Ukraine Christmas Cooking Report!

#1 Poppy Seed Christmas Roll (far left): looked better than it tasted. I did not care for the poppy seed filling. Maybe I should have spent three hours washing the poppy seeds and making it from scratch instead of buying the $7 can of filling? Next time I'll just fill it with cinnamon, brown sugar, butter and little chunks of apples. The bread was good and I must admit, it looked pretty but everyone pretty much yucked the filling. (Well, my kids did. My adult guest were very gracious and polite!)

#2 Cherry Bars or the Ukraine name I can't say (9x13):  we're good. Actually pretty dang good. But heck with 1/2 cup of butter in the crust how could they not be?

#3 Lemon Baka (above): was okay. Better than the poppy seed roll but not sure it was worth the work. It has a filling of cream cheese and cottage cheese. And both the bread's called for 1/4 t of ginger and lemon zest. Interesting....

#4 Ukraine store bought cookies (picture below Baka): I didn't get a chance to try so I take it they were fine?

#5 Russian Cream Heart: tasted just like the creamy jello they have at Chuck A Rama. Again, not worth the work but it did come out of the mold as evidenced above. Whew!

(I was suppose to have an 8 cup mold but I had two 4 cup cake pans so I made two and piled them up on each other. The only plate big enough was TOO big so I added the orange slices. Martha Stewart? I think not!)

#6 Borscht: (Sorry I only took a picture of the beets on Friday. The other two pics are from the time I made borscht before!) was okay. I'm not a big borscht fan. (My niece Sydni liked "the pink soup" because she LOVES everything pink and girly....teeheehee!)  While grating the beets the grating cone flipped out of my Salad Master grater and landed on my kitchen rug! Grrr...beet juice on my rug?? I managed to get it out. I wore an apron and tried the Ziplock over the hand idea but still managed to get beet juice on my fingers and somehow it soaked through my apron and got on my shirt too. Luckily it was a white shirt and came out in the wash. Thank goodness for Clorox! Alex has LOVED the borscht and has had it for lunch all weekend and even for breakfast on Monday - but Rylee couldn't sit by him because she claimed she would barf from the smell of borscht that early in the morning.

#7 That wheat porridge thing/Kutya (pictured below-brownish in the glass bowl): YUCK. That is how I would describe it and if you would like to try it and see for yourself? Come on over! I have a bunch left. It took FIVE HOURS to cook and that was after soaking it over night. I think it was the poppy seed filling I put in it? Again I would forgo that and just sweeten it with brown sugar. In fact, it might be pretty good with just some butter and brown sugar and maybe some cinnamon. I think it's kind of cool to know what you can do with wheat though. I am putting that in my vault and will make it again when the world ends and I need to use my wheat food storage or I have an extra five hours to sit around and watch it boil?

#8 Lazy Day Varnakey (Pictured below. White plate in the middle): was pretty dang good. It reminded me of cheese crepes I had in Ukraine. It was rather easy too. You just break up the cheese and an egg, 2 tablespoons of flour, and salt and roll into a dough. Roll the dough into strips, slice and drop in boiling water and cook. A little like a very soft cheese danish. Yummy with a little raspberry jam.

#9 Perogies (in the round glass casserole): I found some at Winco. Cheese and Potato and they were not authentic but very yummy. I sautéed onions and peppers and then the pre-made-dump-out-of-the-box Perogies. Yum! I will have to make those again.

#10 Potato Pancakes/Delruny (on the paper towels): These are like hash-browns with onion. I love the sauce that goes on the top. Sour cream & cream. That and a pinch of dill give it the Ukraine taste.

#11 Bread: I served Brown & a braided European Roll. (Both purchased!) I didn't try the brown but Alex has managed to finish the loaf on his own this week. The braided sweet bread was yum!

#12 Alex's boiled eggs with Ukraine sauce: not too bad. There were about six half's left and I let Alex polish them off after everyone left. I asked him before he ate the last one if he was sure he could finish and asked him to think about his tummy. "You are right mom. I am finished." and he put it down and clutched his tummy. He still has a hard time gauging when he has had enough. 

I still have the "special sauce" left in the fridge and this  morning I ran out of mayo for the kids tuna sandwiches. I figured I'd see if they noticed anything different. Nope. No one did. I even asked about it. So I'm pretty sure this is just mayo. "UKRAINE mayo!" Alex reminded me. "Yes, and it taste so much like American mayo you didn't even notice it on your sandwich today!"

I didn't count the sunflower seeds and the salted pork fat as a dish. They were just extras.

It took Alex and hour or so to warm up to his fellow adopted friends, but once they did they were running all over the place! It was so fun, Rylee had three friends, and Alex had his two friends and cousin and they're all about the same age and ran around playing hide and go seek. When it was time to leave everyone groaned. They were having too much fun.  

Here he is Alex (hot and sweaty after running around so much) with his friend Josh. (Formally known as Bogdan.)

All in all the night was a success....I think. That I know of, no one got food poisoning from the salted pork fat....or my cooking. Next year I think I'll American-ize it a bit and make my adjustments and switch out some of the least favorites.
That and not stress so much!