Hello-hello

As I told you before in my earlier post, so many things happened this summer. One of the busiest summers of my life, I would not even be afraid to call it the busiest.
I want to tell you everything: about our wedding experience and celebration, bringing my parents from abroad, corrupted embassy system, help from senators and our congressman, getting our first house, my macaron business, the love of photography, cooking, planning our honeymoon, living with my two #1s and happiness.
Honestly I don’t know even what to start with. Lot’s of stuff is keep going and not finished yet.
So let me tell you one of the biggest bits of news and something I’m very proud of … and didn’t share yet (shame on me). My yummy-yummy macarons. Now you can find them at Boccato Gelato and Espresso, a dessert and coffee place in Arlington (2719 Wilson Blvd, Arlington VA). Please stop by and try some. It is a nice cafe between the Clarendon and Courthouse Metro stations. Dark, cozy, quiet, exactly what you want for a magical fall evening. I will present there some new flavors later this week, such as pumpkin cheesecake, mint chocolate and strawberry jello with milk chocolate cream.

San Francisco. Land of Freedom.

A couple minutes ago I decided to put my thoughts together by reading a post written by a blogger from Belarus before writing my own. But in 30 seconds I stopped. I’m different already and I don’t want to go back even to face the reality of the post-Soviet generation.
I feel I need to explain how this post about San Francisco can possibly be connected with someone’s post from Belarus. The girl was writing about trip with her fiancé to National Park Belovezhskaya Pushcha. And one of the first things they saw in front of the entrance was a little spot where you could get deer skin. Yes, I am not kidding right now, DEER SKIN in front of a NATIONAL PARK, and yes they got it. I want to say Ukraine is different, and I will. But 23 years ago we were one big mess called the Soviet Union. Of course I got really upset, but somehow I finally found the words to describe our amazing trip to San Francisco.
I guess now I will try to increase the level of tourism in San Francisco showing you pictures from our amazing vacation. I will divide them in two, because the first part we spent in the city and second one we went to beautiful wineries around. So here we go.
I was dreaming about the USA from my very early childhood. I was reading Disney books, was watching cartoons and movies, and was always thought I should have been born here. I admire this country and everything about it, especially people’s rights and freedoms. I guess my life would be miserable and would lose sense if I had not moved here. I wasn’t wrong. But something was still incomplete. I couldn’t understand what exactly until this trip.
San Francisco is definitely a city of contrasts. If I ever used this word before describing other places I would like to take it back. I never ever in my life saw a bigger difference of everything there: people, cultures, architects, shine and dirt, wealth and poverty… at the same spot. Being honest I am still a little bit in shock.
There are a gorgeous city hall and opera house, where across the street homeless people are getting ready for “bed”. Actually coming back after ballet we decide to have some wine with dinner, it was a bit after 10 pm and guess what happened? Yep, almost everything around was closed, including CVS. Burger King was open, thank God 🙂

 

Castro, the gay neighborhood impressed me a lot as well. I have a couple gay friends and I’ve been before to a gay club, and other neighborhoods, but this one changed something in me. I felt like I was a welcome guest in their own big world, which they built years ago. It was the first time in my life that I, being always straight, FELT ABSOLUTE FREEDOM in San Francisco’s gay neighborhood. This is a paradox, but I wanted to yell about it everywhere.

Later with my husband we discussed and shared different thoughts walking in Golden Gate Park.

And Golden Gate Bridge. It is phenomenal, huge, great, magnificent… a kind of tough paradise. Absolutely lovely views from every single spot and corner.

Once we wanted to be local and just decided to jump out from the bus somewhere, to walk around, find out nice restaurant and have perfect lunch there. LOL! LOL! LOL! We did only first two parts of our plan and then we, starving, were looking for hours for an open place to eat something. Actually we found it at the end. But don’t repeat our mistake. There are not too many places in family neighborhoods and mostly they are closed till 4 pm.

Later that day we went to Fisherman’s Wharf. For some reason it reminded me of my vacations in Europe. Such a cozy place: beautiful embankment with flowers everywhere, ocean, seagulls with their own conversations, smiling people, street artists, hundreds of restaurants and cafe for every taste…

 

Sea lions are a different story. First time I saw so many of them and they are so loud.

 

I wanted to stay longer.

