Sbeet Apple Crisp

We had group last Friday and I bought 2 kilos of beets. I figured that it would be enough for salad and a few left over for Blue Cheese Beets. Well I definitely had enough for all that . . . and then some.

I also had some apples left over from chutney (My mother-in laws recipe - It turned out wonderfully!) and figured there would have to be some sort of apple/beet crisp/cobbler/pie recipe of sorts out there somewhere on the internet. Wrong - while I ran into apple and beet salad recipes - there was nothing for my sweet tooth that called for both apples and beets.

I tried searching beet desserts - and came up with a few more options - but by the time I ran into Beet Mousse I decided enough was enough and I was going to make my crisp - recipe or not.

The trick to making unusual dishes is to make sure that those who you want to eat it don't know what is in it until after they have tasted it. It worked in high school when I served Chicken Liver Pate and it normally works for me as well with Alister when he asks what we're having. "Something tasty", I reply.

My vague answer didn't serve me today though - he caught me in the middle of preparation. "I like beets, but in dessert?" He did promise to try some and I even said I would add whipped cream to sweeten the deal.

The crisp turned out FANTASTIC. I borrowed the idea of cardamom from the mousse recipe and also added allspice and about a 1/4th cup of white sugar and a dash of flour - coating my 3 chopped beets and 4 chopped medium apples. I didn't have any lemon, but if I had I would have added a tablespoon or two of juice. I threw this mixture in a baking dish and made my crisp topping. Flour, brown sugar, butter, oatmeal, allspice, and chopped walnuts mixed together and sprinkled over the top.
Half an hour later - the crisp was out of the oven and ready to be topped with whipped vanilla cream.

Obviously, if I'm putting it on my blog - it was fantastic. Alister actually asked for seconds. Not only are the colors beautiful but the flavor is delicate, tart, sweet, and woody (the nuts) all at once. When you throw in the beets' added Vitamin A, C, calcium and iron this dessert is one that you can even feel good about having seconds.

Budget Air is Here!!!!

This last summer, Wizzair opened up budget flights within Ukraine. Starting in January they are expanding.
You will be able to find flights to Ukraine from
London
Dortmond
Cologne
and Krakow

for as little as $50 one way (taxes included).

(You can also come via Italy on http://www.flyonair.it/index.aspx?lang=it or via Romania on http://www.carpatair.com/ but they aren't all that budget )

This is great for us, because it means that for Visa renewals and such we have a cheap way out of the country ($100 round trip to Krakow instead of $200 and 18+ hours by train), but also because we hope that you'll be more inclined to visit now that you can budget hop all the way to our doorstep. :- ) Did we mention that Euro Match 2012 is in Ukraine/ Poland ???

If you want to expand your trip possibilities - check out http://www.thebigproject.co.uk/budget/ or http://www.flycheapo.com/flights/. These EXCELLENT site lists almost all the budget airlines serving every european destination. They are fantastic travel tools!
Remember - the key to budget airlines is too book in advance - and BUY when you see a cheap price - it can literally disapear before your eyes.

The best part about winter

The best part of winter is that you don't have to wake up early to see the sunrise.

From the 14th story window: 7:15am

Nuts

Growing up, I remember a huge towering black walnut tree outside of our house. We never ate the walnuts. I remember that the husks turned a deep brown and that your hands were sticky and gooey after touching them. My Aunt Freda had a black walnut somewhere on here property where she lived in Idaho. Whenever we visited she would often have some super sugary walnut desert - and you knew it was black walnut because the dessert always bit back. At our hut - we also have a walnut tree - but this is a "Greek" walnut. A few weeks ago, I asked the guy we are buying the property from if they were ready - and he said - oh yes you can eat them but your hands will turn black. I tried my hand at peeling of the husk and it wouldn't budge and what little pit of shell I did reveal was smooth. I discarded the nut as a lost cause. The next week, the walnuts had "bloomed". The green husk had burst open and inside the walnut sat like an amber gem. I hung a bag around my neck and ran around with rake - knocking the nuts down. At home I washed them and then put them on the balcony to dry. Fresh walnuts are unbelievably tasty - so much richer, more vibrant than the "cured" nut. True, the first day that you crack it - the flesh is full and somewhat slimy - (alister said it looked like a brain and wouldn't touch them till they were farther along in the drying process) but the taste is unbelievable and well worth the minimal "slime" factor. I did have a little bit of a problem with the drying - there wasn't enough air circulation and so I had to finish it off in the oven which made the nuts a bit tough and black in color. If I had waited another week - the nuts would have dried on their own in the tree - hanging on as the leaves fell to the ground and drying in the fall breeze. (I know because I saw our neighbors tree. strangely - our tree is the only walnut in on our street that still has leave. All of the others are bare - except for the walnuts - like Christmas decorations adorning the ends of the branches. I can't help but think that the reason for this has to do with my earlier picking. Next year I will hold out a little longer.

