Letter to my baby in Novokutznetsk

Dear Owen

Happy New Year! We missed you during our New Year celebration. I am so hoping that this is the year we bring you home.

I decided to bring a little bit of Russia to us on New Year's Day by making Russian pirozhkis for dinner. It was partially the fault of a fellow blogger named Rachael. She adopted a 7 yr old girl from Russia in 2007, and she has the blog (and life) that I envy. She is a doctor, mother of four, she makes pottery and sews things by hand to make money for an orphanage. She can cook. And she's pretty, on top of it all. Anyway...I blame her. She made pirozhkis and posted pictures of her daughter from Russia lovingly cutting out the dough, and then eating the beautiful little delicacies with a huge smile on her face. http://alwayswanted4.blogspot.com/2008/11/russian-pirozhki.html

I didn't take a picture of mine. Let me just say, I didn't have quite the same experience. No pictures necessary.

I should have listened to your father. He was so excited when I said I was making pirozhkis for New Year's dinner. Then I said, "From scratch!" and his face fell, and his shoulders slumped as he said dejectedly "Oh."

Liam and Natalie helped. Active yeast (and I don't exactly know what this is) was involved. My effort to find a warm place to cover my dough and wait for it to grow led me to the laundry room with a running dryer. My dough didn't grow. Maybe it was the fumes from the dryer sheets. Maybe we didn't mix the yeast right. But I Googled "why is my dough not rising" and I have come to believe that I didn't knead it properly. The recipe did not specify how LONG to knead. It just said knead. I thought a couple good squeezes was enough. Alas, it was not.

I still forged ahead. I tend to do this with food, and car maintenance (you may remember this post http://soon2bfive.blogspot.com/2008/09/not-my-finest-hour.html)

Still, I hedged my bets by running to the grocery to buy phyllo dough sheets. I made a few pirozhkis with my own dough, but given that it was so hard to roll out and not very stretchy, the dough didn't go far. So I also used the phyllo dough.

When all was said and done, the pirozhkis with my own dough tasted somewhat like ground beef (or apples - yes, I also made a dessert pirozhki!) wrapped in a dense pita bread. The ones in the phyllo dough were very pastry-ish and flaky...and huge. My compliment from your father was "Well. They aren't horrible. But was it really worth the 6 hours of preparation time?"

Sigh. I'm sorry to tell you, it was not. So, dear boy, I'm afraid I cannot promise you Russian food upon your arrival. (Although there is a borscht recipe I am itching to try....how hard could beet soup be...) I will promise you that I will continue researching all things Russian, and whenever I find Russian food made by someone who can actually cook, I will buy it for you. I will apologize now for my culinary shortfalls, but rest assured I am trying (to quote your dad in the middle of my cooking, "Honey, I have no idea what you are doing, but I can tell you're working hard.").

I hope that whatever you ate on New Year's Day was even better than my pirozhkis, and that you enjoyed the start of the year. I will see you soon, sweet boy.

Love,

Mom