Moominland Midwinter
I was in a toy store a few weeks ago, looking for presents for small children of my acquaintance when I fell into the vortex of the book section. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I came home with a copy of Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson. I probably own this book already, at my parents’ house, but it was in the clearance section, and a Tove Jansson book always needs a good home. Plus, I’d been thinking about the Moomins lately as an example of northern literature. Read More
My taller half and I are going to a dinner next weekend, with the theme of “Russian food cooked badly.” A kinder way to put it might be “Amateur Russian cuisine night,” because the group is made up out of a few first generation immigrants and people like me, who have studied abroad in Russia and gained some familiarity with the cuisine. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might remember that I occasionally make borshch beet soup. My taller half, who came to the US at age 14, has told me that “it’s good, but it’s not borshch.” This might be because I am making a vegetarian version without the traditional beef bone or other bits of meat involved, but really I suspect it’s because I’m not his mother. 
Like many of you, I spent a good chunk of time with family for the Thanksgiving holiday. We gathered at my granny’s house (crossing over the river and through the woods, of course) this year in New Mexico.