Week 27: Ukraine

Whenever I think of former U.S.S.R. states I think cold and bleak, with the ragged clothing and the bread lines. But did you know that part of the Ukraine has a "Mediterranean" climate? And that whole famine thing was a result of post WWII Soviet tyranny (boo on tyranny). Ukraine actually has totally fertile agricultural land!

What!?!?

I want to go to there.

How is it that we didn't know this? Their marketing must be lacking. The landmass is slightly smaller than Texas, which did inspire their uninspiring tourism tag line Ukraine: Everything's Slightly Smaller Here.*

Everything except their meals. For dinner (not chicken Kiev, but that would have been cute) we made varenyky, little boiled dumplings. Little pillows of starchiness!

We filled some with a mixture of mashed potatoes and onions caramelized in butter (heavenly!), and some we filled with ground beef and onions. They were served with some sour cream on a bed of red sour kraut (not homemade). Very hearty and delicious.

Michael hand-made the varenyky dough. However, the recipe won't be published here because we have lost interest. It was a very high maintenance dinner and the end result was a plate of starchy starchiness. Yummy, but not exactly something we are going to go to lots of trouble to make again.


*Ok, I made up that tag line. But this doozie is a direct quote from the tourism page: "There is much to offer tourists, many lovely sights, traditional sounds, decadent flavor and unique smells." Really? Unique smells? No thank you.