Sauerkraut and sour dough

I have begun writing this post several times over the last few days, but I keep starting over because it just gets too long and unwieldy.  I've been thinking a lot lately about making some changes to our family's diet.  I'm not talking about low-carbing to lose weight or anything like that (though I would like to know how it is that I've been following the Couch-to-5K program for the last six weeks and just ran nearly 2 miles straight yesterday and have yet to drop an ounce).  No, what I'm looking for is a healthier way to eat, that will improve all of our immune systems and help Natasha overcome her eczema.  We've been fighting with it for two years now, and I know there has to be a better way.

I've done a lot of reading, and to be honest, it's completely overwhelming.  We have decided to try the Feingold diet, which, while generally recommended for ADHD, is also supposed to be effective against eczema.  It's a two-pronged approach.  The first part involves cutting out all artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and most preservatives. 

I thought that part would be easy - I cook mostly from scratch - or so I used to tell myself - and try to avoid junk.  But a quick sweep through our cabinets found quite a bit more yellow No. 5 and artificial flavor than I would have predicted was in there.  Goodbye, Honeymaid graham crackers.  Goodbye, cookie sprinkles.  Goodbye, candy melts.

Part 2 involves eliminating salicylates, which is are naturally occurring food chemicals, from the diet.  Apparently, many of N's favorite foods - apples, grapes, berries, raisins, cucumbers, and more - are chock-full of salicylates.  We have already noticed that she has allergies/intolerances to foods like tomatoes and oranges, and now I know that they are also high-salicylate.  I am a little skeptical of a diet plan that just eliminates certain fruits and vegetables, but I am just sick of seeing my toddler scratch herself to bloody pieces.  It's worth a try, anyway.

As I am shifting my family over to this diet, I have realized that I do rely on freezer items for meals once or twice per week.  Many of these items are not compatible with our new diet.  Like vareniki - which are little Ukrainian raviolis stuffed with potato or cabbage.  So this weekend, I spent hours making over 100 vareniki.  This batch is potato-pumpkin-thyme.

And in my reading, I have come across ideas from other diets that make sense to me.  Mostly that everything we are used to buying prepackaged from the grocery store - like bread and cheese and yogurt and sauerkraut - is much better for you if you make it yourself.  So yesterday I started a jar of sauerkraut.  It needs to ferment in there for awhile, so I am not sure when we will actually eat it.  But here it is, in its infancy:

I've also got a bag of sourdough starter that someone gave me last week.  Sourdough - real sourdough - is supposedly a lot better for you than quick-rise yeast bread, because the bacteria in the starter breaks down the hard-to-digest stuff before you even put it in your mouth.  I think I'm getting that explanation right, but I've a lot of reading yet to do on the subject.  Anyway, this starter was given to me along with a recipe for Amish Friendship Bread.  The recipe calls for a box of instant pudding, which would have turned me off even before I started doing all this reading.  So I'm going to try to use the starter to make a real bread that doesn't have artificial flavors and carnuba wax, whatever that is, in it.

Stay tuned.

Snow

We got some real snow this week - about 10 inches' worth.  I've been taking the girls out in it every day.  As pretty as it is, it appears Z is not a fan.  She spends most of her outdoor time crying.  We shoveled a large pile of snow onto our back patio, though, and I'm hoping that maybe once we get it hollowed out into a little cave, she might like to sit there.  The cave in the bottom photo belongs to a huge snow pile made by the plows elsewhere on the compound.

N, on the other hand, loves sledding.  Perhaps this weekend, after Jeremy finishes working (boo), she'll get a good chunk of time outside without her baby sister sobbing.  I imagine it puts a damper on the fun.

 

Of snow and muck

It has been unseasonably warm in Moscow lately.  We've had snow nearly every day for the last couple of weeks, but the flakes have mostly been of the sort that just kind of drift aimlessly in the air and never actually land.  When we have had fat, purposeful flakes, the ground has been too warm for accumulation, and so they just become insta-slush when they hit the pavement.  The warm(er) weather has been nice, but the dreary sky is really easier to take when there is fresh, beautiful snow on the ground.

So everyone was thrilled when we got 3-4 honest-to-goodness inches yesterday.  Natasha got to do some sliding.

This was before I dug her little bum-sled out of the closet.

Z has been taking really long naps lately, and missed out on the fun.

But she was happy to pose in front of the tree.

Today the snow began to melt.  But in midafternoon a bit of golden sun peeked through the clouds, and I raced to get the girls dressed.  As luck would have it, Z decided that the most opportune time to poop was after I had dressed her.  So I peeled off her coat, her bib overalls, her fleece pants and her tights, and unsnapped her undershirt onesie and her long-sleeved onesie ... while Natasha began to sweat through her similarly layered ensemble.  By the time we made it outside, the sun had gone.

Fun with beach toys.

A rare smile from Mrs. Grouchypants.

I told you it had started to melt.  Kids, though - they aren't bothered by a little thing like mud.

Gorky and the GAP

Having read in a local weekly that there would be a Christmas bazaar every weekend in December at Gorky Park, we headed down there this morning. 

I was a bit confused by the GAP-logo-emblazoned yarn-bombed lamp post.  More on that in a minute.  The sign - which is a bit GAP-like too, right? - says "Winter in the park."  The bazaar itself was nothing too interesting - most of the kiosks were empty, and what vendors there were looked bored and cold.  We bypassed them for a stroll over the ice rink.  I didn't get any great photos of the entire rink, but it is pretty cool.  It has all these offshoots that loop around the park.  Too bad the kids are still too young for ice skating.

Then we headed inside for some hot chocolate.  The air was only about 34 degrees, but it was also pretty windy.  And I wasn't wearing my long johns. 

Natasha loves hot chocolate.  She's in for some disappointment back in the States, though, I tell you what.  Russian hot chocolate is literally melted chocolate in a cup.  They serve it with a spoon.  And sometimes a glass of milk on the side.  No flaccid Swiss Miss packets here, nyet! (Z totally missed out, having fallen asleep in the stroller not long after we arrived).

After we'd warmed up some, we started heading back out of the park when we ran across a sign telling us in clever Russian to connect with GAP (or knit - the verb used can mean either one), and pointing us to what is apparently the largest knitting installation in Russian. 

So we walked over and found this:

Some subsequent Googling revealed that this was a public effort.  I am still not entirely sure how the GAP ties in.  I'm guessing there is some corporate sponsorship going on.

As we exited Gorky Park, once a symbol of all things Soviet, Bing Crosby crooned that most American of Christmas songs, Mele Kalikimaka, over the loud speaker.  And somewhere under Red Square, I'm sure the father of the U.S.S.R. would have rolled over in his tomb, were it not for the fact that there's nothing left in him but sawdust and mummy juice.

It's really dark

We've all been very tired lately, and I am sure the weather and the sheer darkness has something to do with that.  I took these photos last Saturday morning, whilst clutching tightly to my take-along coffee cup.

8:17 a.m.

8:47 a.m.

10:06 a.m.