The process of getting the girls US passports was far less painful than we expected, even though we did have to run around like crazy people to get certified translations of their birth certificates and adoption decrees. (Note that there were already certified translations of these done while we were still in Russia so that US immigration would let us bring the girls home and make them citizens….those translations were good enough for that process but the same US immigration offices wanted a USA certified translation for the passport process.)  I would complain or get grumpy about all that paper chasing and crazy double rules stuff… but we are such pros now after the actual adoption process that now I just ask what I have to do twice and in different colors and wait for the answer.

Mark will be shooting for the first few days, and I’ll be working at nights to keep up with post production on images for two clients and several web sites that we are working on, but seriously? Working from a beach front condo, 10 days with my little family, on an island filled with french food and shops and ummm rum?  ok.. Our great friend Swank Kahuna will be staying at the studio/house and keeping the four legged kahunas and things loved and happy and running while we are gone (she’ll also be studying her ass of for her Medical boards so SHHHH be quiet!) Remind me to use the word GRATEFUL as often as possible.

Beyond the obvious things like the girls getting to play in the ocean for the first time, a real family vacation for the 5 of us, the hope of a slower pace each day….I’m super excited about the food.  The combination of Carribean flavors and spices with French Supermarche living seems just about perfect to me.  The bonus of Chef Kahuana (AKA our son Jordan) being with us to help experiment with the foods and cooking options both on the beach and in the little condo we are renting just puts me over the top.   Did I mention the word grateful yet? (did I spell it right? sheesh I never do!)

So, now the mad rush to get everything in order and projects launched so that we can really enjoy ourselves once we get there.  I’ve been trying to prep the girls about the trip since our last flight with them was the trips from Chita to Moscow then Moscow to Chicago. Elena (almost 4 years old now) has recently announced that she is actually a polar bear.  She approves of the plans for the airplane trip but pointed out that she’d need lots of water to swim in. (Lots of water on an island vacation? CHECK!) Zhanna (turning 5 in a month) was mostly concerned about what shoes she might wear on the plane.  I’m not sure I can do the conversation she and I had justice, but at some point I actually said “Yes, Zhanna…if you want to bring the sparkly pink shoes to wear just on the plane that is fine.” (She wanted to only bring them and I pointed out that they weren’t so much meant for the beach and 20 minutes later I was agreeing to a wardrobe change for a 4 year old during travel.)

The girls start summer camp in one week, and now with Jordan helping us here at home and in the studio as both a personal chef and assistant life is really smoothing out.  In some ways I can hardly remember our lives before we started the process of adding to our family..and in others it seems like only yesterday.

This summer we’ll be doing some major garden experiments and farmer’s market gathering for putting into the pantry to make the next winter a nicer place to live through.  I’ll be posting recipes and photos from all of that in the coming weeks.  Nothing funnier than a city girl with a bent toward tech nerd trying to figure out how to preserve/jar/can in a manner that will keep the food worthy of actually cooking with once the frost comes back.

best wished to everyone for a great summer!

Keep in touch!

My favorite of their selections is the blue pony, I did turn away the stuffed butterfly that Elena tried to include, but the pony would indeed be able to carry us if he showed up.

After we played with the bevy of toys we built roads with our blocks and then built an entire city using leggos and blocks. This was the first time Zhanna took imagination play and really locked into the theme and built on in (she most often takes a story line and then runs it back to one she prefers)

The field trip today was to the museum of science and industry- full size train, actual airplane to climb through, it’s a Mecca of transportation.

Later this week we’ll ride the “EL” with stops at a favorite bakery.

Art projects and cooking posts related to our theme will be posted later this week.

I’m not certain how long she was calling out for me, but I didn’t hear Elena until after she had gotten sick in her bed and then become basically hysterical. (really is there anything sadder than a sick, cold, sad child who thinks she can’t find her mommy?)

We have a monitor set up in their room, and a receiver on my nightstand. But I didn’t bother to bring it downstairs with me because the girls sleep through the night on such a regular basis that it’s only real purpose has been to hear the early morning “I need to go potty” refrain.

Both girls still stay in their beds until we come in in the morning, as if they were in cribs and can’t get out. That has always seemed like a good thing, until tonight. Elena needed to get up, but was afraid too. Once she was feeling better and calm again we talked about it being ok to get up and open her door if she needed me. Elena nodded her little head and said she would, but it was clear she wasn’t going to really do it.

