Zhanna's Russian Health Drink

Greetings to my friends who are probably wondering what happened to me. I haven’t made an entry in my blog in several months. We recently moved to a beautiful remote area of the country. The birds awaken us in the morning with their melodious songs—we never hear traffic. Occasionally we see happy neighbors walking or biking past the house.

They always wave or stop and say hello.

Now that I am nearly unpacked I can get back to writing, visiting with my grandchildren that are closer than before, lying on the beach, and having fun in the kitchen.

I recently met a friend of my daughter-in-law named Zhanna who moved to the U.S. from Russia a couple of weeks ago. She was a little under the weather and was sipping a concoction that looked somewhat like lemonade. Through translation my daughter-in-law explained its purpose and contents. It was a health drink she had been drinking since she was a child. She got the recipe from her mother and it was good for whatever ails you.

The flight from Russia took more than a full day, being cooped up with a lot of people

that may or may not have been ill and she was not taking any chances. Hence she was drinking this Russian health drink. The next time you are around someone with flu or your kids come home from school with the sniffles, brew a jug of this Russian Health Drink. Zhanna swears by it. Thank you Zhanna! Stay well.

 

 Health Drink from Zhanna

1 medium fresh ginger root

4 fresh squeezed lemons

1 tablespoon honey

2 pounds frozen or fresh cranberries

3 liters lukewarm water 

             

Place following ingredients

in 3 liter or half gallon container:

a) Peel the ginger root and squeeze through a garlic press. Taste for heat, if it is too hot       use only half. Save the rest of the ginger for another day.

  b) Squeeze the lemons and remove seeds.

  c) Thaw frozen cranberries or wash if fresh. Grind in blender  

  d) Add honey

  e) Add lukewarm water and mix thoroughly.

  

Drink through the day on a full stomach to prevent getting sick. If you are using this drink for children use half the lemon and add more water.

Surprise Oatmeal Pancakes

I got this basic recipe during the 1970’s from a Chicago friend of ours named Mike.  He was a traveling salesman and visited our area about once a month and usually spent the night.  One morning while he was there we were about to make breakfast when he decided to help out.  He made these wonderful oatmeal pancakes that were so delicious we adopted them for our own.  We’ve turned them into a Sunday brunch tradition at our home.  They never get boring because we change them by adding everything from blueberries to nuts and chocolate chips.  Let the children or grandchildren help out with this project.  They love making choices and adding their own  favorite ingredients.  

Ingredients:
1 egg
1 tbsp. canola oil
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
½ cup milk
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup whole wheat flour
1½ cups old fashioned oatmeal

Optional: ½ cup chopped apple, a sprinkling of cinnamon, chocolate chips, blueberries, sliced strawberries, sliced almonds, chopped pecans, applesauce or anything else you or your assistants have chosen.

Directions: Preheat griddle to 350 degrees.
In a medium sized mixing bowl whip egg with oil.  Add salt, cinnamon, honey, yogurt and milk.  Mix thoroughly and then add wheat flour, oatmeal, baking powder, and soda.  Add the optional ingredients of your choice or those of your assistants.
Pour batter onto a warm preheated griddle and cook until beginning to set.  Turn pancakes over and continue to cook until springy in center.  These pancakes burn easily so keep temperature lower than recommended by griddle manufacturers.  Place on platter when done and keep warm in oven until ready to eat.  I promise your family will love these.  Serve with maple syrup, your favorite jam, or fruit.  Turn off the TV and telephone, sit at the table and have a conversation with your family.  What a treat!

Crock-pot Pulled Chicken Barbecue

One of my daughters has wholeheartedly embraced the internet and its conveniences. She buys diapers, soap, paper products and much more at a reduced rate saving fuel, money, and countless hours in her crazy busy schedule as a professional.

She found a website that tailors her food to her lifestyle with recipes, shopping lists, and even delivery far cheaper and faster than she could do on her own. In addition she avoids buying junk food that would tempt her at the store.

Recently she gave a birthday party for her son--my grandson. She did it at home and saved a bundle by preparing all the food with a little help from Grandma. One of the dishes was Crock-pot Pulled Chicken Barbecue. It was quite a hit and I decided that I would play around with the recipe and make it my own. I prepared it for a  CAPA (Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association) meeting and everyone loved it. Try these tender tasty fragrant little stuffed buns. I promise you won't be disappointed. Doesn't it make your mouth water just thinking about that tangy, sweet sauce?

 Pulled Chicken Barbecue

Ingredients:

3 pound frozen skinless boneless chicken breasts
1 large chopped onion
28 ounce bottle barbecue sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's)
1/2 cup Italian dressing
1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp. honey
Small whole wheat buns (Remember you need enough for a party.)

Directions:

Place frozen chicken breasts into crock pot. Chop onion and sprinkle over chicken. In a mixing bowl combine the rest of ingredients and pour over the chicken and onions. Cover and set temperature to low for about 6-8 hours or 4-5 hours on high. (I cooked it overnight on low.)When done remove lid. Smell that aroma while you use two forks to pull the meat into small bits. (Recipe makes about 20-30 sandwiches.) There is no salt added since there is salt in several of the ingredients. Go ahead--sample it. I know you want to!

It's great served with potato salad and coleslaw. Come on Grandma you and the kids can help with this.

Peanut Butter Edible Play Dough

Last week the sky cried most of the time, so my grandchildren and I had to take some of our adventures inside. Princess granddaughter gets cabin fever when she can’t go out, so we had to figure out something else to do besides jump off the back of the couch. I checked out the pantry and decided to do a cooking activity that I used to do with my second-grade class when I taught—that was before they outlawed peanut butter in school. We used our detective skills to find the three needed items: peanut butter, powdered milk, and honey.

We took out the three-step stool, put on our aprons, washed our hands with soap and water and then started. In a medium sized metal bowl we dumped one cup of powdered milk, ½ cup of peanut butter, and ¼ cup of honey. We took turns mixing until it got hard to stir, then came the fun part. We put our hands in and squished it until it was smooth and pliable, we needed a smidgen more honey and a little more squishing—ahh perfect! We only nibbled a little bit, honest!

(This dough is no bake so don’t preheat the oven.) Next we rolled it out on wax paper and made snakes, then, since it was Halloween season, we decided to make pumpkins. Too bad we didn’t have corn candy for jack-o-lantern eyes and such, but raisins did nicely. Then we used a rolling pin and rolled out the rest of the dough until it was flat. Finally we cut out bats and black (pretend!) peanut-butter cats. We really tried to save some for Mommy and Daddy but we just couldn’t help ourselves. We started eating the dough. I ate a pumpkin and the princess kept picking at the cats and bats until you couldn’t tell what they were. We shared some with her eighteen month old prince brother. According to our critique from the prince, it earned a “Yum”. We thought so too. Don’t tell the princess I hid some in the cabinet behind the glasses!