Borshcht

Nine months ago today I returned home with Alex.
I would like to say in honor of this occasion, Alex and I made borscht but-in all honesty-I totally forget what day it was until later that night!

We took lots of pictures to document this momentous event (but due to some glitch in our downloading a few have been lost!) because I wasn't sure I'd ever make this again.
So.... I'd been dreading making borscht as it sounded over whelming and I HATE beets. Alex had been asking repeatedly when we were going to make borscht-ever since I got my "Ward Cookbook Around the World" for Christmas and showed him a recipe for borscht. So although it's been nine months since we've been home, he's only been bothering me for just over a month to make it! I didn't use the cookbook recipe as I just didn't know what it would turn out like and it seemed so very complicated so I turned to my blogging friend, Diana @ Gold to Refine.
On Saturday we had a couple hours between basketball games and I had bought the beets earlier in the week and we just went for it! It involves A LOT Of shredding! Alex peeled the beets (I'm missing the picture showing his purple stained hands and the candid picture of me trying to wipe purple beet juice off his nose before we posed for our picture with me holding cabbage and him holding the beets with his stained fingers. Where those pictures are....who knows??)
Here's me shredding cabbage:
Here we are with our piles of shredded veggies
This the pot of boiled potato chunks, cabbage, kidney beans, (the recipe calls for Pinto but I didn't have any and used Kidney-tasted just fine) meat (I used canned chicken-thanks Diana for that short cut!) and the pan of sauteed carrots, onions, and cabbage.

When you add the sauteed veggies, then the soup turns a beautiful red/purple.

Here's Alex soaking up the "smell" of borscht.

Here is the finished product. ( Hummm....I should have wiped off the outside of the bowl!) Notice my cute Ukraine decor?? (My thought was I might get an invite to post on Sara's recipe blog if she's impressed with my pictures. Hint, hint!)
You serve it with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of dill. (Dill is on EVERYTHING in Ukraine!) So without further ado, here it is.....

But more importantly here is the happy face that made it all worth it...

He gave me a big thumbs up and "Good, good good Borscht!" He said it was the best borscht ever.
And everyone (at home) liked it!!

No, really. They did like it.
James ate two bowls and yes, believe it or not, I even liked it!!
I will make it again-now that I know what beets look like in the produce department and have a recipe that everyone liked- but for now, there's a big bowl in the fridge that should last Alex for awhile.