And now? Why am I writing a post after midnight? Because even though, once I managed to get her bedding changed and to get her cleaned up and in fresh “jamas”, Elena was ready to go back to sleep. She has a new fear. “mommy didn’t hear me crying”. So about every 20 minutes since 10pm she has woken up and performed a test of the emergency broadcast system (Elena Broadcast to be precise.)

I’m laying here in bed using the monitor to hear her breathe and hoping that the last test at 12:20 am was enough to prove that when she needs me I really will come. But I’m not betting on it.

The dining room? Not so much with that fourth coat of paint. I can only hope that the stuper brought on with 24 hours of flights Mark will have just completed will be enough to distract him from my almost completed surprise when he arrives in the morning.

This has been a test, only a test, if this had been a real emergency you would have had no idea what to do. We now return you to your regularly planned sleep cycle.

So, that was 9:30pm.

First it was a cat that suddenly needed to prove his prowess as a hunter by “capturing” a small stuffed Koala and carrying it up the stairs to lay at my feet. He was of course yowling the entire way. That was 11:15pm

Then it was the tiny voice of the 3 year old over the monitor “uh oh I’m wet”. Sigh, I knew that last glass of water was a mistake. Naturally the clean sheets and were down in the basement laundry room. Ok. I can do this. Calm sad and oh so groggy child down, get to basement, get child cleaned up and changed, get bed made, get child back to sleep. All while doing everything possible to keep from waking 4 year old zonked out in next bed. That was 12:45am

From there it was the natural result of all that hubbub. Just as I got back into bed, and settled down, the dog decided he had to go out….NOW. Ok. Back downstairs. Stand next to the freezing door and wait for him to stop playing in the snow and come back inside so he can bring his snow covered feet back to my pillow. That ended at 1:30am

Ok! Now it’s time for bed….a few hours of sleep and then…the SOUND.

If you have an iPhone, find the “boing” sound effect and turn your volume up as high as it will go. If you don’t, try to remember the sound from Road Runner cartoons whenever a large metal spring was used to fling anything over a mountain {{{BOINNNGG}}}.

I woke up to that sound echoing over and over again up the stairwell. At first all my groggy head could conjure was the idea that a smoke alarm with failing battery was going nuts. But it was so strange
{{BOINNNGG}}}
{{BOINNNGG}}}
{{BOINNNGG}}}

When I finally found the old model iPhone we gave the girls to play games on (in a toy box under the dolls) it was on the last round of alarm from a setting that showed “count down 12 hours”. It would appear that one of the girls was playing with the clock timer function at 2:30pm. Since that was 2:30am when it went off.

Ummm ok, maybe if my heart stops racing I’ll try to get some sleep before the morning starts.

I did eventually get a few hours in, but the girls woke up early and there is no snooze button for that.

Ingredients:

2lbs cut up chicken

2 stalks celery sliced thinly

2 medium carrots, chopped

2 onions, slivered

3 large cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

2 green chilies , roasted and chopped

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 large avocado, thinly sliced

Method:

Fill a large stock pot with chicken, celery, carots, onions, garlic, cumin, oregano, chiles and enough water and enriched broth to cover. Bring slowly to a boil then cover and reduce heat, and simmer until veggies are very tender. Skim if the broth needs it, then gently stir in cilantro and avocado slices.

Serve with lime wedges to squeeze into each portion.

Method:

Heat the butter in a stock pot, caramelize the onion. Toss in the rest of the veggies and then the roasted garlic.  Add in the broth and de-glaze the pan (scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon to get the bits of browned butter and onion to incorporate into the broth.)  Add in the spices and simmer, then add in the heavy cream and bring back to a simmer and cook on low heat until the all the veggies are tender.  Mix in the chopped parsley before using a stick blender to blend to a smooth consistency.

Saturday started out as just a morning to slow roast a chicken (my original plan was just to roast it and turn it into two or three meals that needed diced or shredded chicken in them.) Then the snow started to fall..and when I took the chicken out of the oven the wonderful smells filled the house and all I could think of was soup! So I routed through the pantry and freezer and fridge to see what my options were.

