Russian Season

I’m so excited to finally tell you our very main news – our little daughter Ivanka is here! She is already 10 days old and very pretty :) And she inherited a good appetite from us :) We went home three days after her birth, and the first couple of days were as chaotic as any first-time parents’ first days probably are. I was afraid to accidentally hurt her, I didn’t know where to begin in the morning and how to survive at night time when the baby wouldn’t sleep properly (I guess she’s still mixing day and night). Gradually new activities were added, such as bathing and walking outside, and hey, seems like I learned to juggle all that! Unfortunately, what suffers the most is cooking – I haven’t cooked a decent dinner ever since she was born, but at least I’ve had some free time in the mornings when she was still sleeping so I could have my oats or rice in peace and quiet. Today the weather was so rainy and moody that we decided we’d just sleep by the open window instead of going outside, so I had the time to toast some rolled oats in a pan and make a parfait with some tart and juicy autumn fruit, simmered and cooled, and some plain yogurt. I’ve been told no raw fruit or vegetables, no raw (pasteurized) milk, no beans or cabbages etc, so I guess I’ll have to specialize in breastfeeding-safe recipes for a while.

I didn’t have any special cravings while I was pregnant, but now I have two strong ones – for oats and yogurt. I just can’t live without a bowl of plain yogurt with toasted rolled oats and plum jam in the morning – or just oatmeal with jam or butter… who would have thought I’d ever have oatmeal every other morning of my own free will?? The only annoying thing is that my pregnancy - now breastfeeding - was the reason why I had to start eating meat :( I know that a lot of vegetarians carry on with their diet also during pregnancy, but I was scared that the baby wouldn’t get all the essential proteins, so I had to start eating chicken or meat at least once a week. But, I’ll certainly return to my semi-vegetarian diet when I no longer breastfeed.

Life with a newborn is quite busy, but I’ll try to post some simple recipes every now and then. And now I’ve got to go because I hear her squeak quietly in her crib – just like a nestling or a mouse, so funny :)

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I was so mistaken about how much time moving house would take! It took us an entire day just to transfer my kitchen utensils and tableware and arrange them in the new kitchen so that I would know at least approximately where each item could be found. Then, I made some unpleasant discoveries. For example, sorting my clothes left me totally traumatized. I must do something about my wardrobe – I don’t have a clue why all my clothes look like they’re 5 years old after I’ve worn them for 5 times. Next, my library. Our family collection of books is rather large, but I found out that the number of books I personally own was ridiculous. With just two tiny bookshelves, our new place doesn’t look like an intellectual’s place at all. At least we don’t have a TV and not planning to get one. Internet connection is up and running, and I’ve only got to buy curtains for the living-room. After that, I hope I’ll finally have some time to test that stove and oven. I’ve only used the stove to re-heat food so far, and it gave me no idea of what it’s going to be like when really cooking things. I’m hoping to experiment with it on Saturday.

Why am I even writing all this? Just to let you know again that I’m still here and going to come back, even though we haven’t been posting a lot of new recipes lately. And, the news of the week is that our Latvian Layered Dessert recipe will be published in the Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook!!! I’m SO happy, and of course honoured to have our recipe published alongside such gems as Chanterelle Mushrooms With Blue Cheese Pie, Vegetarian Scotch Eggs, or Lime S’more Tartlets, as well as many others. I can’t wait for the book to be published and I’m going to pre-order a copy tomorrow. So I’ll have something new to put on my bookshelf :)

Photo: in the meantime, we’ve made some good old prune jam