Thanksgivng

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving - here in Kiev - loads of food - loads of friends - and just a great time all over. 6 families participated - and with that many cooks - of course everyone brought their own desert (pumpkin cheesecake, apple, pumpkin, pecan, chocolate pecan pies, and apple crisp) as well- even with a sliver - I think I ended up eating a whole pie. -

Back to the classics

In my quest for classics - I have just finished listening to a Globe Radio Production of Madame Bovary. If you care about these things, and you might one day read Madame Bovary - be aware that this blog post will contain ***SPOILERS***.

Frankly, I thought it was a waste of time and don't understand why it is a classic. True - the author's voice was very picturesque - but the character - Madame Bovary was not sympethetic in the least. She was revolting with no redeemable thing in her and then her husband - who was nice just pines away and dies for no reason at the end of the book even though he learns what a terrible woman and wife she was. In fact - he is still making excuses for her and even tells one of her lovers that he understands!

I don't mind if a character is abit dodgy - I love Flannery O'Conner's stories and her characters are often quite raw - but the differnce is that they are not beyond redemption -- or they at least realize how rotten they were. Emma - in typicall selfish fashion - realizes she doesn't want to die for no other apparent reason than that it is painful and gruesom and not at all romantic - the crowning dissapointment of all of her dissapointments- unrealistic expectations that were not met.

Simultaneously to Madame Bovary, I am reading Crime and Punishment. How I managed to pick two books about morally revolting people, I 'm not really sure - but so it goes. Even before he commited the murder, I was unsure if I really wanted to read about such a character - and Alister can't remember how it ends but says "his conscious tortures him - so how can he be a complete moral rebrobate" So I haven't gone too far past the murder - but in my opinion, someone who can kill someone simply because he fell into a brooding depression and made it worse by not talking to people or seeking work and all of those other things that get yu out of the world inside of your head - well, I'm just not sure if I want to read about such a character if nothing then comes of it - i.e redemption and sympathy are not achievable.

Food, Inc

Lately, Alister and I have been watching a lot of documentaries (partly because PBS and the history channel seem to be the only stations that don't foreign IP addresses).

Our latest find was Food, Inc. We had heard about the movie this summer, and after watching King Corn, and Super Size Me - we had it on our list.

It was excellent. The main thing that keeps going over and over in my head is this one scene where an organic farmer is outside butchering and packing chickens. He says that the big chicken factory tried to shut him down by saying his operations were unsanitary (well, we might think - he is outside!) So he had his chicken tested along with one of the supermarket packing plant chickens. His chicken was 1000 times cleaner!!!!!! than the packing pack chicken - and, he made the point, his chicken hasn't been through any chlorine baths.

While this makes me feel tremendously safer about shopping in our outdoor market - it also makes me thankful not to be in the US buying my food. Based on numerous articles I've been reading this past year - I've already told Alister that we can't eat ground beef when we visit the states unless it comes from my Uncle's farm - and now i'm afraid that I really will cave and go "organic" despite the cost. While food is generally more expensive here in Europe - and even while Ukrainian food doesn't have the best reputation in Europe - many things - such as Genetically Modified foods - have been banned. Here in Ukraine, there still are concerns about chickens who have been pumped up with steroids or whatever - people will tell you to buy beef or pork or buy from a babushka - but in general - I don't think there are the huge mega packing houses and meat plants that there are in the states. While a smaller scale may be seen as inefficient - right now i'm thinking "cleaner" and “safer”.
In the UK - Beef and other products are safer still - because of the Mad Cow scare - meat packages in the supermarket must be labelled with the farm from which the animal came - that means no mixed portions of cows from Uruguay, Texas and Timbuktu - You can even select a piece of meat that came from your neighbour down the road.

And that, I think, is pretty darn cool.

Cooking with beets #3

I had bought some beets at the market the other day but as group was canceled due to quarentine and Alsiter doesn't like the beet salad himself- I needed a way to use them up . We just happened to be having pasta so I grated one up to add to the marinara Sauce.
The color was spectacular - though it did color the noodles a bit magenta - but the result in flavor was unnoticable while adding loads of nutrients.

A success in my book.

3 ingredients short of a sandwich

I found myself today wishing I could eat a Reuben Sandwich. The delectable, crisp, buttery rye overflowing with melted swiss, sauerkraut, and corned beef - and don't forget the Russian dressing!

Unfortunately - not only are there no places in Kiev that sell reubens (to my knowledge )- but not only can you not buy Russian dressing - but surprisingly Sauerkraut isn't present either. Ok - the un-availability of corned beef isn't a surprise.

Truth be told, I've never made a Reuben myself - I order them on rare occasions - the last one this June with my Mom at the Dayton Bookstore and Brewery. Yum.

So i scour the internet - all things must be able to be made from scratch is my motto - and so they can. If i can track down Prague powder and juniper berries - i can have Corned Beef at my disposal in a mere 10 days. Sauerkraut another 20. I think I can live without the Russian dressing - but then again, there is bound to be a recipe for it or thousand island somewhere on the internet as well. A grocery story in the center sells a beautiful rye - much nicer than the Ukrainian Baton you can buy in the kiosks - and swiss can be bought in any supermarket. If all goes well - I may be sinking my teeth into a Reuben within a month. Maybe I could even open a grill and add Cheesesteaks, Monte Cristos and other purely American inventions to the lineup.

Notes from the Quarentine

Tomorrow marks 1 week of quarentine. Cinemas have been closed, mass gatherings forbidden, the drugstores - of which there are many all have a booming business - but no masks. While some workplaces have sent employees home on "quarentine work from home" the metro is still packed at rush hour. Some people in masks, but most without.
The latest death toll is at 95.
All this less than two weeks after the Embassy and an article in the Kyiv Post - an English language newspaper - testified that the Ukrainian governement was prepared and that Ukraine might even miss the swine flu all together - who, after all, was traveling to Ukraine during the Economic crisis? Currently, WHO estimates that Ukraine is, and will remain, the worst hit country in Europe with over 12million Ukrainians becoming ill with the virus by next fall.
For now, we are on quarentine.
With apprehension I go to the not bustling market and buy produce, meat, milk - I asked Alister if I should start baking our own bread since it goes through so many hands - but he says that we put it in the toaster and so it should be fine. But here are people without gloves, without sanitary facilities scooping and handling my food - so yes some things are cooked - but what about the nuts? Or the water from the kiosk where the woman handles the cap, the spigot, and touches the neck and lip of the bottle with hands that I cannot garentee but with which I suspect she was eating a few moments before?
You become conscious of coughing, of sniffling, of wheezing and you wonder - how long until I get it?