Yesterday we went to a new IKEA in Brooklyn, for the 2nd time — we wanted to get a couple of things for our apartment, but as always most were out of stock.

Either way, by the time we were passing the restaurant for the 5th time or so I couldn’t resist my hunger anymore. We went in and got ourselves one set of meatballs and one set of chicken tenders.

For about $5 each we had a decent dinner, which even seemed delicious at the time. However I don’t think we’ll go there any time soon again. Cheap food is cheap food after all.

Last week was Daniel’s mom birthday. She cooked a lot of yummy stuff which included old time favorites like funchoza. I humbly participated by adding mango salad and herring appetizer to the table.

I found the mango salad recipe on Sweetlady’s blog. My salad looks a bit different than hers, but it still was pretty good and refreshing.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium cucumbers
• 1 mango
• 1 avocado
• 2-3 tablespoons of oil
• Juice from 1/2 lime
• Red pepper flakes
• Salt

I found the herring appetizer recipe on kuking.net a while ago. Basically, you spread some mayo on slightly toasted rye bred, then put a piece of marinated herring on it, and top it with a slice of kiwi fruit. Simple, but quite nice if you like herring.

Danya and I really like samsa, and I used to buy it in Russian stores. But samsa that is sold in the store near us is not very good (has too much fat in the filling), and I can’t eat it. So yesterday, since I have a lot of free time on my hands, I went through the trouble of cooking it at home. I think it came out pretty decent! The only thing that I didn’t like is that the dough came out a bit hard at the bottom, so I think that next time I’ll bake it at lower temperature. It probably makes sense to just buy a pastry dough in a supermarket.

I found the recipe on Kuking.net forums. Here is my free-style translation. Read more…

In the light of my husband’s newly found appreciation of chicken, I was very excited to cook a Lemon Chicken in Caper Cream Sauce last night.

Similar chicken, called Lemon Chicken Scallopini, was once my favorite meal in TGI Friday’s, but to my utter frustration it was taken off the menu a number of years ago.

When we were driving home from Boston on Memorial Day, we dined at the California Pizza Kitchen restaurant, located in Foxwoods hotel and casino. Danya ordered Chicken Picatta, which tasted — surprise! surprise! — just like the Lemon Chicken from TGIF.

So, since Danya liked the meal a lot, my mission was to reproduce it at home. I googled “lemon chicken capers”, and the third recipe that came out looked just right. After reading some reviews, I modified it slightly, so here is how I cooked it last night: Read more…

I want to post here a perfect recipe for Golubtsy, which was posted by Isha on Kuking.net forums. I was always afraid of this meal, because boiling a whole cabbage and then pulling it apart leaf by leaf seemed like a very daunting task to me. In this recipe, however, the old-fashioned boiling is substituted with microwaving — and this simple change made the recipe work for me.

So you’ll need: Read more…

Пару дней назад Даня выразил желание поесть грибного супа. Ну, если муж хочет — значит, надо варить.

Вчера в русском магазине я долго выбирала между 3-мя разными банками сушёных грибов, а в результате купила 2 упаковки грибного супа, которые включали в себя сушёные лесные грибы, перловку, растительные жиры, гидролизированные картофель и морковку, сушёный укроп, соль и чёрный перец. Read more…

Last Saturday we had a delicious dinner in a little Chinese restaurant which is located in Williamsburg. It was our second visit to the Red Bowl, and, just as the first time, we had a great experience.

We know David, the owner of the restaurant, for a while now. He used to work as a waiter in Wasabi sushi restaurant in Bensonhurst. Maruks, being sushi lovers as they are, developed a very friendly relationship with David, so when he opened up his own place, he notified them, and they took us with them one day.

The food in the Red Bowl is really good, and the prices are moderate. What I especially like though, is the warm atmosphere of the place. David treats us as special guests, always shares good alcohol with us, and gives discounts. This time we tried some sparkling sake from little pink bottles — I must say that was a real treat!

And if you want to know where the name of the restaurant comes from — just visit its bathroom.

P.S. Too bad that the battery in Maruk’s camera died and we weren’t able to take a picture of David.

Уже конец марта, а на улице до сих пор холодно! Непорядок!

Сегодня уехала т. Лиля — она приезжала на месяц погостить у Даниных родителей. Время прогарцевало мимо лёгкой иноходью, оставив за собой лишь лёгкое чувство недоумения — неужели ТАК быстро мы постарели на месяц?

Вчера ночью приехал Лёнчик, который будет в Бруклине пару деньков — какой-то там у них отпуск случился. Он немного рассказал нам о своих буднях. Вот что меня поражает, так это то, какими лёгкими в его устах звучат испытания и тренировки — ну прям Read more…

Хочу поделиться вариантом мяса по-французски, который пару лет назад подкинула мне сестра. Может, кому пригодится.

Нарезать картошку соломкой, обжарить до полуготовности (не солить!) = слой первый
Маринованные огурчики тоже соломкой, только, естественно, помельче = слой второй
Марковка по-корейски = слой третий
Ну, а дальше как обычно: отбитое мясо, лук колечками, сыр и майонез. Всё в духовку на 45 минут при 375 F (190 C).

Мне очень понравилось это блюдо с “пастушьим” салатиком (помидоры, огурцы, лук — мелкими кубиками, несолёная брынза — на свекольную тёрку, немного укропа, красного острого перца (специя), соли, растительного масла и лимонного сока).