Ukrainian Borscht

The National Cuisine Week has ended. There were many yummy recipes and we decided to try them all. The first choice was Ukrainian Borscht as the dish which is simply enough for mom with small children but is also perfect for dinner. It is quite tricky to cook with two babies, since each one wants to participate in the process in his own manner. So we missed a few steps and ingredients on the way. Nevertheless the soup was wonderful and we will definitely try it once again and while paying more attention to the details.

Shakshouka

Shakshouka is a dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes,  chilli peppers, onions and often spiced with cumin. You can read more about it here.
There are many different recipes to prepare it, but since I am lazy, I use mine which is very much simplified. My family like it and due to it's simplicity we are able to cook it even outside.
First you need to chop and fry till gold color a few onions (I usually take one small onion per portion, but I like fried onions and prefer to put as much as my family can tolerate). Season per your taste.
Next, chop and add tomatoes to the fried onions (take twice more than onions) then fry everything together till it gets soft.

Poach eggs. Season them per your taste.

Cover the pan and fry till the eggs reach the desired state.

National Cuisine Week

National Cuisine Week has started!

Rosh Ha Shana

When I came to Israel, I was fascinated by the amount of holidays here. I knew theoretically what Jewish holidays are, but didn't realize their impact on everyday life of the country. Much more further I counted the actual amount of non working days and understood that it is not that many, it is just that most of them are at fall and in spring. So it makes impression of almost not working season, especially when all the holiday days fall on working days of the week.
The first September holiday is Jewish New Year. I will not tell about it in depth, since all is written many times (for example, in Wiki). It was difficult to get used to the fact that you celebrate New Year somewhere in the middle of autumn, but I overcame it, and now I am fully enjoying these beautiful three days of eating apples dipped in honey, pomegranates and sounding the shofar.
For this coming 5773 year, I wish all of us one of the best greetings I've ever got:
I wish all of us peace in the soul and in the sky. Be happy.

Bulgaria - Day 2

Well, I will not tell much, I'll better show more pictures :)
This was the first day when we met the horses. It was supposed to be a 'short' day, but for us it seemed quite long.
We came to the stables and each one got his horse.

 I got the only girl-horse named Mavra. She was beautiful :) and quite foolproof :)

During two amazing hours ride to the sea I couldn't take photos, since we left all the potentially 'can fall down' things in the truck.
Finally we arrived to a beautiful lagoon, where lunch had been already prepared for us. However, before we could fuel ourselves we had to take care of the horses. As we found out, horses should take a bath from time to time and that lagoon was an excellent place for a swim. You should know that in spite the fact that horses are good swimmers they do not enjoy the process as expected. So, together with the horses we changed to our bathing suits, meaning that we stripped them of all their bundle on the back: saddle, blanket etc.
Pay attention - we are riding without saddles like prehistoric men.

It is not simple without really knowing how to make the horse (which doesn't really like swimming) enter the water and not to fall down in the process.
Finally the horses were clean...which I can't say about the surrounding water :) - it was full of their excrements - I have already mentioned that horses don't like swimming, haven't  I?
We left them to dry up in the sun in ankle deep water and went to feed ourselves. They didn't move an inch - only when their master called them to get out.

  After the lunch break we had a wonderful trip back in the truck, while my parents rode the horses for the first time:)

Mavra is a stunning horse indeed... so calm :) She was only neighing sometimes when everybody else was galloping, but she had to walk, because my mother is afraid of fast  pace.

Sunflower Story

Well, you never know where inspiration will come from! Mine came from a customer's question. One day I've got a message where a girl was asking me if I can make a sunflower necklace.
So, I decided to crochet this very new sunflower necklace that will pair with the teething ring that I already have in my store. Look and compare :)
You can find the flowers here

I am planning to create a matching necklace to each teether that I have in the shop.

Artists Fair

While I am working on the long Bulgarian story, I will tell how we spent last Friday. It was quite a hot day as usual, but it was special. We were at an artists fair in TA.
It is the second time I participate in such an event, and I have to say the results were better:) So I will definitely join it next time.
At the beginning there were  almost  no visitors at all and all we did was meet and talk to the colleagues.
My dear mother was babysitting Liya while I took a few pictures of my friends.
Liya got this beautiful headband from Shirel at BonbonLand:
 

Toma from MagazinIL and her beautiful baby accessories:

 Vlada from VladaHom and her stunning felted toys:

Horse Riding in Bulgaria - Day 1

Well, since I promised and since I don't want to forget, I decided that I had to start telling you the story right now.
This summer I was very eager to do something big after Liya's birth, I was dying to walk out of the house. So as a true speleologist I decided to... ride a horse!
One day I opened my live journal friends' posts and saw that there is a horse riding tour being organized. I knew the girl that was planning that journey, so I didn't hesitate.
8 days tour with 5 days on horseback were planed. First 3 days should be easy - the flight and arrangements, choosing the horses and a short trip to the old town of Sozopol. Then we were supposed to leave for the BIG RIDE.
I invited my parents to join us, so we could look after the children in turns. Two of us were riding and the other two were going behind in the jeep with both our kids.
The flight was at the afternoon, and we had plenty of time for sight seeing after we arrived at the small resort village (Lozinetz).
This is where we stayed:

Liya looking around:

And finally Black Sea:

Surprisingly, I liked it. I always prefer fresh over salt water and I quite hate the Mediterranean Sea for it's very salty and has lots of waves to my taste. Black Sea was almost not salty at all and almost no waves :).
We closed the day with Bulgarian gourmet meal. Liya is saying cheers:

And a glimpse to the next day:

It's not my size!!

BTW Liya is wearing this hat from my shop :)