It is also typical to celebrate the holiday with a midnight meal – at your own home, at the home of a friend or relative, or, less frequently, at a restaurant. There is champagne, of course, and a lavish spread of zakuski, or hors d’oevres. There is usually an entree as well, and a cake, and the obligatory tangerines, but in my mind, the New Year’s table is really centered around the zakuski. I already wrote about one of them, Olivier salad, on this site - it is a real classic and a “must” for New Year’s. Unlike Olivier, the recipe that I want to share with you today may not appear on every family’s New Year’s table, but it is definitely my favorite of all the Russian appetizers. It involves a lot less prep than Olivier, consists of only six ingredients (three if you don’t count the mayonnaise, salt, and pepper), and is incredibly flavorful. It is also very versatile. In Russia, it is known as a “salad,” and you would generally scoop some onto your plate and eat with a fork, following up with bites of bread. However, for an American-style party, you can use it as a dip for crudites or spread it on crackers or baguette slices. The latter option is the way I am choosing to serve this dish tonight at a staff holiday party that my employer is throwing.

Cheese Salad/Spread/Dip

Ingredients

4 hard-boiled eggs, finely grated

1/3 lb hard cheese (try cheddar, jack, or gouda), finely grated

4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely grated or crushed

3 tbsp mayonnaise

Salt and finely ground black or white pepper, to taste (pepper optional)

Preparation

Mix eggs, cheese, garlic, and mayonnaise, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with chopped fresh herbs for a festive presentation. That’s it – enjoy!

Serves 4-6

• The blini classes that I taught at PCC earlier this fall are done – last class was in Issaquah a couple weeks ago. Thank you to everyone who made them happen – the PCC Cooks team, my assistants, my students, and everyone who spread the word about the classes! (That would be you, Leslie! Thank you!) This was a really fun series of classes to teach, and the most hands-on one I’ve ever done, with students participating in virtually every step of the process from start to finish. It was also good practice in coordination and multitasking. For example, toward the end of every class,  there would be two students standing behind the counter at the stove cooking their yeasted blini (often with other students nearby watching and waiting for their turn), while I would be cooking the filled crepe-style blini (aka “nalistniki”) on the back burners of the stove, reaching over from the front side of the counter, while a couple of students worked to fill the last remaining nalistniki and passed them on to me to be cooked. Special thanks to my assistants for keeping a cool head and calmly doing what needed to be done amid the craziness!
• As anyone who’s been following the Cake vs. Pie contest knows, pie won again. My cake didn’t take any prizes this time around, but I’m told people happily gobbled up most of it (I couldn’t make it to the contest but Leslie of Fresh-Picked Seattle kindly delivered it for me). If you didn’t make it to the contest either but are curious to try Russian anthill cake (that’s what I ended up entering this year), don’t despair – attend the WACAP auction that’s coming up on November 19 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle, and you can bid on a Dessert-A-Month item that includes my cake, as well as 11 other exciting desserts created by the multi-talented WACAP staff. Get your tickets today – it’s shaping up to be a fabulos event, and all the proceeds benefit WACAP’s work to help orphans and foster children – many of them with special needs – find permanent adoptive homes.
• Last but not least, please check out my husband’s new shop on Etsy! It features some of his photos taken in Russia and the US – mostly in his hometown of Ulan-Ude in Siberia and here in and around Seattle. He’s going to keep adding new photos, so check back periodically to see what’s new.

• Quinoa, black bean, zucchini, and parsley salad, dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, grated parmesan, and salt. The zucchini is lightly stir-fried in olive oil. Made a couple of servings on Sunday night for lunch during the week, ate them on Monday and Tuesday, and just made another batch that will – hopefully – last me through the end of the week. It was that good!
• Lots of blini. I’ve been practicing for my upcoming class!
• Beet salad with walnuts, raisins (I usually add prunes but didn’t have them in the house this time), and garlic. Part of my Fall 2011 dinner party menu - earthy and sweet, with just the right amount of kick.
• Beet greens or Swiss chard sauteed with garlic and mixed into pasta with a creamy/cheesy sauce or served alongside my standard breakfast of couscous, quinoa, or rice topped with fried eggs
• Grated tempeh salad with finely chopped raw veggies and herbs, such as cucumbers, carrots, peas, zucchini, green onions, and parsley, in various combinations
• Homemade bread and (sadly non-homemade) butter with homemade blackberry or plum preserves. Whatever didn’t fit into the canning jars – and that delicious foam skimmed off the top of the bubbling jam – is the cook’s reward! The bread is either no-knead bread or a version of Reginald Beck‘s baguette recipe that he taught in his Fearless Baking class at PCC Cooks. I add a little sugar and sometimes replace 1/3 of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour.
• For dessert: zucchini bread, based on this recipe

The “arriving late” part did happen this year – the “staying late” part, not so much… Last weekend I was climbing Bandera Mountain, wearing a sweat-soaked T-shirt, shorts, and sandals under the blazing sun high above I-90. Yesterday I wore a raincoat, and when we got home around 11 pm after spending the day with friends (watching spawning salmon and then having what was probably the last barbecue of the year), we turned on the heat for the first time since probably mid-May. Today I needed a wool jacket for my walk to Bartell, all of 10 minutes away, and when I was leaving the house, I noticed that the wind had bent and almost broken the stem of a rose that is blooming next to our front door. When I got home from the store, I knew that there was no getting around it: fall was here, and that meant that it was time to sit down and change the seasonal menu on my website.

The new menu features earthy salads (beets! walnuts! cabbage!), a mushroom soup, hearty stews with rich sauces, and an award-winning cake (also with walnuts!). These dishes will not drive the rain and gloom away, but I am convinced that they can make fall a little bit more appealing.

Here are the links:

Summer 2011 cooking classes
Summer 2011 dinner parties

Here is a quick taste of what you’ll find: cold borscht, Georgian-style eggplant rolls (now if only that eggplant bush in my garden would finally take off so that I could make them with homegrown eggplant!), vareniki (aka “pierogi”), and lots of salads – some crunchy, some potato-ey, eggy, and/or cheesy…

All this is to say that I will no longer promise to post one recipe a month – and will no longer make (boring) excuses for not doing so. I do plan to publish recipes as time permits and I hope that you all check back here once in a while. As before, I will let everyone know via Facebook and the “blog” section of this site whenever a new recipe is up.

If you took one of my piroshky classes and have questions as you replicate the recipes, you are welcome to email me at any time. I will gladly help you out!  And, if you missed the classes at PCC, you can still take a private piroshky class in the comfort of your own kitchen – just email or call me (contact info here) to set up a class.