Buying Water

We have running water in our apartment (most of the time) But it isn't considered drinkable. The reasons for this vary based on who you talk to.
The Ukrainians will tell you that the water is full of clorine and therefore unhealthy. The American's say the metals are to blame. And a recent article http://www.kyivweekly.com.ua/?art=1217601454 says that its a lack of sewage seperation. Regaurdless of the reason - everyone agrees that you shouldn't drink the tap water.
The solutions are the following:
Install filters in your home for drinking water
Buy water in the store
Refill water containers at a kiosk
Refill water containers at neighborhood "springs"
Have water delivered.


The cheapest of the above options is to fill the water at the spring. However, I have a problem with drinking water that turns green after a week of sitting in a container and also develops "floaty" things. I'd rather chance it with the tap water. Filters need to be replaced and maintained and Alister figured out all the costs and decided that actually it ends up being more than having water delivered - which is astually about the same price as buying it in a store too.
However - if you are willing to carry water yourself, there are normally water kiosks near most neighborhoods and they charge 1.20 uah for 6 liters of water vs 10 uah if you buy 6 liters of spring water in the store. The water that we buy is from a relatively new kiosk that uses reverse osmosis as the filtering method.
Except when I'm busy - I don't mind fetching water (makes me feel like a pioneer woman or something) - especially when I consider how much money gets saved by fetching water ourselves (When I lilved in Bradford, I normally walked the 3 miles to University for the same reason - why pay 1.50 GBP for the bus when I could walk and then use the bus fare to get a coffee?) During the average week, I think 18 (x2) minutes is a small price to pay for a 34 (x2) uah savings on water.

4.5 hours, 800uah, and 35 kilos later

Grocery shopping is an ordeal here. Not merely for the fact that without a car you can only shop for as much as you can carry by hand from the store front to your front door, but also for the sheer amount of time it takes.

Each week I normally fetch water from the kiosk twice - that's 22 liters of water and 18 minutes per trip.

I normally go to the grocery store two or even three times per week- weights vary. On a milk run I'll stalk up on about 8 liters of long life milk and try to avoid buying other heavy things like flour or meat and cheese at the same time.

If you go to the grocery store any time after 4:30pm - you can figure on standing in a very long line of people for at least 20 minutes. The standing in line is compounded by the fact that you never know really what line is shortest because the practice is to go, find a place in line behind someone - tell them you are behind them and then go run gather up some more groceries.

Today I visited Metro, the European version of Sam's Club or Costco. Metro is a once a year adventure for us as we don't have our own card and while not extremely far for us - it is a bit out of the way. The advantage of metro is that you can find some things there that are very hard to locate in other stores and some things will save you some money, but you do have to watch and calculate prices.

So I set out, hiking backpack, regular backpack and two grocery bags in tow. 3.45 hours and 800 uah griven later, I emerged with 35 kilos distributed between the bags. a 7 minute walk (amid stares) to the first bus stop (fortunately the end of the line so I could grab the out-of the way back corner. Then at my bus stop it was another 10 minute walk to the apartment.

Shh - just between us

Earlier in the summer my mom sent us a Meest package (the only reliable way to send things to Ukraine - my inlaws have been sending things post (no meest in the UK) and not even the marshmallows made it!) Among other things, the package contained a Betty Crocker 40th anniversary cookbook. Not only does it have great recipes (no more running back and forth to the computer to track down recipes) but it also has helpful hints and historic information inset above the recipes. The caption for apple pie read: "An apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze" I told that to Alister and gave him a kiss and a squeeze and he was horrified - not at the kiss and the squeeze but at the idea of Apple pie with cheese.

I, however, had a broader mind - for years my favorite apple dessert growing up was Wenatchee Crumble - a scrumptious fall dish with a cheese, flour, and sugar crumble topping. In fact, Alister had probably even tried it, and liked it, when he came to Thanksgiving dinner with me at the Peace House in Philadelphia. Having been reminded of the joys of spiced apples and cheese - I couldn't remember why I wanted to make an apple pie in the first place, and quickly whipped up a Wenatchee Crumble instead.

And Alister like it.

From my mom's kitchen (via somewhere else) . . . .

Wenatchee Crumble

Wash, pare, & slice enough apples to fill a lightly buttered baking dish/pan about 2/3 – ¾ full of apples. (I make the slices across the short quarter of the apples, as it is easier to stir in sugar and cinnamon.

Sprinkle 1-1½ cups sugar, 3 tsp. cinnamon, and ½ tsp. salt over top. Add 2 Tablespoons lemon juice plus 1-2 Tablespoons water. (More lemon & less water if apples are like our delicious in the states.) Gently stir through apples. May cover & freeze at this stage.

Topping* – Stir together 1 cup flour, ½ cup sugar, ½ tsp. salt; add 1 cup Amer. Cheese (I use cheddar) and ½ c. melted butter. Mix all ingredients together. Spread evenly over apples.

Bake 30 - 35 min until apples are tender at 375F

*This amount is for an 8” or 9” square pan. Double for a 9 x 13 pan.

Most cheeses go well with apples. Swiss would probably be acceptable. Would advise against mozzarella.