Moscow Dresses Up

As Moscow counts down to the big May Day celebrations and Victory Day on May 9^th, the city is getting itself all prettied up for all the visitors.  Everywhere you go there are people outside painting buildings, fences, bus stops and other public areas, especially in and around Red Square.  Even here in our little housing area, there has been non-stop work on painting all the fences that surround the parking area and the little grassy spots between the nine doorways into the apartments.  I note with great amusement that they still do things the old Soviet way:  They paint over the rust, thus making sure that next year they’ll have even more work to do.  One fence outside the apartment area was being painted a lovely green but there was so much rust under the paint that one section just collapsed.  The members of The 54 Club will be delighted to see that the city has repainted their clubhouse so it is nice and clean for their first meeting.

I did my normal workout with my rubber bands and then spent about twenty minutes on the treadmill.  I was quite stiff after the long walk yesterday so this worked out all the kinks.  I then took a brisk walk around the ‘hood ending up at the grocery store for some fruit and vegetables.  There was a long line to get all the vegetables weighed and priced, and it took me about ten minutes to get to be the next in line.  I heard a noise as if something had fallen from a shelf and as I turned my head to look at it, a woman jumped right in front of me. Before I could react, the babushka behind me was all over her like white on rice.  Man, she was vicious and while they were having it out, I started to place my fruits and vegetables on the counter to be weighed.  The woman that cut the line was from one of the Stans, and I’m sure that the vitriolic response from the other woman had more to do with her ethnicity than her cutting in line.  It is always an interesting experience to shop in Moscow.

Dinner last night was a great big spinach salad with chicken livers, caramelized onions and walnuts.  I tossed the spinach with a sesame dressing before adding the pan fried livers and onions.  I gave them a nice toss to help wilt the spinach before adding the walnuts.  I then plated the mixed salad onto large dinner plates and then added freshly shaved Grana cheese that we had brought back from Italy.  Earlier in the day I had reduced a pint of balsamic vinegar to about four ounces and I drizzled some of that onto the cheese.  It was really very good and certainly good for us.  I had found a bottle of Italian dry white for only about four dollars so we gave it a try and I’ll be going back to the store for lots more of it if it is still there.  It was crisp, fresh and 11% alcohol, perfect for our dinner.

Spinach Salad

Not much else to report, mostly working on keeping the house in order and doing a little spring cleaning.  I’m off to the kitchen to prep for tonight’s dinner. 

Almond Crusted Cod

Seared Tuna, Risotto and Caramelize Carrots

Ciao, Cindy and Wm