Borshch and Lepeshki

I know I am almost a week late in posting. Russian week did not work out well for me. It had nothing to do with the recipes and everything to do with life. As they say, life is what happens to you while you’re busing making other plans.

Wednesday was fine but the oldest stayed home from school on Thursday because she wasn’t feeling well. She had complained about a sore throat earlier in the week, so much so that she missed dance class on Monday, so when she said she still wasn’t feeling all that great on Thursday morning, I decided to keep her home. We spent a majority of the morning running errands and then I took her to see Zootopia. By the way, that is a fantastic movie! At a little over three and a half years old, I don’t think she got the message of don’t let anyone dictate who you are but it kept her quiet and happy for two hours so I can’t complain. By the time we picked up the little one and got home, I was beat and way too tired to function. And that continued for the remainder of the week. I was still able to cook on Thursday so I have one more recipe but unfortunately I wasn’t able to make one of the recipes I was really looking forward to. Maybe we’ll revisit Russian week later this year.

So borshch. I feel like borshch is a very Russian meal. I mean, hello? In Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, the Russian tiger, Vitaly, drowns his sorrows in borshch! And yes, I do get most of my perceptions of a culture from animated films. Deal with it.

I was a little worried about this meal just because while beets are one of my favorite things to eat, I wasn’t too sure about a beet soup. I’m not a huge fan of soups in general because all the liquid usually leaves me feeling bloated so add in a sometimes funky tasting veggie and you can probably understand my hesitation.

Well, my hesitation was completely unnecessary. 

Yes, this soup was a little salty and I think I’ve mentioned before I don’t like salty foods (seriously Melissa? What DO you like??? I like rainbows and unicorns) but it wasn’t overpowering. The veggies were very tender, basically fell apart on contact, and the sour cream made it just the right amount of creamy. 

My lepeshkis were, um, not so amazing. I suck at baking. I mean, there’s just no other way to put it. Whatever flair I have in the kitchen decides to die the minute my hands come in contact with flour and other baking ingredients. These were supposed to be a mix of cookies and biscuits, a little light with a slight crunch, but mine came out rock hard. Like, it hurt to bite them. I still ate them though, they softened up when drowned in borshch.

I would make this again, minus the flour rocks. No need to break a tooth when trying to feed yourself.

Recipe

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