Tag Archives: Kulich

Mosaic Monday ~ Holy Week is Here!

 

What does Holy Week have to do with bunnies, especially the stuffed variety? Not much but we are sorting out and Spring cleaning around here in a major way. That’s not particularly holy although it could be. So my daughter brought out all her stuffed animals and then put together all her bunnies for an Easter shot. Then she asked, “should I bring out the lambs, too?” My reply to her was “If you are still a Christian you should.” We like to concentrate on the Lamb of God at Easter time. :0) I hope you can appreciate my sense of humor…my daughter chuckled. We are very seriou about Jesus.  “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”

 

This week we’ll be busy preparing for our Easter celebration. My sister Lana G! and I will be making Russian Easter Bread (Kulich) and a soft sweet cheese spread (Seerney Paska) to spread on the bread. My daughter Katie will color Easter Eggs. We love our traditions.

We’ll observe Good Friday. On Easter morning we’ll attend an Easter Service and greet each other with the Easter Greeting “Christ is Risen”…response “He is Risen Indeed”. My little bunnies are holding this greeting to grace our table. Any phone call we get on Easter Sunday will start with this greeting in Russian of course. Our Easter meal after church will have lamb for the main course with side dishes I haven’t decided on yet.

Hope you all have a blessed Holy Week.

Please visit Mary at The Little Red House to see more mosaics…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Easter Brunch

My tablescape this week is from my home in Washington State. We had brunch with our children after church on Easter Sunday.

Our traditional Russian Easter Bread ~ Kulich. My sister Lana G! and I baked this by ourselves for the first time this year.

We also made the traditional sweet cheese topping for the bread called Seerney Paska in Russian. The X is the first letter in Russian for Christ and the B is pronounced V in Russian and it stands for Arose. Christ Arose…

Our little bunnies are holding the signs for the reason we celebrate Easter. Again this is written in Russian Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

 

Here are our children after our yummy brunch of Swedish Pancakes which Dear made for all of us. We had to get the Swedish heritage in there, too.

To see more Tablescapes please visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Blue Monday Recap~

The word of the day is slow. I’m waking up slow, moving slow, and my brain is a bit slow. So much fun activity for the last 3 days has taken its toll on this good ole girl. So here’s a little blue and a little recap of some of our wonderful Easter…

 

My son Josh took me to the Seattle Sounders FC soccer game against the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday night. It was so much fun to join in on the parade to the stadium with the Sounders marching band and experience the excitement in the air. Josh has Season Tickets and usually my son Dan attends with him but Dan let me go in his place and gave me his scarf to wear with the instructions not to lose it! Fun times. I’m a big soccer fan and it was fun to see the Sounders in person even though they suffered their first loss of the season…

 

We had a wonderful Resurrection Day. We all went to the 9:00 am service together and heard and felt the power of the gospel. Afterwards we came home for brunch. Dear made his famous Swedish Pancakes which are a favorite at our house. We had our traditional Russian Easter Bread (Kulich) with Seerney Paska (a sweet yummy cheese spread). I used a plastic flower pot to form the cheese this year and I liked the result. Our Russian Easter greeting was repeated the traditional 3 times! Then on to the present day tradition…a little rock band family fun!

I’m going slow and easy today recuperating and getting back on my usual track. Hope all of you had a good weekend.

To see more “Blue” visit Sally at Smiling Sally!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Antique Easter Postcards ~

Greetings from the beautiful wet Puget Sound Area of Washington!!

I wanted to share these Antique Easter postcards that Dear’s Great, great, Aunt Emma received in the early 1900’s.

 

And then here’s a classic Easter shot from the 50’s of my sisters and me!

Vera, Kathy and Ellen b. We always got dressed up for Easter with a new Easter dress that my mom would usually sew for us. White patent leather shoes and white socks and a cute little purse finished off the outfit.

I took a stroll around the yard yesterday and I was so happy to see my Lenten Rose in full bloom for Easter.

 

Lana G! and I worked hard yesterday baking Kulich, (Russian Easter Bread), for the first time all by ourselves. In the past we’ve always watched my mom make it or were part of a group effort in making it. We had many questions in our heads yesterday wondering about the instructions and if we were doing things correctly. We were exhausted by the end of the baking process! Lana re-wrote the recipe and instructions so that someone who has never seen the process would understand what to do better…

 

My mother wants us to bring her back a piece so she can see how we did. Oh the pressure!!

 

Today we will decorate the tops of the Kulich with some frosting and sprinkles, color eggs and shop for our portion of the Easter dinner tomorrow.

The most exciting thing that is happening today, though, is that my son Josh is taking me to the Seattle Sounders Game tonight!! That’s MLS soccer for those of you who don’t follow soccer. My son Dan is giving up his season ticket and his scarf for me tonight! Whoohoo! Of course you’ll see and hear more about it later…

Tomorrow we’ll be celebrating with millions of people all around the world that Jesus Christ came to earth, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, and was resurrected from the dead with the power to save anyone who believes in Him. Now that is something to celebrate everyday! Blessings on you and yours!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Sweet Cheese Spread for Kulich ~ Seernaya Paska

My Russian heritage affords me some really good Easter eats. Every year we look forward to having our Easter Bread which we call Kulich in Russian and my Mennonite Friends called Paska.

We also make this yummy cheese spread to spread on this Easter Bread!

Seernaya Paska for Kulich (Russian Easter Bread) The X and the B are for Xpucmoc Bockpec (Christ Arose)

paska class 005

 

Seernaya Paska  (Сырная пасха)

Ingredients:

18 – hard boiled eggs /
3 pounds Farmers cheese /a dry curd cheese like a dry cottage cheese can be substituted.
1 pint whipping cream /
3 cubes unsalted butter (12 oz.) /
3 cups sugar /

Press the Farmers cheese through a sieve. (This is the hardest part of the recipe) If you find a very small curd cheese you won’t have to do this to the cheese. I usually use a wooden spoon and press it through a wire strainer a little at a time. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. (You will not be using the whites).

Press the egg yolks through the sieve. Cream the sugar and butter together. Beat in the egg yolks. Beat in the cheese. Add whipping cream and mix well. You will place the mixture into a strainer lined with about 3 layers of cheesecloth. You will need enough cheesecloth to wrap up and over the top of the cheese. Place the cheese mixture into the cheese cloth lined strainer or another container to mold into shape. Bring the ends of the cheese cloth up and tie the ends on top of the cheese in a knot. Place the sieve into a larger bowl suspended with enough room for the cheese to drain without sitting in the drained liquid. Place a plate on top of the cheese an place a heavy rock, brick, or other weight on top of the plate. Refrigerate over night.

I have used different shaped plastic flower pots to drain and mold the cheese into a higher domed result. If you choose to use a flower pot make sure there are enough holes in the bottom of the pot so the liquid can drain well.

This recipe is enough to feed an army. If you don’t have to feed an army here’s a scaled down version :0)

If you just want a normal amount, cut the recipe in thirds. (6 cooked egg yolks, 1-lb. cheese, 2/3 cup whipping cream, 1 cube butter and 1 cup sugar. Enjoy!

Farmers Cheese or Hoop Cheese can be hard to find. There are Russian delis that sell a dry curd cottage type cheese that will work. If you can find a dry cottage cheese at the grocers that will work too.

Here are examples of the Seernaya Paska I have made over the years.