Cabbage Bean Soup

Here's yet another fusion of scavenged recipes coupled with my own personal tastes. After the excesses of the holiday season a simple soup like this is both much welcome and much needed :-), and a good way to get back on the fast for those of you who are still in Advent, but didn't escape the American Christmas festivities unscathed. (Or unfed rather ;-).)

Roasted Carrot Soup

This is a nice, flavorful soup and great on a cold winter night with a piece of baguette. If I make this in the future I want to try adding some dill to the seasoning mix, and perhaps also some peas or cubed carrots. As usual, if you dislike something or think the recipe needs more of something else, then go for it!

Fe'asting Bread

We're officially well into December, which means it's almost time to celebrate the feast day of St. Nicholas of Myra (6/19 December), under whose protection I placed my family not long after my conversion to Orthodoxy. Having a patron saint for an entire extended family is primarily a Serbian Orthodox custom, but when I first came across it the whole idea struck me as extremely practical. I try to pray, but I don't do anywhere near as much praying as I ought to, and so asking someone whose whole life was and is permeated by prayer and who always went out of his way to help others to pray for my family just made sense.

Dill Pasties

I both love and hate to travel, but I have to do a fair amount of it irregardless of how I feel because of how spread out my family and friends are. (That's what happens when you're born of generations of immigrants to missionary parents in Africa - there was just no chance of a settled life from the get go.)

Sweet Potato Split Pea Stew

This was meant to be a crockpot recipe, but then my day got away from me and it became a stove top stew instead :-). A couple of modifications were made along the way, but if you want the original crockpot recipe, then click here. Among other things it's hotter than the version I made, which was still rather hearty and warming despite its dearth of the chili powder called for in the original recipe :-).

Lentil Carrot Soup

So, what do you do when you're so on edge doing the grocery shopping 'cause of all the crowds of crazy people in the store that you take twice as long as you'd thought you'd take to get in 'n out and find yourself with only 45 minutes to make supper for six instead of a couple of hours? Will the pot pie you had planned with its twenty million things to chop and pre-cook - before you can even think of baking the whole thing - work? Of course not! So what is the answer to this problem? Lentil soup!

Russian Fish Soup

This - уха ("ukha") in Russian - is one of those dishes that every grandmother makes her own special way, so if you're Russian and reading this, please stop now! This is my blend of several recipes, whereas you have your own tradition to keep! (Plus you'd probably read this and go, 'He thinks you should put WHAT in ukha!?')

Ginger Cookies

It's funny how the change of seasons can bring about a change in tastes and desires. Fall comes and I crave all things pumpkin, and then American Thanksgiving comes and goes and suddenly all I can think about are these ginger cookies :-). And since the Advent Fast gets going shortly after Thanksgiving, having a vegan recipe is a must! This is a tweaked version of a recipe that can be found here.