Russian Tea Cakes

This is how it happened: We were getting close to the day that it would yet again be my turn to provide some egg-free baked delicacies for a work gathering, when suddenly Mrs. Throat-Erator tugged my sleeve and said: "Please make these so I can bring some to work for my birthday". I checked the recipe .. no eggs required. Then I checked with my boss about the detail of the nut allergy: "I'll survive pecans". And so I decided to make a large batch of cookies.

Ingredients:
- 760 g (~24 oz) margarine
- 860 g (~30 oz) flour
- 140 g (~5 oz) powdered sugar + more for rolling
- 3 tsp vanilla sugar
- 3 tbsp water
- 350 g (~12 oz) pecan nuts^[1]

The margarine was worked into the flour using the hands - the resulting mixture was quite sticky. The vanilla sugar, powered sugar, water and chopped pecans were worked into the dough - which was still rather sticky.

The dough was rolled into balls of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) diameter - in the end the cookies were a bit on the large side of what I'd expected, so I guess I'll aim for smaller somewhat balls next time, say 1.5-2 cm (³/₅ - ⁴/₅ inch) instead. The balls were placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and flattened slightly - to about 1 cm (²/₅ inch) thickness with the bottom of a drinking glass (this required a little patience and practice since the dough tended to stick to the glass). I got some 80 cookies out of this batch.

The cakes were baked at 162.5 C (325 F) for 25 minutes, then moved to a rack to cool.

The cool cakes were rolled in powdered sugar - and mighty delicious.

Since these go both by the name of Russian tea cakes and Mexican wedding cookies, I don't really know if they are truly Russian (or Mexican) - both seems unrealistic. But I do know that they go very well with tea, and I find them most appropriate since I'm currently drinking mainly Russian tea.

^[1] You'll find these cookies made with hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamias... you name the nut, basically. I think I'd like to try some other nuts in this recipe one of these days.

Borscht

My parents have always kept a large vegetable garden - a hobby the entire family benefits from year-round. Although I have to say that neither I nor my siblings were entirely grateful for the bounty of beetroot. In our opinion our parents knew one or two recipes too many for dishes based on beetroot. Pickled beetroot were appreciated by all (e.g. as topping for liver pâté) - beetroot steaks and beetroot pâté not so much. Interestingly they never made us beetroot soup, which I think might have won me over a little more effectively - or maybe my taste just changed since then. Anyway, now it's autumn again, and therefore soup season, so I made a big pot of borscht.

Ingredients:
- olive oil
- 3 medium/small red onions, chopped
- 400 g (almost 1 lb) potatoes
- 800 g (almost 2 lbs) celery root
- 1500 g (over 3 lbs) beetroot
(all tubers were peeled, and cut in cubes 1 cm per side (1/2 inch per side))
- 2 dL (almost 1 cup) flour
- 2.5 L (2/3 gallon) beef bouillon
- 4 cloves garlic, mashed
- 12 peppercorns
- salt
- 6 bay laurel leafs
- thyme & oregano
- 0.5 L (2 cups) cream

In a large pot, a little oil was heated. The onion was sautéed for a couple of minutes before adding the tuber cubes. After another 5 minutes, the flour was added and stirred in to coat the cubes with the flour. The beef bouillon was added together with the herbs, salt, and peppercorns. The soup was brought to a boil, then the heat was reduced. The soup was covered and allowed to simmer for an hour with occasional stirring, before adding the cream.

Served warm with a little sour cream on top.