Crackers

I love all things crackers. In supermarkets across the U.S. we have an abundence of crackers...varietys and flavors that defy imagination. Ritz, Wheat Thins, Triscuits, Cheez-its, Saltines, Grahams...the list goes on. I can find only two types of crackers here in Ukraine: the very stale and the very salty. I have given up my search and decided to take matters into my own hands.

I Googled a recipe for crackers and the first one I found turned out to be fantastic! The recipe has very few ingredients, all of which are staples in my kitchen.  The whole process takes but a few minutes and the results?  The flavor is reminiscent of Nabisco's Wheat Thins, which just happen to be one of my very favorite crackers of all time.  My next baking project will be for my all-time favorite, Ritz!

http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/02/05/finer-things-friday-homemade-cracker-recipe-at-long-last/

The Dough

The End Result

Nuclear Pigeons

I seem to have fallen into a strange place. The "I can't believe I even noticed that" place. Living in a foreign country and not knowing the language all that well, I tend to find myself captivated by the strangest things. Picture yourself sitting around with friends and neighbors, enjoying the cool of the early evening in your back yard. Everyone is chattering in Russian while I try my best to pick up threads of the conversation so as not to left out. After a time, though, my mind tends to wander off into places and onto things that I can understand.

For instance...

We have many pigeons that  live here in our yard. Who looks at pigeons? I always thought of them as sky rats...to be avoided at all cost, else you get pooped on. But, my friends, pigeons I can understand, so I started watching them...their rituals, their habits, the way they lay claim to mates and territory. But, these are not ordinary pigeons, though. These are mutants. I call them "Nuclear" pigeons.  95% of our backyard pigeons are crippled. Most of them have only one foot. Many have one perfectly formed claw, and the other...well, it's mutated in some way.  Some have a little club while others have a little hook. It makes me sad to see them hobble about. I'm surprised nature hasn't done away with them. But they are all still here, walking about, avoiding the backyard cats and kids, waiting for someone to give them a handout. (Speaking of nuclear...to all who are not yet aware, it is the 25th anniversery of the Chernoble disaster).

Other things of note:

-Some of the venders at the bizarre ask me to pay in Rubles, rather than Grivna. (A mere slip of the tongue that always make me chuckle as I say..."Where am I?", never failing to get a laugh from the vender as well.)

-The fresh corn is soggy and I can't figure out how to identify the good stuff.

-I can only find the 1.5% milk in the market near my apartment which is fine, but if I don't drink it in 2 days, it sours.

-The 80's may have come and gone in the rest of the world, but here in Ukraine they are alive and well.

-When I made cookies for my neighbors they asked me how I got them so round. (huh?) This leads me to believe that although they all make (very delicious) pastries, cookies are always store-bought. 

There are hundreds of little differences, but Ukraine on the whole is a beautiful country with pretty awesome folks. I think at some point it will be "The Vacation Destination", as there is a lot to see and do. It's also very cheap here. The doller goes a loooooong way, which is pretty much what you can expect in most of Eastern Europe.

I'll leave you now with a picture of Miss Mouse. You can see that she is growning up very fast. In fact, she has grown "into her ears", as you can see by the desktop photo. 

Небесный карнавал

The party never ends here in Novomoskovsk! Last weekend there was an international hot air balloon festival, which translates from Ukrainian as the "Heavenly Carnival Festival". Unfortunatley the skies looked a little cloudy so they didn't go anyplace on the day they landed here. They were beautiful on the ground, however. The balloons came from Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Lithuania, and Russia. The whole city seemed to turn out for this event. There were musical performances going on and of course, fireworks.



Lenin



To see the film from our cities website:

http://nmsk.dp.ua/atn/1481-nebesnyjj-karnaval-2011-v-novomoskovske.html





Life in "New Moscow"

I got an e-mail from a fellow PCV who looked up the origin of the name of my city of Novomoskovsk and as it turns out it means "New Moscow". It seems that in the long history of Soviet domination, place names, street names, and even monuments still stand and may well stand for another 100 years. It may not have been a glorious history, but it is history, none the less. There are statues of Lenin all over the country. Almost every town has a tank in it's Center, and every city a MiG Jet...and sometimes both! I lived on Lenin St. in Myronivka, and now I live on Lenin Square, which abuts Sovietskya Street. When I shop at the bazaar the venders ask me for Rubles instead of Greven!

The differences between Ukraine and America are many, but some things stand out considerably.  Most notably I find that the packaging of products is a bit strange. I thought this was breakfast sausage.

Chocolate Ice Cream

Milk comes in plastic bags, salt in non-moisture resistent paper bags, and many items are packaged in that type of crinkly plastic that, once opened, rips all the way down the side. Fresh spices are packaged in paper cones that the vender assembles on the spot. There are no cooking extracts...although you can buy "Vanilla Sugar" as opposed to vanilla extract. I can't find lemon juice, but I found packaged lemon powder.

Potato chips continue to baffle me.  Just today, after 5 months of looking high and low for "regular" chips, I found some that resembled Pringles. They were actually quite good. When I say "regular", I mean, as in just potatoes and salt and no additional flavors.  Chip flavorings that are quite popular here are cheese, mushroom, fish, crab, lobster or crayfish, some kind of meat (bacon?), sour cream, and others that I cannot identify. Fish-flavored anything would most likely remind me of cat food, so I won't be going there anytime soon.

What constitutes snacks here are alien in everyway so I tend to just stick to what I know. There are rows upon rows of dried fish packaged like, and hanging with the, potato chips. I can't figure out where to buy non-popped popcorn and wonder what the mysterious little crunchy "things" are beneath a colorful wrapper with the name "Pirate Snacks".

I can't figure out so many things in the store because I can barely read so suffice it to say that marketing is a bit of a challenge. What's great in Ukraine though, is a little something of what American venders offered to its customers years ago...a chance to sample the goods. Before you buy cookies from the vender, you can taste one. Want to buy a pear?  Here, have a taste! Cheese? Smoked meat?  Sure, belly up to the counter and get a slice. They want you to be happy with their wares so you'll keep coming back.

Aside from shopping I have been planning all kinds of projects to engage my community in, one being the start up of an English club at my local library. After meeting with the director yesterday I was given a green light and it was decided that the best place to hold the club is at the Youth Library. Apparently the young patrons have been complaining of a lack of English language books recently, and when I walked in the door I was the answer to their prayers. As my mom likes to say "timing is everything". I have several connections to get free books for the library, and a schedule in place for the club that officially opens on September 18.  Plans include a field trip every 3 weeks along with American and British Film days. (Thank you for all those wondercful DVD's Katie!)

As for the rest of you who have faithfully kept up with my blog and have e-mailed with news from home, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Good night from "New Moscow"!