• Black beans, Avocados, Cilantro, Green Chili, diced chicken? Jackpot! That plus the the drippings from the roasted chicken (meant for gravy but oh so much better when used to make an enriched broth) equals Mexican Chicken Avocado Soup
• Crushed Tomatoes, Garlic, Shallots, Dried Pasta, Basil (a stash I froze at the end of the harvest season) and shredded chicken – equals Italian Garlic Pasta Soup
• Potatoes (I ordered too many for our Thanksgiving meal), Roasted Garlic, Enriched Broth, Heavy Cream (yeah, we still keep a steady supply in the house to help the wee kahunas keep gaining weight), Nutmeg, Onions, and the handy dandy stick blender equals Creamy Roasted Garlic Soup

Add in a stash of restaurant containers that I keep in the back of my pantry because they are perfect for freezing liquids in and it’s Saturday becomes Saturday Soup Day!

Freezer is now full of meal options for the next week – with enough left over to share with Jordan and Mark’s father. with the bonus of a nice toasty warm house.

I’ll be posting the recipes and methods I used in the next day or so.

It’s not that I don’t see those dates as important,  it is that from the moment we saw the tiny pictures, and read the brief medical documents and background information about the girls in the referral packets that our adoption agency sent us, I have felt like the girls were part of our family.

It wasn’t like we flew all the way to Siberia to go meet them and see IF we wanted them. We wanted the girls to be part of our family, and our only fear was that some part of the adoption process, as affected by the incredible number of diverse and often times overlapping agencies, would grind to a halt and cause us to be unable to bring the girls home.

International adoption is not for the faint of heart and each adoption is as individual in it’s process and experience as the children are themselves.  I learned very quickly to ignore any book, “expert”,  web site,  or blog that started any advice  with the words  ”The rules are…” or “In Russia….”  There is no such thing.  Much like the USA, each town, hamlet or burg of Russia has judges who interpret laws and process in their own way.  There may be standards, and rules, guidelines and even laws to follow – but to be certain our experience in Far East Siberia would not be the same if we went back and adopted from Moscow or Tver or any other of the 100’s of regions. So I’m not going to take time here to write down tips or guides on adoption.  We were extremely fortunate to have the stars align in so many important ways, which enabled us to go from the first act of submitting our paperwork to boarding that last flight home in less than 10 months time.

What I can speak to is the incredible amount of adjustment and change and well, life,  that our little family has experienced this past 12 or so months. These are the milestones we sweat over, and memories we will celebrate. Perhaps when the girls are older, and want to know more about how we became a family, the date we stood in front of a judge in Siberia will be marked on our calendars, for now I choose to use the holiday season to be thoughtful about memories and changes like this:

Like starting off trying to parent a 3 year old who spoke only fluent Russian and a 2 year old speaking baby Russian and having them both completely replace that language with English in the first few months of being a family to the extreme of now not even recognizing words or sounds from their first language. We still have some funny syntax things that I think are remnants of the way Russian is structured, and the order of the alphabet continues to allude our older daughter, but if you didn’t know they used to speak another language you would never guess.

Coming home with both girls so underweight they didn’t show up on any growth charts. Their bodies had been conserving nutrition for their brains (a magic plan that nature puts into effect in times of emergency) so they hadn’t been growing, or having teeth come in, at the pace you’d want to see in small children – to now trying to keep up with our two robust little girls who have each had more than a 40% weight gain and grown more than 6 inches in one year (nothing like nutrition, sunshine, fresh air, and love to act as miracle grow for tiny ones.) Our youngest daughter is still really small for her age, and is working on catching up on those teeth coming in even now, but she is strong – really really strong.

The trials and tribulations of inserting myself as the mother to a child who for the first few years of her life was actually mothering her tiny sister.  When we first met Zhanna, even though she was obviously hungry and needing attention,  she wouldn’t take a snack or a drink from us without first insisting that Elena be given her own portion. She led her around the room and watched over her in a manner that let us know she had taken on the responsibility of caring for her sister and we’d have to earn that right.  I have used the phrase “you are not the mommy” more times than I care to admit, but it’s less and less often now, and the issues we deal with now are about being a bossy big sister and nothing more.

Memories of that first moment when we opened our front door and the girls began to scream and climb up as high as they could get on our shoulders to get away from our two tiny westie dogs. (At the orphanage the only dogs they saw were wild ones who came into the yard looking for scraps of food – the girls had obviously been told dogs were mean and scary and would bite you, as a way of being protected by the caregivers.) Now we have to beg the girls to stop hugging the dogs and give them a moment of rest, and both girls pretend to be puppies on a regular basis as they scamper across the floor.