 

I fall in love with this city. It is wonderful. There are so many things which give you some new fresh air, that makes you want to come back and I’m sure we will, many times.
P.S. Now my picture about the USA is definitely complete.

Pink & Green Minestrone

So yesterday I mentioned I’m thinking about becoming a vegetarian. It will be difficult, because of two reasons: I love steak and duck, but I could definitely live without everything else. This aspect interested me not because I wanna lose some weight, it is about how I feel, something about morality. I’m very proud of my family for last two weeks, we had turkey bacon and chicken only a couple times, no other kind of meat. I was trying to cook something nutritious and tasty at the same time. And as my husband said, he didn’t even notice this change, because I’m such a good cook. Now I’m shy. 

Today I want to share a really good recipe for soup. Not hard to cook, just takes a little time. 

Ingredients:
1/2 lb uncooked large, peeled shrimp;
2 shallots, thinly sliced;
2 cloves garlic, minced;
1/2 cup brown basmati rice, rinsed;
6 cups vegetable stock; 
1/2 cup sugar snap or snow peas, trimmed and cut in half;
8 spears asparagus, trimmed and diagonally sliced into 1-inch pieces;
1/2 cup green peas, fresh or frozen;
1/2 medium zuccini, cut into equal-sized cubes;
Fine-grain sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 
1 quart milk;
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil;
12 sprigs parsley;
Sour cream, grated your favorite cheese for topping.
Serves 4. Cook shrimp in hot milk (don’t boil!) with salt and ground black pepper until they become pink around 5-7 minutes.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add the shallots and garlic and sauté for a couple of minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring for 1 minute, then add the stock and bring to a boil. Cover, lower the heat, and simmer until the rice is just tender, 30-40 minutes. 
Add rest of veggies with pinches of salt and few grinds of black pepper. Simmer for another 2-3 minutes and serve immediately; this way the vegetables stay crisp and bright. Add for 4-5 shrimp and parsley into each bowl. Use sour cream, grated your favorite cheese for topping. 

~ For vegetable stock:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil;
1 shallots, quartered; 
1 onion, quartered; 
1 clove garlic, smashed;
2 celery stalks, chopped;
1 carrot, chopped;
1 tablespoon fine-grain sea salt;
1/2  tablespoon black pepper;
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar;
2 quarts water.
Heat the oil in large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the veggies, sauté for 5 minutes and then add the salt, the pepper and water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for at least 15 minutes or up to 40 minutes. Strain and use.

Life. Food. Love.

Hi everyone.
For the last couple weeks I have been in some kind of depression. I guess everyone sometimes goes through it with or without reasons. I had enough of them to explain it to myself. But honestly it is a lie. I had only one reason which kicked the ground out from under my feet. For a weeks I was relaxing with a glass of wine before bed, just to make sure I would fall asleep quickly. I watched “Eat, Pray. Love.”, also got the book. I decided I want to become a vegetarian, but not sure I can. I meditated. Nothing helped. Last night before I fell asleep I thanked my husband for letting me find myself, but inside I was totally broken.

Today I got up and started making special breakfast for him, eggs “a la cocotte”. Suddenly I remembered how every morning in my childhood my grandma came to my bed, lightly touched my cheeks, told me “good morning our beautiful sun” and asked: “what would you like for breakfast?”. Oh yes, she cooked for me everything I wished.

Then another bright memory came to my mind. My fifth grade. An interesting girl from Moscow, Masha, joined our class for a couple years. After I saw her the first time, I realized we will be friends and I wasn’t wrong. One Friday after school we decided to meet up on Saturday to have a play-date. And guess where I took her? To my favorite cafe (which was on the other side of our small town) have some real espresso and eclairs. Yes, being 10 years old, we felt like the happiest people on Earth and it became to our small tradition till they moved back.
I felt like I need a little break from my sweet memories and focus on my desires. I started meditation, trying to relax and opened my mind to absolutely clear matter. But my thoughts stuck with food. It is not only about pleasure or wasting time cooking. It is a philosophy, a romantic process to find something bigger, one more way to explore yourself. It is another language, as pretty as Italian or French. It is the language of feelings and taste. Think about it!
Yummy mushroom cream soup represents safety. Fresh baked lasagna is a mother’s love. Aromatic crunchy bread symbolizes only home, sweet home. Mussels in white wine sauce with garlic toast is romance. Spicy gazpacho sounds like jealousy. And Italian pizza means friends.

