Fave Five on Friday!

1. Well it will be no surprise that at the top of my favorites for this past week is spending extra time with all my children. (And it hasn’t been a soap opera). On Saturday we did our belated family Christmas with stockings and Dear’s Swedish pancakes for breakfast. Later on that same day we had a birthday dinner for our daughter Katie. Since we will be in California for both Josh and Dan’s January birthdays we are celebrating tonight with a dinner for them.

2. It’s always great to see all the guys working together. Here they are shoveling snow off the drive to our house and two of our neighbor’s houses. We are really pleased the snow has almost disappeared.

3. I’ve been talking about wanting some more substantial nativities and Dear bought me both these sets for Christmas. They are both very different and I like them very much.

4. We revived a favorite dessert from days gone by this week that has always been enjoyed. You cook up vanilla pudding and while it is still hot you pour it over a generous scoop of good chocolate ice cream. Yum you get some great hot and cold and added creamy goodness in every bite! Having Dear’s wonderful Tomato Rice Peasant Soup was so good, too!

5. On New Year’s Day we met our dear friends Dave, Jody, Bob and Jan at McCormick and Shmicks Restaurant in Downtown Seattle for Happy Hour. It was wonderful sitting and talking for a couple hours over great Happy Hour Menu food. We had Salmon burgers, Black Bean Chicken Quesadillas and Oysters for $1.95 each! We also tried the Cod sandwich which was $3.95 and delicious! Sheesh, can’t beat that with a stick! We love these friends who we’ve gone through thick and thin with…

To see more Fave Fives or to join on in visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

The Bagdanov Christmas Eve in Huntington Beach!

My dear parents, Moisi and Nadia Bagdanov, with their newest granddaughter Hope. This picture represents the oldest and youngest at our family gathering at my sister Vera’s home in Huntington Beach. My parents have 8 living very adult children and 7 of those children with all their children and one great grandchild were all together for the first time at Christmas since 1991. We have one brother whose family does not celebrate with us.

My kids with their grandparents (Baba and Deda).

Katie and her cousin Melissa (one of my sister Kathy’s daughters). My kids with their Aunt Lana and cousin Caleb. Levi and Joseph (Levi, Caleb, and Joseph are 3 of my brother Steve’s boys).

My brother Leonard’s family. Leonard, Mandy and Miss Hope! They flew in from Dallas to celebrate with all of us.

We decided to walk a few blocks to the beach to take some family photos. This photo is of our girls, 3 nieces and auntie Lana.

Our kids.

All the cousins and spouses of cousins. We are missing 8 cousins including spouses in this photo…

The Ladies! Kristin (my sister Vera’s DIL), Melissa (my sister Kathy’s daughter), Katie (mine), Miss Hope (my brother Leonard’s daughter), Debbee (my sister Vera’s daughter) Jessica (my brother Steve’s DIL), Laura (my DIL), Michelle (my sister Kathy’s daughter).

The Gents! Caleb (my brother Steve’s #3 son) Ryan (my sister Kathy’s SIL), Jackson (my sister Kathy’s Grandson), Levi (my brother Steve’s #2 son) Joseph (my brother Steve’s #4 son) Timothy (my brother Steve’s #1 son) Dan (mine), David (my sister Vera’s son), Josh (mine)

The Newlyweds, Timothy and Jessica.

David and Kristin.

Jackson with one of his favorites, Debbee!

Katie down by the water. A storm was rolling in and we just finished our photo shoots before the rain started.

And here’s ellen b. having so much fun with Miss Hope!

I was able to restore this post as of May 2021 after we did a back up of all our photos off a very old computer!

A Russian Christmas Cooking Day!

For the first time in well, ever, I was around for the annual making Vareniky for Christmas Eve Event. This year we all gathered at my niece Debbee’s house for the cooking. My mother Nadia was at the helm keeping us on track. Here’s the crew of mother, daughters, daughter in laws, and granddaughters, and great grandson. The youngest granddaughter was here, too, with photos to follow…

We were making Vareniky, which we have for dessert on Christmas Eve. The recipe and description of what they are is here from last years event if you are curious…

I think we ended up making close to 200 of these lovelies!!

Some of the guys showed up, too, hoping for a treat or two!

And Miss Hope is here from Dallas for her very first Christmas!