The trauma of  having to put the girls through the battery of medical tests and blood letting and multiple vaccine injections so soon after coming home and then a few months later having to stay  in a hospital with Elena after they attached electrodes all over her head to try to rule out seizure activity as the cause of her suddenly loosing the ability to speak in multi-word sentences (a symptom that went away as fast as it showed up and has never returned.) For Elena’s part she was far more interested in the temporary tattoos that i covered her body with to keep her busy, than the electrodes and doctors and temporary confinement in the hospital.

Acknowledging that for our older daughter the extra time she spent in the baby hospital system while waiting for placement in the orphanage has at least slightly affected her ability to easily attach, to trust, to control impulses, and even to process information.  But seeing her face light up when her Daddy comes into the room, getting to share in her honest joy at every new discovery and chance to help, witnessing how excited she is when her big brother comes for a visit, watching her absorb new information, marveling at how fast she can grasp a new concept, and knowing that every day she gets a little better at taking a moment to think before she acts, at letting me actually be the mother to her small sister, and at letting me be her mother as well, makes it all fade away.

Realizing that there are some regular life things that the girls have never experienced so even the most mundane of chores or sights might still seem like magic to them. Sometimes overloading their senses at first experience – the first time we turned on the television, the first taste of ice cream or of COLD milk for that matter, playing in the snow (I know, you think since they were born in Siberia that snow would be a part of their world, but it turns out that the caregivers begin to bundle the children up in layers of clothes when the temp dips below 70 and once it gets really cold the children aren’t allowed outside at all.) Getting to be part of the shock and awe that they experience, the wonder and delight,  helps remind me to take moments, to value the getting there as much as the destination. Children do that naturally, getting to re-learn that skill has been a great gift.

Knowing that the incredible leaps of growth, knowledge and emotional stability of this past year are just the beginning of our life-long adventure in parenting.  Making the transition from approaching everything as a recently created/adoptive family to just family…  The adoption was an act, an event, a moment in time, the worrying effects of starting life in an orphanage diminish with each new day. Now it’s time to just be…

So during this  holiday season with the  chaos of cooking, gifts, tree trimming and family gatherings, and before the year ends, I just wanted to take a moment to remember what 2009 brought with it,  how far we have come – how much we have learned – and to try to keep the ideal of not taking these moments (especially the hard-earned ones) for granted.

We are truly fortunate, our little family….for my part, I’m looking forward to 2010 and all the promise and opportunity to make new memories the new year brings.

Method:
325 degree oven
Drain liquid from Ricotta
Beat cheese with the sugar until light and fluffy, add the eggs, cornstarch, and extract. Then ad the cream to the mixture and fold in the almonds.

Pour into prepared crust and bake for 1 hour. Cool slowly (in oven with door open works well)

Sourdough Starter

• 3/4 cup white bread flour
• 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
• 7g dried yeast
• 1 cup warm water

Mix together and  and cover tightly.  Leave at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for 1 week.

Sponge

• 1 3/4 cups rye flour
• 1 cup lukewarm water

After the waiting period for the sourdough starter, mix the rye flour, sourdough starter and water together, cover tightly and leave at room temperature for 10 hours or in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Ingredients

• 12 cups bread flour
• 7g of rapid rise dried yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 3 tablespoons caraway seeds
• 1 tablespoon salt
• corn meal (to keep bread from sticking to baking pan)

Method

• mix flour the sponge mixture, yeast, water, caraway seeds, salt and mix to form a soft dough (it will be sticky at this stage)
• put the dough into a clean bowl and dust the top with flour, cover with a towel and let rise for 2 hours or until it doubles in size
• put dough on a floured cutting board and punch it down then knead until smooth and elastic, divide into two  large loaves or 10 individual sized “rolls”
• dust baking sheets with corn meal and place loaves with enough space to let them double in size after scoring each one with a sharp knife.
• cover loosely with a clean towel and leave in a warm place until they double in size (about 45 minutes)
• cook in a 425 degree oven (put a large pan of hot water in the bottom of the oven to help make the crust crunchy)  Bake the large size loaves for 35 minutes or until golden brown and sound hollow when you thump them. The smaller size cook in about 25 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 3 Zuchinni
• 2 potatoes (peeled)
• 2 onions
• 2 yellow squash
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste or puree
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley (chopped fine)
• 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro (chopped fine)

