I knew there was a post somewhere on this blog about the Russian pancakes made with Farmer Cheese for which I coined a term cheese-niki, but when my sophisticated gastronomical friend Katrina posted a recipe on her blog, I thought it was time to revisit the subject.

There must be some unfortunate reason why the American people are being deprived of multiple milk products. Kefir is only now becoming widely available or even known to many people, there is probably one lonely brand of Farmer Cheese, and such delicacies as baked milk and ryazhenka are mostly unheard of outside of the Russian store. In light of the aforementioned shortages of common ingredients I had to adapt my recipe to whatever is available on hand. Yes, there are ways of making Farmer Cheese at home, but as my daughter would gladly tell you – I am lazy, and all my cooking is based on the least possible amount of work and clean-up.

For this recipe you’ll need a 32 oz tub of the all-natural plain or vanilla yogurt, 1 egg, about a cup of flour, a small amount of salt and baking soda, sugar, and optional vanilla and raisins, craisins or whatever else you might like. You will also need cheesecloth, which is widely available at most grocery stores, craft department at Walmart, kitchen stores and elsewhere.

When buying yogurt look for one with the least possible amount of ingredients; the one I used had just one ingredient -milk. I usually pick a large container at Walmart where it only costs around two dollars. Other yogurts contain fillers, white paint, super-glue and other fine ingredients, but while it may be OK to eat, I have no idea what will happen when you try to cook with it.

The night before you want to cook pancakes (or few nights, if you are a long-term planner), strain the yogurt. The way I do it is to cut a piece of cheesecloth large enough to cover a colander when folded in two. Then I cover the colander with two layers of cheesecloth, empty the yogurt container into it, tie the ends to create sort of a pouch and hang it overnight to drain.

I think I know a thing or two about the circus. When I was growing up© my parents took me to the circus 4-5 times a year and it wasn’t a traveling circus or a tent. My city had a permanent circus building and every few months a new program would come to town to perform for sell-out crowds.

I was there during the golden age of the Soviet circus – world famous magicians, clowns, exotic animals, ground-breaking acts, daring performances.

No wonder that many performers in the Cirque Du Soleil shows are from the Russian/Soviet school of circus. I attended three Cirque Du Soleil shows so far and they turned out to be some of the best shows of any kind I’ve seen in my life. Everything from costumes and specially composed music to the highest quality acts is perfectly matched to create a magical show. This song from the show Alegria is probably my favorite. Something about the dramatic music and raspy tragic voice of the singer; sometimes I keep playing it over and over….

httpvh://youtu.be/jhWQLV-S3js

My previous post about Chernobyl.

AP released the photos of the Russian rocket Soyuz TMA-14 being prepared for the launch on March 25th (click the photo for more).

Some of you may be old enough to remember the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (coincidentally called “Soyuz-Apollo” in Russian) launched in 1975. Years before the International Space Station Americans and Russians shook hands in space.

I don’t have much recollection of the flight, I was 5 years old, but Soyuz-Apollo became a familiar phrase in Russian and the mission insignia still was around years later.

Trivia:”Soyuz” means “Union” in Russian, as in the Soviet Union.

Reader Tracy asks in reference to one of my previous posts:

what we really wanna know is that dance!

We answer: Tracy, what you see is a traditional Russian folk dance. Although I personally never observed anyone dance that way at home without beforehand consuming “mass quantities” , it doesn’t mean it never happened. Maybe the fact that all of my relatives and most of my friends were Jewish explains my lack of personal encounters with the Russian folk dancing, but the fact remains.

It doesn’t mean that I was immune to some folksy dance moves. The photograph below depicts me in a Russian-style shirt ( I am the one next to a girl, if you have trouble locating me) at some kindergarten event. Of course you may wonder what was a Jewish kid doing wearing a Russian folk shirt. Well, that makes two of us, but on the other hand what does a Jewish shirt look like? I don’t know either. So much for multiculturalism…

Old joke: A Jewish girl comes home and tells her parents she needs to wear a national outfit to school the next day. Her Mom says to her Dad: “You hear? She wants a fur coat already!”

But I digress, if you want to find out more about Russian and Eastern European Folk Dancing, there are plenty of photos and videos on this website.