2008 Christmas Tour of Homes

It’s time for Boo Mama’s 2008 Tour of Homes. You can travel all over the world and see homes all decked out for the most wonderful time of the year.

A very warm welcome to you from ellen b. in Washington State and Southern California.

The tree above is our first annual Mystery Tree. I started a new tradition last year. I walk into Home Depot look at all the tied and wrapped trees, pick one without unwrappping it, bring it home all wrapped up, and surprise our Mystery tree is unveiled and we can laugh or cry at what we ended up with. Actually it’s quite fun to pick a tree this way. Good way to lighten up during the season…

Like many of your homes Jesus is at the center of our Christmas celebrations and Joy! This is what you’ll see at our entry in Washington.

And this is from our condo in Southern California.

Let me serve you a festive drink and some chocolates and let’s start our tour before I serve dinner. These chocolates are the easiest things in the world to make. Just melt 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 bag of butterscotch chips then throw in some pecans or walnuts or whatever nut you like, spoon them onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and let them cool and voila you have candy. I’m so darn sorry I forgot whose blog I saw these on. If you happen to visit here let me know if it was you and I’ll give you credit!!

Another collage of my little fake Christmas tree with lights that I bought for the condo from a local thrift store here in Camarillo, California. I’m usually in the State of Washington the whole month of December and only put up a tree there but this year is different and we’re not flying to Washington till Christmas day so we need something at the condo so people won’t think we are part of the Grinch family!

Now if you visit us in Washington I could serve you at this table.

Or from this Christmas table in Southern California.

Here is what I will be serving and what is part of our traditional Christmas Eve meal.

We’ll have a Rib Roast, Creamed Corn, something green, and Yorkshire Pudding. (Ok, it used to confuse me that they called Yorkshire Pudding pudding when it’s not pudding but a popover type bread that you bake using the hot drippings from the roast, I’m way over it now. You can make it in any pan but I bought this great popover pan that works great for them.) After dinner we can sit by the fireplace and enjoy the tree with a cup of cocoa or coffee. If you stay for Christmas morning we’ll have those yummy Swedish Pancakes above that Dear makes for us every Christmas morning after we open our stocking gifts…

Now for some of the people God has put in our lives to share all the wonder of Christmas with…

I’d like to introduce you to our family. Our daughter Katie and DIL Laura. Our oldest son Josh with Dear. Our son Dan. Josh and his wife, our DIL, Laura. Another shot of our son Dan. Dan and Katie live in our home in Washington and take care of it while Dear and I are living in California. Josh and Laura live in Washington, too.

More shots of the family and extended family. The top left photo is of my sister Lana G! and I. She has a tour happening at her blog too, Above the Clouds . We have a great time blogging and tablescaping together. Dear, our daughter Katie, and me at Molbaks in front of the Poinsettia Christmas tree, Our girls…Katie and Laura, ellen b. and Dear at our 34th wedding anniversary celebration.

Thank you for taking my tour and meeting some of my family…

To see more tours click over to Boo Mama’s.

Married Molokan Women

This is a photo taken in Mexico sometime in the late 40’s I think. A Molokan Community was established in Baja California years ago. This shows the typical Molokan outfit that married Molokan women wear to Church functions then and now. The head coverings are called a Kasinka. If you visited a Molokan church today you’d see this exact look that the women are sporting here. I think it’s a wonderful photo and wanted to add it to my Molokan Posts. My other posts besides my Russian Recipes can be found here and here. If anyone out there knows who these ladies are just leave a comment and let me know. Most of my immediate family left the Molokan church in the 60’s. I left well before I’d have to wear this outfit and I never intended to marry a Molokan so I never was in the position to have to wear it…

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!

Tablescape Tuesday

When I was in Seattle a couple weekends ago my daughters and sister played dress up the table for Fall! It was fun and this is what we came up with.

The plates are Charter Club Grand Buffet from Macy’s that I bought at a great clearance price. The Chargers are from Target. The sterling is International 1812. The goblets are from target and the champagne flutes are from Marshalls. I picked up the napkins at a Target clearance and the napkin rings are from Sur la Table.

This is a Thanksgiving table from 2004 with a different tablecloth and with some berries added to the napkin rings. This was before I started blogging so my photograph doesn’t show the table detail as well as I would have liked.

For more Tablescapes visit Susan on Tuesday at Between Naps on the Porch.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

Happy Birthday Lana & Leonard

A Very Happy Birthday to my Sister and my Brother!