Method:

Bring a pot of salted water to boiling and add first the peeled and halved potatoes, then after 2 minutes add the onions, 2 minutes later add the zuchinni and squash. Continue to boil for 4 more minutes then remove from water and set aside to cool. (save some of the cooking water for the baking dish)

Once everything is cool enough to touch, scoop out the middle of each vegetable (leaving about a 1/4 at the bottom of each one) mix the scooped out veggies with the spices and tomato paste and fresh herbs then spoon back into each preppared vegetable shell. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper  and pour into your backing dish about 1/4 cup of the water from the boiling step and roast in 375 degree oven for 30 minutes or until tops are browned.

You can add in any combination of flavors to this recipe – eliminate the curry and go italian spices, or mexican and add black beans and rice, you can also top with cheese if that seems like a good thing.

Course grated veggies

Please allow me to introduce an update from the egg noodles, oil, all the eggs you own, and heavy cream  kugel of my childhood – a dish so entwined in sense memories that I can’t make it without thinking of my Grandmother Eva and feeling warm and happy:

Ingredients:

• 2 zuchinni
• 2 carrots
• 2 potatoes (peeled)
• 1 onion
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley (chopped)
• 1 teaspoon fresh basil (chopped)
• 3 tablespoons matzo meal
• 6 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
• pinch of sugar/ salt and pepper to taste

Method:

350 degree oven – heat baking dish for ten minutes before using

Coursely grate all of the veggies, finely grate the onion. Add the matzo meal (don’t use bread crumbs it just isn’t the same thing) lightly beaten eggs, parsley, basil, sugar, salt and pepper and mix well.

Pour half the oil into the already heated baking dish, then spoon the veggie batter mush into the pan (don’t tamp down too hard) then drizzle remaining oil on top.

Bake for 50 minutes or until veggies are soft and the top is golden brown. (I like the crunchy bits, so i stir it half way to get a second layer of browned top.)

We are beyond fortunate when it comes to the Wee Kahunas and cooking/serving veggies. Both girls would happily trade a plate of sweet foods for one filled with broccoli. When we first returned home from Siberia with them we actually found ourselves bribing them to eat the calorie dense and high fat foods by saying “If you’ll take one more bite of cheesecake I’ll give you some more peas.” It was like opposite world for a while there, and altough the recent exposure to the world of Halloween candy has gone a long way to developing a real appreication for all things sticky, chewy and sweet, veggies are still the first thing eaten at most dinners.

I’ve started doing most of my cooking on Sunday’s.  It gives me a chance to get a bit ahead of our hectic week and to prep items that take longer to cook than I might have on any given day. It also seems to be giving me a chance to really slow down and just enjoy the process, and the experience of cooking.  There aren’t many slow down moments in our lives so I’m more than grateful for the time.

With all the veggies spread out on the kitchen counter it was pretty easy to pick some favorite recipes to start with, and even to give a try to updating an old family favorite that used to be veggie free. So for this week I made/prepped (click on the images to see the full recipes for each):

1. Vegetable Kugel – an upgrade/update to a family recipe that although scrumptious, contained so many eggs and so much oil and noodles that it needs to be saved for those special holiday meals.

2. Curry Spiced Stuffed Veggies – a savory dish that can be used as a main course or an excellent side to most any main course. Much easier to make than you think, and the veggies don’t get cooked so long that they become mush and loose flavor.

3. Split Pea Fritters (falafel wannabes) (recipe and photos coming later today)

4. Hearty Vegetable Stew (recipe and photos coming on Thursday)

5. Sourdough Rye Bread (because stew without it is just sad) (recipe and photos to be posted on Wednesday – the starter needs two days to ferment)

6. Pumpernickel Bread (because making one kind of bread seems silly) (recipe and photos to be posted on Thursday)

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup diced crystallized ginger
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 12 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 3/4 cups heavy cream

Method
Oven 400°F

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and lemon peel together and then add butter mix until it looks crumbly. Make well in the center of dry indredients add cream. after lightly mixing add in ginger.

Put dough on floured cutting board and knead until smooth. make rounds about 1 inch thick (should make two) Cut each round into 6 wedges and put on lightly buttered baking sheet, You can brush with cream, milk or butter to add shine to tops.

Bake until light brown, about 16 minutes.