Kaleberg Archive for Keyword: russian easter

For more on Russian Easter, Kaleberg Style, see our Russian Easter Recipe Party Page.

05/04/11 - Russian Easter 2011

We held our annual Russian Easter last Saturday, and we are still digesting all the wonderful food. The blini had the starring role. These are traditional yeast-risen buckwheat pancakes drenched in butter. Butter is supposed to symbolize the return of the sun in the spring. It also symbolizes lots of calories. We also had our home made pork sausage with the meat chopped, not ground. You can see some of the other co-stars in the photos, including

Enemies of the Czar - corned beef and swiss reuben paninis
Trotsky's Bane - wasabi tequila shooters with tabikko, served in cucumbers, a specialty from Trotsky's later years, exiled to Mexico
Our Token Nod to Good Health - asparagus and endive with walnut coriander sauce

Ironically enough, to celebrate the melting of the snows, we made snow, with our new ice shaving machine. It gave our Champagne Garden a whole new look, and it made the glasses a lot more stable.

So, once again, we told the tale of the Defense of Moscow, with Moscow played by a gigantic bake Alaska. Once again, we asked in desperation: "How could we defend mother Russia from the monster, Napoleon?" and once again we answered, "With scorched earth and flames of French brandy!" The burning was spectacular with the decorated brownie domes collapsing in flames and the satay sticks that held them in place igniting. We could almost imagine Napoleon desperating seeking a way out of the burning city as the walls collapsed around him. (That was in some version of War and Peace or another.)

So, until next year, Happy Russian Easter, and say Welcome to Spring.

For more on our traditional Russian Easter, including recipes, check out our Russian Easter page.

Enemies of the Czar, Trotsky's Bane and home made sausage

Our champagne garden

This years baked Alaska for our Defense of Moscow

Keywords: russian easter, spring

04/13/10 - Russian Easter

Yes, Russian Easter was Sunday, April 4th, but we just got around to holding our own celebration on the 11th. We gather there are some disputes about the exact date between the Old and New Calendrists. Well, we're the Kaleberg Calendrists, so we get to set our own date.

At least we hold true to tradition with our food. We have our blini, buckwheat pancakes, drowned in butter, our enemies of the Czar, grilled reuben sandwiches with Russian dressing, Trotsky's Bane, cucumber shots of salmon roe and tequila, and our usual set piece, the Defense of Moscow, in which we defend Moscow, represented by an oversized Baked Alaska decorated with brownie onion domes, from the Monster Napoleon by the traditional scorched earth method thanks to a good helping of flaming cognac.

Gorbachev and Breshnev preside by the samovar. That's Trotsky's Bane to the right.

Moscow, as envisoned by Kaleberg Arts, prior to its defense

Our Enemies of the Czar await their ritual consumption

Keywords: russian easter, salmon

04/09/10 - Fort Worden

We had some business to handle in Port Townsend, so we decided to take a look at Fort Worden which is a bit north of town. (Our business was to pick up coffee ice cream at Elevated Ice Cream for our Russian Easter party's Baked Alaska.) Fort Worden is mainly a state park now, but at one time it was a military installation, and there is some lovely architecture there, especially along the officer's row. There is also some pretty scenery with great views of the water, but we are a bit spoiled by Olympic National Park so we only explored a little, then headed off to get our ice cream. If you are in Port Townsend, you might want to drop by, but if you have more time to explore, head west.

The main sward

The waterfront

A great old building

Keywords: port townsend, russian easter

04/27/09 - Russian Easter 2009

We are recovering from our latest Russian Easter party. Yes, we know, Russian Easter was last week, but we are Kaleberg Kalendrists. Like the Old Calendrists and the New Calendrists who have been arguing about the date of the holiday since the new Gregorian calendar came out, we too have our own ideas as to when to celebrate Easter, and this year we chose yesterday.

