Lost in the kitchen...

I didn't blog yesterday, I didn't craft yesterday, heck I didn't even check my email yesterday. I spent most of my day in my kitchen. What kind of a Saturday is that, you may ask. A really enjoyable, relaxing Saturday, I'll answer. I like being in my kitchen (when the dishes are done). I like having pots on the stove, something in the oven, hands dusted in flour, apron strings around my hips. I really like it when I am trying new recipes. Yesterday was experimental. As you may recall, I've been on a From-Russia-With-Love kick lately, so I made a Russian-style dinner. Beef stew with horseradish and sour cream, vareniki (like pierogies) filled with cheese and panfried. The stew was really good, and I don't like stew as a general rule, so thumbs-up on that recipe. The vareniki were just meh. I substituted ricotta instead of cottage cheese in the filling and that was a mistake. The filling leeched out and all we were left with were fried vareniki wrappers. Still, fried in butter is kinda tasty, but I'd try them again with the potato filling.

I made a big ole batch of curried egg salad because I had some eggs that were less than fresh and I wanted to use them up. NR chose some cupcakes for our Saturday cupcake baking (which we haven't done in a few weekends, so it was nice to do it again). "Neapolitan" cupcakes, with the batter divided into three colors and swirled together for baking. It was fun watching him dollop the chocolate one into the baking cups. He kept touching the spoon onto the edge of the paper, which pulled it from the baking tin. Kinda like the cooking version of Operation.

Several dishwasher loads later, the kitchen is more or less clean. Still some splattered butter lurking in corners from the fried vareniki. We have enough stew left over for dinner tonight, which is nice. Today, I don't have time to hang out in the kitchen, and I'm sad for it. I wanted to make up some bread. Salt-rising bread, challah bread, french bread. All kinds. Guess that will have to wait for another Saturday.