How to be a great wife & mother for an evening.

I decided to share the happiness of a content mother and wife due to a delicious and nutritious dinner I served last night to the utmost delight of my family. I fried Russian blinchiki. Not BLINI that in shape & thickness or lightness will remind you of a French crepe, but small Russian blinchiki, pancakes about 3" in diameter. There is not much enlightment in whiping a pancake, even more so, every respectable food store owns a few brands of a pancake mix. However, that turned easy and the only difference between the American pancake & the Russian blinchik is the size ( which matters here) and 1 ingredient: we use yogurt instead of milk. So, I thought I'd add to the diversity of your daily culinary servings.

So, the traditional mix would be:

 - 1 cup of yogurt

 - 1 egg

 - 2 flat teaspoons of baking powder

 - pinch of salt

 - 1/2 of sugar ( taste the mix to make it sweet to your taste)

 - 8 table spoons of flour

Mixture should be as dense as a sour cream, so, add more flour if it's too liquid. Vegetable oil on your skillet needs to be very hot for frying. NO GRIDDLE! It's Russian! Will make 4-6 servings, depending on the number of family members and their hunger level.

Now, to nutritious/delicious modifications! Assume the Iron Chef position! Open your pantry and the fridge! So...I'm a good wife & mother, but not so good, so you will eat healthier, if it's even possible in combination with blinchik/pancake in the same sentence.

 - Use brown/raw sugar instead of white sugar.

 - Use whole grain flour instead of bleached. Yes, my husband used to detect the difference and complained...so where did it get him? Nowhere! He licked his fingers yesterday and it seems that he already forgot how bleached flour tastes.

 - Blueberries are too....passe...excuse moi...So, see what else you have in your fruit selection: mashed banana, blended/grated apple or pear or peach would work wonders and provide your kids with what's left from those vitamins after frying!

 - Use fruit yogurt: I tried tropical, strawberry, peach! Check with your daily selection of dairy in your fridge.

Note : if you are using a fruit yogurt with fresh fruit mixed in the mixture, add little sugar as the last ingredient and taste the mixture to check that it is to your sweet or not so sweet tooth.

 - They say you should not fry or bake in olive oil, so I fry and never bake in extra virgin olive oil. I don't have any other kind in my pantry. It's good for you! Rachel says so.

 - Not to forget the secret ingredient: lemon zest! Totally lifts it up!

Serve with fruit jam, fresh fruit, fruit syrup, chocolate syrup, maple syrup or to make it authentically Russian - serve it with sour cream. Caviar is a good idea, although I'm not too sure if it goes well with the banana or any other fruit. However, if you attempt to try decadence, NEVER buy this black salmon caviar in the major supermarket or a grocery isle of IKEA. Real good black caviar runs for about $80.00 per pound, so this is  how you know... Red caviar is more affordable, at about $35.00 per pound, and it should not be bright red! If you found your source of good caviar, the money you spent on caviar will be saved on sugar, which is unneccessary for a savory blinchik.

If for a reason of temporary insanity your family is not screaming in delight, while mumbling promises of good behaviour and many gifts to come and not on Mother's Day only, take the left corner of your apron to wipe a false tear from the corner of your right eye. Tell them you went to an unheard of length of following an incoherent recipe of some Russian chick on the blog and you were really really trying...Leave the room quietly. Wait 5 minutes.

If that doesn't help in physical appreciation of your culinary labor, return to the room, manically whisper " Beat it!", grab what's left on the plate, land on the sofa, switch on "Dancing with the Stars", "House", "Grey's Anatomy", "Office"or whatever is on depending on the day of the week and enjoy your rest of the night! Go to sleep content! You are the greatest mother and wife! To try as hard as to follow a pancake recipe of a blabbering Russian devochka from the blog place?! Seriously?!