I want to speak this language fluently, to learn every day the new words. I’m sure they will be never end.
I don’t know why I wrote this post, but I felt like I want to share something special and intimate. So I did.

New York. Great and Mighty.

 

 

In the rhythm of my heart. New York, New York.
Hello everyone!
Look out the window! Yeah, it is real spring outside. And what can be better than to plan an amazing weekend in the big city.
First of all I would say: New York is much loved by many (I adore it), however it is not paradise.
I will skip tons of words and instead I will just show you pictures 🙂
Just a couple of places I would love to mention, they are seriously worth it.
Let’s start!
We stopped at friend’s place and got the most fantastic view of Manhattan which, as a photographer I could only dream of.

Morning

Beautiful afternoon

Amazing sunset

As a real Ukrainian I couldn’t skip Brighton Beach (now I have serious doubts, or maybe we should start describing it as Ukrainian neighborhood – now Russians, are you feeling like we feel about Crimea?). We had there traditional Ukrainian soup – borsch, I’ll definitely post a recipe in a while.

Central Park

Two important spots 🙂
Spot #1 is Vintry Wine and Whiskey in the Financial District http://www.vintrynyc.com/ . It is a food and drink paradise. Go there for brunch and make sure you try their Bloody Redemption.

#2 is Blu at Hotel Indigo Chelsea a rooftop bar & lounge). Actually it is a very nice place with a great view of Manhattan, cocktails were delicious and prices were affordable. I noticed there an amazing atmosphere, in the city that never sleeps and people should be tired, but no way! They were completely happy and enjoy every single moment!

Maine – State of the Real Scouts

P.S. Yeah I will start my post today with letters I have to finish it. But here is the thing – I wanted to create a blog for the last two years, but I had already written this post a while ago. I have been to Maine a couple more times since and I changed my mind about some points. But I would love to share with you my first impression.

 

 

So here I am, sitting at the table, enjoying raspberry flavored tea, and staring at pictures of our vacation. Memory is such a strange thing. It’s already been a month since we came back, but it seems like yesterday. I remember our trip like a flash of something bright, very emotional, long-anticipated and at the same time fast. It couldn’t have been better. We went to Maine – I called it the state of the real scouts. It is not a place for people who just like to spend their vacation lying on a beach. Maine is great for those who prefer to discover new horizons.

Our flight was from Baltimore to Portland – where my then-boyfriend’s (now husband’s :))) parents met us. It was my first time meeting them, so I was kind of nervous. We went to Sea Dog Brewing Co. I’m not a big fan of different kinds of ale, but their raspberry ale is my little foible.

The next morning we went to Acadia National Park. I was speechless. I just can’t – and refuse to – describe this beauty. After that the world lost me, I changed my reality; and didn’t pick up phone calls or answer texts. I was completely into all our adventures. I wanted to catch every moment, and it didn’t matter what it was: walking along the beach while a light breeze inflates my curls and cool ocean sprinkles my feet, or hiking up Cadillac Mountain…

Every day we drove through small towns with names of European countries or capitals. I never thought that I could drive from Manchester to Norway through Paris in a couple hours.

Of course, we visited the capital – Augusta. The Maine State House looks like a miniature of the US Capitol.

I had a mindset that nothing would ruin my trip. But visiting this state I developed an idea: there is nothing to do there for young people. I mean the entertainment infrastructure is almost absent, but while I was on vacation I wanted to see only the wonders around me. My galaxy is full of joy and happiness. I’m absolutely sure that to reach these feelings you need only one thing: harmony with nature and the world around you.

Of course I can’t skip cuisine. It was a lobster paradise. I had a food coma every single day. Though we were in New England, I completed the pleasure with my favorite French wine.

Our last stop was at my boyfriend’s family camp. We did lots of fun activities there: kayaking (I tried it for the first time in my life) and hiking in the woods – where I saw so many wild mushrooms. At the end of the evening we were lying on a deck with a glass of wine, staring at an amazing night sky, listening to the loons, and dreaming…

Happy International Women’s Day!

Dear Ladies! Today is our day! I wish you all to feel love and happiness – not just all day, but every day! We are the power of beauty, light of tenderness, kindness of soul, pride of men. Let me quote Rihanna: ” We’re like diamonds in the sky”. Remember this. Let’s celebrate!

Kisses