Food... Glorious Food :)

We are about to take a journey to the wonderful land of Russian cuisine. Though these pictures may not cover it all, they will leave your mouth watering and stomach growling :)

One thing that this southern girl had to get used to in the mysterious ice-world to the east, was HOT TEA! I had never had hot tea before my trip to Russia and now that I'm back I tend to crave it :)

I am a wine lover but never had I ever had HOT WINE a.k.a MULLED WINE. It was so delicious! 

Ok so this tasty cheese bread isn't of Russian origin but it was quite addicting. 

PELMENI!!! My favorite meat dumplings dipped in sour cream or mayonnaise made for a glorious filling dinner. I may have packed on a few pound because of my love for them.

I think in english they call this mutton. I know it isn't Russian but it was too delicious not to post. 

This garlic baked chicken was so delicious but I may have scared away the vampires with my stanky breath. 

Some of my American friends sitting in the cafeteria with trays full of our yummy stalovaya food.  

I wasn't brave enough to try the meat on the first day so I had a yummy mushroom soup, cold salad, and some compote. By the way, Russians do salads in a variety of ways. Most of all they throw a bunch of veggies together and top it off with some mayo! Yummy! 

This was the first time I made Blini with my Russian friend Firuza. Blini are the Russian equivalent of crepes. I loved eating my Blini with sweetened condensed milk. More fattening :) 

My roommate and I decided to try our hands in a recipe given to us by our Russian teacher. We tried to make Russian Apple Pie. We brought it to school the next day to find out that we did it wrong but it was still tasty:) 

So for Christmas dinner I made baked garlic chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, sweet baby carrots and rolls. My roommate and a friend made the salads and veggies for us. We invited our Russian friends to partake in a somewhat-American Christmas dinner and it went fairly well:)  

My roommate caught me in my room trying not to cry while I chop onions! 

My Russian mom taught me how to make mushroom gravy and I cooked it for a group of friends back in my dorm. I served it over some macaroni and they were begging me to make it every week. 

Nothing like some fried potatoes to make a filling dinner. Yes there were nights when we (my roommate and I) only ate potatoes ;) Like good Russian girls :)

My stove in the kitchen in the dorm. I was making Blini for breakfast while watching the snow fall outside the window.

My wonderful roommate brought me back this foot-long chocolate bar from Hungary. It was so delicious I dream of the day that we will meet again. Milka is the best chocolate ever!

My favorite pass time was sharing this bad boy with some friends after a late night out on the town. It was two giant Belgium waffles with Nutella, peanut butter, and ice cream shoved in the middle.  

I went out to have a fancy dinner at a Georgian (the country not the state) restaurant and it was very yummy. This was their version of a pot pie stuffed with steak, onions, and other things I don't remember... but it was delicious! 

My roommate on the other hand had some yummy chicken kabobs with some strange sauce but it was very different. 

I decided to include this one to show you guys that Russian products were so strange to me. Pictured above is Milk! They put their milk in bags! So strange!

All in all, I enjoyed Russian food. I learned to make pelmeni, blini, mushroom gravy, borsch, a variety of Russian salads and a mean dish called herring under a fur coat. All accompanied by a shot of vodka and an earful of  advice.