Week 2-- Eastern European

So I know this is a late post but last Monday I made another world dinner. This time we had Sausage and Cabbage soup and Vereniki/Pierogi. The soup would have been super delicious but I unfortunately got the gross sausage at the store. I have gotten it one time before and we didn't like the flavor. It has a very heavy spice in it (we think it is anise, and/or rosemary). It kind of tastes like licorice. While I was at the store I was debating which sausage to get remembering the previous experience, well out of a 50/50 chance I picked the wrong one. So minus that detail the soup was delicious. I didn't like cabbage growing up, but this was good.
The Vereniki were the best part though. They are basically a dumpling (or similar to an Asian pot sticker). I made the dough and then decided to use the mashed potato filling. The filling had caramelized onions, garlic and mashed potatoes. It was so tasty! I ended up eating most of them (Lin thought they were really good; I was addicted). So they are definitely going on the make again list.
I am sorry that I didn't get any pictures, we were mostly through eating when I remembered and there weren't really any Vereniki left and I just didn't take any pictures.

Week 1- Eastern Europe

Today was my first day cooking food from my new world recipe book. The month of January is all going to be from Eastern Europe and Russia. Today's dinner consisted of Mushroom & Cranberry Chicken, with steamed broccoli and carrots, and kasha. The chicken was pretty good. It was technically braised (a term I have never actually used in my own cooking). You sear the chicken and then cook it covered in liquid. The mushrooms were shitake mushrooms which I still don't know if I like they have an interesting taste. If you don't know what kasha is it is known more commonly here as buckwheat groats (not to appetizing sounding so I prefer kasha). According to the author buckwheat is used because in the northern countries rice and wheat don't grow so they use buckwheat which is actually a grass. Kasha is a common staple food and is basically porridge.
Tonight I made the recipe for plain kasha. It was definitely plain, kind of like eating bland oatmeal with a slightly bitter flavor. Overall not the favorite of the night. Both Lin and I want to try it again however with one of the other flavored recipes (with cheese (cottage or ricotta) or bacon and onions). It was quite filling and really healthy because it isn't polished like white rice. If we can find a way to make it a little more flavorful I think we will adopt it into our regular meals maybe to replace rice or potatoes sometimes.

Overall I would call week 1 a success. Definitely different tasting but not terrible.