pastry dough and whatever filling- that would be pretty easy with the dough part all done.

(I'm stuck on desserts. Yum, desserts)

Good luck!

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superslayer18.livejournal.com

I'm actually looking at a recipe for them now! I think this is what I'm going to go with... I'll make like 50 (would that take too long?) and serve it with jam or sour cream.

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The blini? The small ones, blinichki (like 3-4 inches in diameter or so) shouldn't be too hard...and you can't eat just one. :) The time factor is probably limited mostly by how much pan space you have. As a side note, blini are my favorite.

As for the pierogies, I don't think they should take too long either, but I like blini better...and it's blini time of year!

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superslayer18.livejournal.com

Blini sound perfect ^_^ About how large are they in diameter? I might end up making blinichki if they are too big...

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As far as I know, blini are usually bigger, kind of like crepes, and then they are rolled up or folded up with fillings inside of them. I'd say like 8 inches for blini.

But blinichki (the diminutive form of blini) are smaller, 3-4 inches, and more like silver dollar pancakes. They can be finger food. My host mom in Russia served them with sugar and sweetened condensed milk. Yum yum yum.

For a potluck type deal, blinichki would be better than blini, but you could probably just call them blini because, well, they are blini. Blinichki are my favorite form of the blini family, with chocolate banana blini (a recent, non-traditional form, of course :)) from street stands (they wrap the blini around the filling like a hot pocket so you can eat it on the go!) being a close second. I could talk about blini all day.

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I'm almost sure that blinchiki are the thinner ones made without yeast or leavening, like crepes, and the big, thick ones are blini. As for the little silver dollar ones, I'm not sure what one might call them... блинки? :) Could a native clear this up, maybe?

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Hehe, I'm probably wrong on the name thing. :) Either way, thick or thin, I think people at the OP's fair will like them.

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"big, thick ones are blini" - nope. Thick ones are оладьи.
blinchiki are small (approx. palm-size or smaller) and thin.

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WHAT?! I'm sorry, I have never heard them called that.

Apparently, it might be a regional thing. Thanks, though :)

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Оладьи (dimin.: оладушки) aren't regional, they are as widely spread as blini.

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So, they're different from blini, then?

I'm thoroughly confused...

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Yes, оладьи and блины are two different things. Оладьи are small (half a palm,) thick and mostly sweet. Блины are big (pan-size,) thin and mostly not sweet. When I say "mostly" I mean that some people have their own recipes: sweet blini etc.
BTW the term оладьи applies to many other half-palm-sized thick pan-fried things made from different stuff - potatoes, liver etc.

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Okay, thanks for clearing that up.

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onodera.livejournal.com

But you're absolutely right about блины and блинчики.
Блины require yeast and are thicker (but the dough is liquid still, so they spread themselves across the whole pan, unlike оладьи).
Блинчики are cooked without any yeast and are essentialy a kind of crêpes.

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onodera.livejournal.com

One more thing. The things on the picture on this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancake) page are, despite being called pancakes, a sort of оладьи. Блины аre round and big.

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>it's blini time of year

nope, Масленица ended last Sunday, it's the Great Lent already. No blini, no meat, no chicken, no eggs, no alcohol etc. until Orthodox Easter now.

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Ohhh, that's right. Missed it by a few days. :)

Random question out of curiousity: do Sundays "count" in Orthodox Great Lent? I understand that fasting in Orthodoxy is far more important and happens far more often than in non-Orthodox churches, but I'm not familiar with the traditions of Great Lent.

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>do Sundays "count" in Orthodox Great Lent?

mmmm... not sure I understand the question, but I try to guess -- There are days of more strict or more "liberal" fasting rules (for example, fish is allowed during a few certain days of The Lent,) but generally all 40 days of The Great Lent are "in" :)) It's only the 2nd day now anyway, and the first 4 days are the most strict ones.

And yes, fasting is important and happens more often than in Western churches - every Wednesday and Friday are lents, plus several longer lents during the year (like Xmas Lent - two weeks prior the Xmas.)

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Thanks, that helps. :)

In my church, the Lutheran church, you can count the 40 days of Lent, starting from Ash Wednesday and count 40 days forward, not counting Sundays, and then you reach Easter Sunday.

Some people take this to mean you can partake in what you've given up for Lent on Sundays. Most people don't. I guess I was wondering if you could have meat and blini on Sundays in Lent, but it sounds like fasting is the main part of Lent (unlike in Protestant churches like mine, where your "fast" is usually of something else, like in my case, certain time-wasting LJ communities. Not this one, of course.)

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Well, Orthodox Lent rules include food rectrictions AS WELL as other restrictions. We aren't expected to have sex during thise 40 days, for instance. Until 19th century (or even early 20th century,) some village churches would not christen the child born after 9 months past The Great Lent.

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Thanks for the information. I'm always interested in learning about other religions; one of the highlights of my time in Russia was going to an Orthodox service, but of course it takes a lot of studying, too, to learn about it!

As far as I understand it, Lent isn't just about giving up whatever, whether it's your choice of temptations, certain foods, sex, or whatever- as oryx_and_crake pointed out, it's about much more than that. I didn't mean to imply that it's "only" about fasting. Whether its self-imposed or church rules, food or whatever, fasting/giving up for Lent is about something bigger, regardless of the branch of Christianity.

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Exactly. This is not just the time of certain restrictions; this is the time to think of something important.

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Just noticed that - it's not two weeks before Christmas, it's 40 days, starting on November 28th each year, until January 6th.

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You're right. I normally don't keep minor lents, just the Great one. But I had to check before posting the comment. Sorry about that.

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Saturdays and Sundays are days of less strict fast: wine and vegetable oil are allowed. But definitely no meat or dairy or eggs or fish; fish is allowed on two days only during the Lent (the Annunciation and Palm Sunday); and pancakes theoretically possible when oil is allowed but only if you invent an eggless and milkless recipe which does not sound very much like pancakes for me.

And yes, the Lent is not about food first and foremost; food restrictions are only a means to a greater objective.

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xozyainzooparka.livejournal.com

To cook blini, at first you need a cast-iron frying pan with heavy bottom. Without this stuff u won't cook original blini's.

If you do not have this kind of pan, you can cook pelmeni. It is quite harder but in this way you will exactly impress your friends.

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A good and tasty recipe, very Russian and Lenten.

- Go to Russian store and buy some buckwheat (гречка) and some dried mushrooms (can replace with ordinary mushrooms if dried are unavailable).
- Soak dried mushrooms for a while and rinse well; chop them. Chop an onion and sautee it in veg. oil until golden. Put a measure of buckwheat and the dried mushrooms into a pot, add two measures and a half of water and some salt. Boil until water is almost absorbed and buckwheat almost ready, then add fried onion and boil on a slow fire, a little more, until ready. If you have fresh mushrooms, chop and sautee them in vegetable oil and add together with onion. If you are not observing the Lent, you can add some chopped hard-boiled eggs.

If you are not up to cooking, just go to a Russian store and buy some sauerkraut (квашеная капуста) with apples, a bottle of unrefined sunflower oil (it smells beautifully) and some dark brown bread. Take the apples out of the sauerkraut; add some oil to the sauerkraut, eat with bread; eat apples separately.

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I recently discovered that many regular American stores have something that they call Black Rye Bread -- which is not nearly as thick and sour as Russian black bread, but really similar to Soviet-time рижский bread, only more, er, airy :)

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Most supermarkets around here have an assortment of German traditional rye breads that also go very well with sauerkraut and vegetable oil. But I think we'd better not go on about this ;-)

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