Random Mishmash

Hey there, homeskillets. Sorry for bouncin’ on you like that. Time at home was too good to spend sitting at the computer, and I’ve been trying to resettle back into Russian Life for the past week or so. Oh, and I lost my camera card. Whoops. So, here I present to you a slew of random photos taken over a few weeks.

Good thing about being home #1: going out with friends. My girlie-o Jill and I went out a couple of times. Once was to Applebee’s, where I haven’t been in yeeeaaars, but it was so cold, we didn’t want to go anywhere that was farther. I had the Paradise Chicken Salad, which was surprisingly good.

I forgot to ask for the dressing on the side, but luckily, they didn’t drown the salad in it. Overall, pretty tasty. I like fruit chunks in my salads, and there was plenty of flavor here.

Jill suggested we get dessert, too, but we couldn’t agree on one thing (she wanted a maple blondie, but I don’t care for maple flavor….), so we went our separate ways. She got the maple blondie, and I got two of the dessert shooters, chocolate mousse and hot fudge sundae.

Hi, Jilly!

I thought they were actually in shot glasses—because at this size, one was enough! I ate a bit of both, but it was too much chocolate to eat it all. But considering the size of these things they’re a good deal for $1.99!

Good thing about being home #2: someone else cooking for me. You saw a taste of my stepmom’s kitchen skillz in the previous post, but my bio-mom is a great cook as well. When I was there for New Year’s, she cooked me a Thanksgiving-style dinner, since I missed being with my family in November (awwww). Since I lost my camera cord, I took pics on my mom’s camera, which, of course, I forgot to transfer onto my own computer… So you can’t see the whole meal, but here’s our giant turkey!

ummm... i may or may not have been nomming the missing wing while taking the photo

It made some badass leftover meals. (I LOVE holiday leftovers!!!) I made a take on my favorite sandwich, the post-Thanksgiving pile o’ everything. But I had the clever idea of using cold gravy as a spread on my bread (no mayo needed!), toasting it, and then composing the rest of my sandie with the requisite turkey, lettuce, cranberry sauce, veggie bits, and whatever else I no longer recall putting on there.

It was also nice to have my family’s traditional New Year’s dinner, pork, sauerkraut, potatoes, applesauce, homemade bread, and cranberries. It is a very beige meal, now that I look at it! At least it’s tasty.

My mom also had about twenty gajillion different kinds of cookies prepared while I was there. So sweets abounded. And then she made pie! Gee, Momma, you treat us right!

pie in the front, cookies in the back!

Good thing about being home #3: going out for breakfast. I LOVE going out for breakfast, it’s so fun for me, and always tastes so good. Lucky me, I had the opportunity to go to my favorite breakfast joint a couple more times when I was home. Once I went with my stepmom and ordered something I’d never tried before, but had seen on the menu for years. The Mexican Mashed meal was a layer of mashed potatoes mixed with corn and chorizo sausage, plus two eggs, served with a chipotle dipping sauce and toast.

I’m not gonna lie, this wasn’t my favorite thing I’ve had there. It seems like a fun idea, but it was just way too heavy for me. I did enjoy my toast, though! I got the homemade cinnamon raisin bread. Just look at all that cinnamon goodness!

I went back on my very last day in the U.S. of A. with Jill and her fiancé, and did get my favorite meal there, the Guy Scramble. It’s eggs mixed with black beans, salsa, avocado, cheese—nothing too fancy. This is something I have tried to replicate on my own, and while my version is good, The Friendly Toast’s reigns supreme.

It is just so much better when they make it for me. I ate up all my eggs, some of my homefries, and more of that luscious cinnamon raisin toast. Mmmm…. When you get it with a mug of hot cocoa with homemade whipped cream, you’ve got a little slice of heaven!

Then, for me, it was time to hop on an airplane, fly halfway across the world, and settle in again in our beloved city of Domodedovo.

It has been a hard week coming back. I’ve realized just how much I miss my family and friends in the US. I took it easy, watching a lot of American TV on the Internet and trying to get back in the groove of things here.

I went out a couple of times with my friends here to catch up and compare holidays. I met Caro by chance (I kid you not, we literally bumped into each other!) in Moscow, so we decided to let Fate do her job and spent the rest of the day together. We seem to go out for Japanese a lot, and we hit up another place near Aleksandrovkii Sad (Aleksander’s Garden, near the Kremlin). I tend to get the same thing again and again… Avocado rolls and soup (unfortunately, I haven’t learned to love fish sushi yet. It’s something about the texture… Any ideas how to get over that?). This soup was called Samurai Curry (I think) and was supposed to be quite spicy. I really wish that Russians knew the meaning of “spicy,” but otherwise the soup was all right. It had nice chunks of chicken, green onion, whatever was making it “spicy,” egg, tomato, and tofu in a miso-style broth.

Caro, at least, is more adventuresome than I am. She got this fabulous-looking dish. I think it was a variation on Philadelphia rolls… I just loved the presentation!

I also hit up the Starlite Diner, my American foods home away from home, with another friend. I was thisclose to getting something chock full of veggies (!!!), and then changed my mind at the last moment and got a buffalo chicken wrap. It is a favorite of mine: I mean, buffalo chicken? Yes, please!

Unfortunately, while the buffalo flavor was okay, there was waaaaay too much of the “crispy” part of the chicken, and it ended up being a weird texture (because so many bites were just “crispiness.” Eww)… And there was a LOT of mayo on it. So, a good experiment, but I guess I’ll leave buffalo chicken wraps to the American kitchens…  Oh, well. Now I know!

So that’s what I’ve been up to.

What have you been up to for the past 3 weeks? What’s the best/most interesting/most exciting thing that has happened to you? Hmmm…. I guess the most interesting thing is that I’m back in Russia… The best part was visiting my family when I was home, of course J

Hashbrowns or homefries? HOMEFRIES>hashbrowns. Forever.

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