Northern California Adoption Shower

Having family and friends in so many places means having two showers so that more people get to enjoy the festivities.

 

Nesting doll decorations from Cricut's new print then cut feature.

 

Close-up.

 

We had different sets of nesting dolls to represent the four generations of our family (my grandma, my mom, me, our little Marie) -- each of us has a set of nesting dolls that was used to decorate the party.  This is our daughter's set, purchased on our recent "day trip" to Moscow.

This is my mother's set, chosen in San Francisco not too long ago.  All of the sets have even smaller dolls, but we didn't want to risk losing them.

 

This is my grandmother's set, brought back from Russia by a friend of hers a long time ago.

 

 

Here's my set, surrounding the coolest cake ever.

 

Seriously, look at this awesome cake our friend made for me.

The detail is truly awesome.  The cake was patterned off of Marie's set of nesting dolls.

Cake and champagne flutes.

The prize table. 

The yummy spread of food.

Olivye Salad, made with the recipe from the Natasha's Kitchen blog.

A "guess how many candies are in the jar" game.

 

Another view of the buffet spread.

 

Party favors -- bags filled with candies from around the world.

Here I am, about to cut the cake.

 

My pretty piece of cake.

And the head -- all that was left of the tasty cake when the party was over.

Easter Treats, Russian Style

Yes, I'm a bad blogger and it's taken me way too long to share these photos with you.  However, I figured it's better to share late than not at all, so here goes...

 

 

This is a special Russian Easter bread called Kulich.  My dad picked it up at Moscow Deli in Costa Mesa when he was visiting us the week before Easter.  It's very similar to our Italian panettone, but with icing on top.

 

 

This is Paskha, a sweet dish made of farmer's cheese.  It's traditionally eaten with Kulich.  I was able to get it at Moscow Deli before we left for Northern California. 

 

We enjoyed both the Kulich and the Paskha the day after Easter, on a picnic in St. Helena at Napa Valley Olive Oil Company.  They have a lovely Italian market, where we usually get salami and cheese.  The Kulich and Paskha made a great dessert for our picnic lunch.  Here you can see the inside -- it really does look just like panettone.



A Trip to Little Russia

I'm sorry this post has taken so long -- I'm not the biggest tech genius in the world, and I had a heck of a time figuring out where Instagram saves its photos on my phone so I could upload them.  *facepalm*

While we were visiting my parents in Northern California for Easter, we decided to go into the Inner Richmond District in San Francisco, otherwise known as Little Russia. 

My mother had never been to a Russian restaurant before, but she really wanted to try it after all of our rave reviews of Moscow Deli in Costa Mesa and Marivanna in Los Angeles.  My dad kindly drove us all into the city for a lovely outing the day before Easter.

After a quick stop at Gastronom Deli and popping our heads into the Russian Orthodox Cathedral (thankfully I had a chapel veil in my purse) we went out for a lovely dinner at Katia's Tea Room. 

 

From the moment we walked in and saw the adorable little pieces of dill on the pats of butter, I could tell that they were big on attention to detail -- people after my own heart.

 

My name is Mama Stork, and I am a tea addict.  Their tea is amazing -- and was served in a beautiful Russian railway-style glass and holder.  They kept my tea well filled, thankfully -- it was a chilly day, and the warm goodness was appreciated.  :)

 

Our lovely Zakuski (Russian appetizer) platter with (clockwise from top) eggplant caviar (an eggplant spread that doesn't actually contain caviar), pickles made in house, marinated mushrooms, and Vinegret (a type of potato, beet, and carrot salad).  Very yummy!

 

Borscht.  So, so, delicious.  :)

 

My mom is vegetarian and had these lovely potato cutlets -- they were a lot like my husband's chicken cutlets but without meat.  Served with veggies and buckwheat kasha.

 

My husband's chicken cutlets with mushroom sauce.  Served with crispy potatoes and veggies.  The potatoes remind him a lot of the ones he had growing up -- apparently they're something his mom makes as well.

 

My dad's lamb dish with rice and veggies.

 

My yummy beef stroganoff with rice and veggies. 

 

Merengue Pavlova with fruits and kissel.

 

Their glorious Napoleon, also served with kissel.  Napoleon is one of my dad's favorite desserts and this is one of the best versions of it that I've had. The kissel really does add something amazing to the whole dish.  :)

 

Katia's Tea Room is a great spot.  The food was wonderful, and even though they were super busy (especially with people picking up large take away orders for Easter the next day) we still had good, friendly service.  Katia even took the time to stop by our table.  A wonderful experience and we will definitely be back.  :)

Five Favorites Vol. 1

 

For a while now, I've enjoyed the Five Favorites posts at MoxieWife.com, and this week I've decided to try doing it myself.

Number One:

Vidalia Chop Wizard

 

This chopper is amazing -- very quick and fairly easy to clean.  It also wasn't terribly expensive.  You can buy it at Bed Bath and Beyond or here.  I used it on Friday to make the recipe below.

 

Number Two:

Olivye Salad

 

Easter is here, and we got to eat meat, blessed glorious meat, on Friday due to the Octave of Easter.  I had a church Women's Society book club meeting, and I wanted to bring something meaty and good to the meeting -- yet I needed something that would work well cold, since I was facing about an hour's drive.

What would be better than an Eastern European recipe to share a bit of our future children's culture with the book club?

It was a huge hit with the club, and the leftovers were a huge hit with my hubby later.

 

Natasha's lovely version of it can be found here.  I also found out about the Chop Wizard on Natasha's blog.  So maybe my favorite should have been Natasha's blog -- but I have to stretch this out to five somehow, right?  #cutthen00bsomeslack

 

Number Three:

We and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland

 

 

Of all the parenting books we've read for our now complete home study (yay!), none of them really addressed the issue of introducing faith based learning to our children.  This book explains it very well.  Now, there is a modified (post Vatican II and new calendar) version of this book called How to Raise Good Catholic children.  I prefer this, the original 1953 edition.  I hope to get Mrs. Newland's The Year and Our Children, which discusses recipes, activities, and crafts for each liturgical season and holiday.

 

Number Four:

Goong: The Royal Palace

 

 

Not adoption, family, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, or in any official way related to this blog whatsoever.  (Unless you count it as something I amuse myself with in between scouring the internet for updates on Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, which is very much what it is, I must admit.) However, I am ADDICTED to this comic book series from Korea.  Usually I read Japanese Manga, so Korean Manhua is new for me.

 

This series is a romance in an alternate history setting -- the author explores the idea of what Korea would be like today if they had a monarchy.  Against that backdrop, she develops very interesting characters and actually makes an arranged marriage plot seem realistic in today's world.  The art is simply beautiful -- I love that it incorporates both traditional Korean clothing and modern Western clothing -- and in both cases it is so very beautifully drawn.  :)

 

Number Five:

Pimsleur Russian I

 

 

 

We love the Pimsleur approach for language learning.  It works great, and we do our Russian lessons when we're in the car together, either on the weekends or when we take SuperPup to the dog park.  It's fun to do together, and we are learning more and more Russian, which we use when we go to Russian markets, delis, and restaurants.  :)

 

It isn't the cheapest thing out there, so I recommend trying their free lesson to see what you think.  I will say, though, that they run frequent discounts, and that their method has worked really well for us.  :)