Yes, they are twins…

Lana, I thank God for you and pray that He blesses you with all things good this coming year. Thanks for all the fun times we have together, shopping, exploring cemeteries, eating, and blogging together. Joy, Joy, Joy is what I wish for you!

Leonard, I thank God for all the new things He has filled your life with this last year! Wow, He has really blessed you richly and it makes this sister overwhelmed with joy for you and thanksgiving to our God. I love you my brother!

Since it’s her birthday why don’t you head over to Lana G!’s to see a photo of her and my brother together sporting a fabulous hairdo!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site and have replaced my photos with black and grey boxes of ugliness. I’m slowly deleting those boxes from my blog and trying to update so many posts, very frustrating.

The Wedding ~ Tim and Jessica

What a wonderful ceremony and reception to celebrate the marriage of my nephew Tim to his beautiful bride Jessica.

My Grand Nephew Jackson was the Ring Bearer and he was perfect!

He walked carefully and looked oh so like a little prince.

Jessica was a stunning Bride.

The Groom, my nephew Tim, with his brothers and family. Tim is the one on the left in the upper photo. That’s his brother Levi with him. My brother Steve’s family is excited to finally have another woman in the group. The boys are happy to have a sister.

So much fun to see all the cousins together having a good time.

The Sisters, Vera, Lana, Ellen, and Kathy

The happy newlyweds. My nephew Tim…if he thinks he needs a drink now, just wait! No worries that’s only Martinelli’s and he really didn’t seemed stressed with all the excitement around him.

My married kids! Hard to believe they’ve almost been married 7 years!

My parents, Tim’s paternal grandparents at the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. See that last photo of my dad hugging Tim and Jessica, he decided it was time to take my mom home because she was tired so he walked right up to Tim and Jessica while they were having their first dance to give them a kiss and hug goodbye. He doesn’t really understand the concept of the first dance, since none of his children danced at their weddings. It was a kodak moment and all of us kids were belly laughing. Such a Moisi moment!!

Here’s my extended family minus 10 who were not at the wedding.

At the end of such a long eventful day we were all ready to go to sleep just like our Princess Hope.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Pelemeny ~ Russian Ravioli

Pelemeny (Russian Version of Ravioli)

Filling:

1/2 lb. ground chicken
1/2 lb. ground veal, or lamb, or beef
1 medium onion grated
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Dough:

2 cups sifted flour
1 egg
1/3 cup water

Combine the two meats with onion. Add seasonings to taste and mix well and set aside.

Prepare Dough: In a small mixing bowl, sift the flour and a pinch of salt. Make a nest in the flour, add the egg which has been mixed with water. Work the flour into the egg and mix and then knead to a rather dry dough. Use more or less flour as needed. Roll dough very thin. We used a pelemeny mold/maker that my mom brought back on one of her trips to Russia so the pelemeny come out in a round shape. If you don’t have a mold cut the dough into 2″ circles. Put a small ball of filling (about 1/2 tsp) onto each circle and fold over and pinch edges making a half-moon shape. Then pinch each corner up together.

Boil in your choice of broth. Add the Pelemeny to the boiling broth. When they are done they will surface like doughnuts. You can serve them with the broth like a soup or you can have them plain with some sour cream. This recipe should feed 4-6 people.

The photo collages that I have shown are of my family making a huge batch of these for a family gathering we’re having. We made 648 of these.

It is very important to flour this mold really well each time you put the dough on to fill.

We found that a plastic teaspoon worked best to press the meat into each little hole.

You have to shake the completed Pelemeny out of the mold.

You can serve these with a lot of broth like a soup or just plain with sourcream.

Some people enjoy them with soy sauce.

Enjoy!

Happy Flag Day!

The American Flag

When freedom, from her mountain height

Unfurled her standard to the air,

She tore the azure robe of night

And set the stars of glory there.

She mingled with its gorgeous dyes

The milky baldric of the skies,

Then from his mansion in the sun

She called her eagle-bearer down

And gave into his mighty hand

The symbol of her chosen land.

Joseph Rodman Drake

I borrowed this from Tom across the pond. Thanks Tom for your tribute today to our flag! Tom hosts Sky Watch every week.

Inspired by three decades of state and local celebrations, Flag Day – the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 – was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson’s proclamation, it was not until August 3rd, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day.

To read more about Flag Day click here.