Russian Monday: Cheese & Garlic Salad

Although, today is not a Monday but I feel this post is very appropriate for Easter. It was my husband’s idea to make a post about this salad. He loves it and remembers eating it back home on every holiday. The dish is very simple, but I am sure you will love the taste. Pick your favorite cheese or combination of cheeses. Amount of garlic is totally up to you, our family loves a lot of it-)) Also you can serve it on top of cherry or plum tomatoes, and fresh spring herbs would be a wonderful addition.

Russian Monday: "Sushki" - Sweet Tea Bread, Baked Crunchy Round Snacks

I use to love these little tea breads when I was a child and I still love them today. I buy them often in Russian grocery store near us, but always had a desire to bake them myself. Sushki are slightly sweet crunchy round pastries/cookies which are served with tea or eaten as a snack. They look like mini bagels but they are very dry and crispy. They are fun to make, actually our whole family was making them - that is why our sushki look all different-)) It's ok, we had some good time. I like them with poppy seeds, but you can make them plain or top them with sesame seeds as well.

Springerle Cookies for Easter

I bake Springerle cookies twice an year, in winter for Christmas and in spring for Easter. "Springerle" are traditional German Christmas biscuits which were used as gifts just like these days we give each other greeting cards for the holidays. It was a matter of pride to have a unique dough mold unlike anyone else's, so the "baked greeting card" would be very special. Cookies were baked, put in jars and kept for six months. After few weeks they would become very hard, but tasty, and in order to soften them up you would have to dunk them into tea or coffee. This is why Springerle were also called "dunking cookies". Special molds for these used to be carved from pear trees. I got only three different molds like this and I love and cherish them. Maybe next Christmas I will make one more addition to my Springerle family.

Orange-Coconut Cream Cheese Cookies

Tender, melt-in-your mouth cookies that call out for a hot cup of tea.

Purple Deviled Eggs

Brunch (breakfast and lunch combined) is American in origin, and the English have adopted it because it fits in well with the modern way of life without upsetting their traditional eating habits too much. Morning tea, breakfast, luncheon, tea and dinner cut up the day too much. Brunch is a good idea for a quick synthesis of two main meals.

Brunch is an ideal Sunday formula for those who like to lie abed, or for week-ends and holidays in the country. It can be served like breakfast from ten onwards and enables the hostess to receive a number of friends almost without effort. As it can nearly all be prepared the day before, the hostess is free of too much preparation in the kitchen and, being substantial, it allows guest time to enjoy their day in the sun, by the sea or in the country, without returning for lunch. Here is a perfect brunch dish - Purple Deviled Eggs. Perhaps for the Easter? -))



Ingredients:

• 6 peeled, hard-boiled eggs
• the juice from a jar of picked beets (store-bought or homemade)
• 1/4 cup of mayo (I like homemade mayonnaise and it's easy to make)
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• salt and pepper to taste
• paprika to taste
• cilantro, minced

Directions:

Soak hard-boiled eggs in beet juice for 30 mints (if you like your eggs be perplex a lot, leave it for a few hours or overnight). Remove and drain, then slice the eggs in half and gently remove yolks. Combine yolks in a bowl with mayo, mustard, minced cilantro, season with salt and pepper. Then stir until mixture is smooth.



Scoop the mixture into the plastic bag, then snip off a bottom corner and pipe the spiced yolks into the whites.



Sprinkle the eggs with paprika and garnish with cilantro or slice of beet.