We served the traditional meal of blini with salmon roe, Enemies of the Czar, Trotsky's Bane, home made sausage, and pan fried pelmeni. (For more on this, see our recipes page.) For dessert, there was a spirited defense of Moscow against the Monster Napoleon. It took a fair bit of flaming cognac and a lot of dessert spoons to get the proper scorched earth look. We also had a special guest dessert, Trotsky's balm, one of his mother's recipe. It looked suspiciously like a flan, but we know enough to keep our suspicions to ourselves.

The domes of Saint Basil's

The Kaleberg Russian Easter awaits the onslaught of our own ravening horde.

Moscow awaits the onslaught of the Monster Napoleon.

Keywords: russian easter, salmon, recipe

02/18/09 - Upgrade Your Tribble

After the recent demonstration of cooking with triticale at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market, we decided to take a good look at our tribble. You have to be a Star Trek fan to understand, but this is a reference to one of the great comic episodes in the original series, The Trouble With Tribbles. The tribbles are organic eating machines, and Captain Kirk was assigned to protect the precious store of a newly developed grain, quadrotriticale.

In any event, we have a tribble, one of the many sold by Thinkgeek. That's our tribble above. It doesn't seem to purr, but it does chitter noisily whenever one of us sneezes. We decided it needed a new look. As chance would have it, we had just the thing, a fox fur hat suitable for a Russian princess, or a tribble. The fit was perfect. Not only is our tribble larger, indicating that it is getting all the quadrotriticale it needs, but it is also softer. It still chitters something awful when disturbed, but otherwise doesn't seem to have minded the modification.

Keywords: art, science, humor, russian easter

04/20/08 - Russian Easter 2008

We held our Russian Easter this last weekend. Yes, we know that Russian Easter was back in March this year, but we figure that if they can have Russian Easter for Old Calendrists and Russian Easter for New Calendrists, why can't we have Russian Easter for Kaleberg Kalendrists?

In any event, we rounded up the usual suspects, including a particularly deadly version of Trotsky's Bane with a ton of wasabi and serious tequila. If Trotsky had been drinking this, they wouldn't have needed to waste the people's time and money on assassins. We also made some perushki with our own home made sauerkraut and some shitake mushrooms and nettles. For more recipes, check out our Russian Easter page.

The domes of Moscow were particularly lurid this year, with lots of dragee and extra dark red and green food dyes. Those supermarket food dyes are really too pastel for a serious holiday like Russian Easter. In any event, Moscow was once again saved from the monster Napoleon thanks to a liberal dousing of French brandy. As the flames rose, and the Frenchies retreated, we celebrated the irony with, of all things, champagne.

This year, we had even more realism. We had real snow in mid-April, just like they did in Moscow before global warming. It didn't stick, but the white flakes added to the festive mood.

Moscow for the defense

Blini and pelmeni

Trotsky's Bane - death by tequila

The usual suspects, and then some

Yes, it was snowing

Keywords: russian easter

05/13/07 - Russian Easter - Moscow Burns

It was another wild Russian Easter at Chez Kaleberg. This time we didn't even get the date right, but we did manage to defend Moscow from the Monster Napoleon. That's our authentic version of Baked Alaska made out of brownies, coffee ice cream, and meringue. What you can't see due to limits on our camera is the flaming brandy. That's right. As in 1812, it took scorched earth, in this case scorched by ironically flaming French brandy, to repel the invader.

Once the Frenchies were kicked out, Moscow was ours for the eating.

Keywords: russian easter, food

04/24/06 - A Kaleberg Russian Easter

Every year Russian Easter comes to the Kaleberg household, and that means butter, and more butter, and even more butter. That's right, Russian Easter means butter, and fish eggs, and buckwheat pancakes and a sink full of champagne. Every year we make buckwheat pancakes, blini, and we make our own pork sausage with carroway seeds, and we drink quarts of champagne.

This year, we wanted to try something different, so we broke open our Kaleberg Russian Kookbook [sic] and found a few more authentic Russian recipes. To find out more, check out this Kaleberg special report.

Keywords: russian easter, fish, food, special report