The countdown has begun to the start of Russia's Lent, which begins this year on February 17.

Last year I wrote about the food served in the week immediately preceding Lent, the holiday known as Maslenitsa, or butter week. By making blini, and piling them high with things like herring and sour cream, Russian households purge their larders of the last rich foods and get body and soul ready for Lent.

But being an unabashed foodie, I would give some time in the... more

February starts off with a bang for those of you in the San Francisco Bay area. Today and tomorrow, the Russian Center of San Francisco is hosting its 20th annual celebration of Russian art, dance and music. This is a big shindig, and the event that inspired me to start a Russian cultural calendar for adoptive families last year. There is a great lineup, and even a large screen TV dedicated to the Super Bowl. Tickets are $10 for adults, but kids under 12 are free.

Also, today and tomorrow, a... more

When I started writing for Adoption.com last January, one of the first blogs about Russian adoption that I was lucky enough to read was "Three Sons And A Princess". It was the tale of a military family with three boys who were trying to adopt a little girl, affectionately dubbed the "Pineapple Princess".

Jennefer, or Jeneflower as she sometimes styles herself, is the mom of the clan and its chief memory officer. Her writing captured the ups and downs of her family's adoption journey and featured so many smart tips about surviving... more

OK, I'm going to confess to a bit of cultural prejudice today. If I were going to be stranded on a deserted island and I could take along my three favorite desserts, they would all be French. So it's probably no surprise that my favorite Russian dessert is one that was created by a French pastry chef.

The dessert is Charlotte Russe, and it was whipped up by Marie-Antoine Carême for Russia's Tsar Alexander I in the early 1800s. Wikipedia, citing a 2004 feature on Carême by National Public Radio, calls Carême the "first celebrity chef". That's... more

Today is a rather quirky holiday in Russia, called Tatiana's Day. Though it does fall on the name day of Saint Tatiana, an early Christian martyr, it is not in the traditional sense a name or a saint's day holiday, which I've written about before. And it's not in honor of the in-country rep who helped me with my first adoption in Vladivostok, in 1999--though some sort of lasting recognition for that would certainly be in order.

A clue to the day's reason for being is pretty plain when you... more

No, that's not a typo. Sushi may have started out in Japan, but Russians have heartily embraced it as their own. With a Russian twist, of course.

Once upon a time, I lived in New York City, near its Russian neighborhood in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. When the big influx of Soviet émigrés began in the 1980s, the first restaurants to open up on its main street were simple soup and pelmeni places. As the newcomers succeeded, entrepreneurs converted old movie theaters into big catering halls for weddings and parties. The restaurants got fancier--I still have a taste memory... more

Sure, Russian cuisine has lot of fancy foods, like caviar. But get a Russian talking about food and the conversation will quickly turn to mushrooms and a memorable moment gathering them in the woods.

Foraging is a tough concept for Americans. We have become accustomed to getting our food on plastic trays from a refrigerated counter, and have long forgotten what the real stuff tastes like. But there are lots of mushrooms out in the wild and Russians love to go find them--and... more

The Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas is now offering a different kind of Russian entertainment. "ICE: Direct From Russia" is a circus on skates. The show runs Saturday to Thursday at 8 p.m. and tickets are $68.15 for general admission or $77.25 for VIP seats. You can reach the casino's box office at (702) 794-9433.

Trinity Rep in Providence, R.I. will stage its final performance of "Memory House" on January 6. The play, written... more

Tuesday, December 4 was Gotcha Day for Chris, Danica and their new twin daughters, adopted in Perm. It was a long time between trip one and trip two, but the girls were home in time to celebrate Christmas. As new parents, Chris and Danica may not have much free time to blog about their adoption journey any more, but you can read all about how they got to their happy conclusion here. Congratulations!

One funny note about how small the world of Russian adoptions can... more

It's not going to be Christmas in Russia for almost another two weeks--Christmas is January 6 on the Orthodox Church's calendar. But given that a Russian Christmas feast is a twelve-course event--one course for each of the apostles--you might need to start cooking early.

Russia isn't the only place that has a large number of courses for a special occasion meal. I grew up in a household that followed the southern Italian tradition of seven fishes (and seven times as much garlic) on Christmas Eve. But planning and cooking 12 courses can be daunting,... more