About
My family: I married my wonderful husband Vadim (who cooks, loves mountain biking and is an awesome dad) over 7 years ago. We are blessed with our first child who is now 1 and 1/2. We live in Idaho. Our family is actively involved in a Christian Ukrainian church, where my hubby is now the Youth Leader and God is really blessing him in it. We strive to walk in love and live our lives by the word of God and life of Jesus.
P.S. I love to cook!
The ultimate food critic
Well, this is mostly a Russian food blog/ Ukrainian food blog. It features authentic Russian recipes and Ukrainian recipes. Sometimes I stray and post something Mexican, Asian or Italian, but I only post stuff that we make and really enjoy, Like Zuppa Toscana by Tanya. This is a personal website and all of the recipes are tested and approved by my family. All of the photography is done by my husband Vadim, or myself unless otherwise noted.
The ingredients are simple and easily accessible (not overly hoity-toity). My motto: if you can read, you can cook!
How I got Started Cooking:
I wasn’t always interested in cooking; actually I first got interested when I got married because it became a necessity – “must eat to live.” We had a lot of frozen meals (pizza, corn dogs, etc) – and we ate out a lot in the first years of our marriage. A few years ago, I had a free summer and decided I would improve my cooking skills so we could live and eat healthier. I dove into cookbook after cookbook. I was at the library all the time bringing home piles of cookbooks.
I even read my mother’s cooking textbook from her college days (Yes, she completed her culinary program when we moved to the US and she is the best chef I know!) I hope my children will say the same thing about me some day!
I had discovered the joy of cooking. Within a few months, my husband and I lost about 5 pounds just from cooking at home more often!
It’s very fulfilling to cook a delicious and beautiful meal for my husband and family.
I even have quite a reputation with my husbands co-workers since I pack my husbands’ fancy lunch feasts. (Yes, I had you Verizon folk in mind when I decided to create this site).
Culture and Background
Dad, Mom 5 daughters, their husbands & the babies (there are more babies now)
My family moved to the US when I was 4 years old. America is truly a melting pot. The variety of cultures and food in this country is incredible! I grew up eating authentic Ukrainian and Russian food.
No doubt many of my recipes will have a Slavic origin and influence.
I do love Russian/Ukrainian food and I hope the recipes on this site invoke the same love for the rich variety of foods of the Slavic culture.
My recipe collection continues to grow. I love to try new recipes and I will share my favorites with you. I hope you enjoy this blog and find recipes that will become your family favorites as well.
Thank you for visiting my recipe blog and I hope you come back soon!
If you would like your recipe featured on this site, email it to me: natashaskitchen(at)yahoo.com. No spammers please.
{ 84 comments… read them below or add one }
Love your blog! What a fun way to share your cooking experiences. I’ll definitely refer to this. Thanks for sharing!
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I’m glad you like it
Thanks for visiting my site!
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Hi Natasha!!!
I was looking for a recipe for plov on the web and to my surprise I found very familiar faces on this website. What a small world! Love the website and the idea of preserving culture and family traditions.
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Hi Lyuda!! So happy you found me online. It is a small world. Thank you; I’m glad you like it.
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This is a wonderful blog! An American in St. Petersburg sent me a link to your site and I am so pleased that he did. Almost all of my favorite recipes are here, along with many more new ones to try in the coming months. ‘Большое спасибо’!
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You are so welcome. Your comments made my morning. Have a wonderful day and hope you enjoy the new recipes you try out!
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I’m so happy to have found your site! We have a Ukrainian foreign exchange student living with us this year. Mykola’s mom is an extraordinary cook who makes nutritious, multi-course meals from scratch. Unfortunately, Mykola was paired with an American family who eats nothing but fast food and frozen dinners. I do not know the first thing about cooking.
Because dinnertime makes Mykola homesick, I am doing my best to learn how to make healthful, home-cooked meals. I found your site just after making my first borscht. I am so excited to find these delicious-sounding recipes with photos. I will likely check in here daily.
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Awesome! I’m so glad you found me. I hope you enjoy the Ukrainian food too. Say hi to Mykola for me
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Hello,
I just discovered your site today and really enjoyed it! I am particularly interested in dessert recipes and was wondering if you have any cake recipes with many layers such as “Spartak” or “Medovnik”…?
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My mom has a very good spartak layer cake recipe, but I’ve never made it myself. It’s quite time consuming. Its on my to-do list, but I’m not sure when I’ll make it. I too have been looking for a good medovik cake recipe. Sorry, I know thats not much help. Keep checking back though, I post russian dessert recipes pretty regularly.
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Hi Natasha,
I just came accross your web site today and I am so excited. My story is similar to yours, I love to cook and bake but never was into it until I got married to my Ukrainian husband. I love to discover new Russian/Ukrainian recipes with ingredients that are available in American grocery stores. I have a good recipes of Medovik cake and would like to share it with you since I saw you were looking for one.
Торт Нежность-Медовик (I double the ingredients since one portion makes a really small cake).
1 stick melted unsulted butter(113 grams), add in 2 TBS honey, and 2 tsp Conyak or Brandy.
In a separate mixing bowl whisk 4 eggs with a fork and add to the butter mixture.
Put this all on “Водяную Баню” for those who don’t know what this means- boil water in a pot and put the bowl with all of the ingredients inside/on top of the pot while its still boiling(make sure the bowl is not too small that it falls through-have it about same diameter as the pot with water). If the water in the pot is bubbling too much turn down the heat to med or low.
Keep mixing all of the ingredients while it cooks and add in 2 tsp baking soda, keep mixing the mix until it approximately doubles in the amount. Take the mixing bowl of the stove and mix in 1 1/2 to 2 cups of flour-dough is ready. Note: dough should be like playdough consistency, make sure not to over-add flour since you will be rolling your dough out on floured counter and more flour will be added that way into your dough sheets. Separate your dough into 11-12 balls.
Roll out each dough ball- I start rolling it out on floured counter and transfer it to parchment paper and finish rolling it out until the sheet is pretty think- place it on a cookie sheet and bake each sheet at 350 degrees until its golden color( about 2-4 minutes depends on the thickness of your sheets). Once you get the hang of this its pretty easy- just a bit time consuming. One sheet is baking while you are rolling out the other one. Also your sheets will be all different shapes so after you bake them trim off the edges and save them to cover the top of the cake.
Recipe for cream
16 oz Whip Cream(Cool Whip)
1/2 can Condensed Milk
1/2 can (1.5 LB can) of Sour Cream
Whip all of the ingredients and spread on each layer of the baked sheets. Note: After I cover the second cake layer with cream I spread on top of the cream some fruit preserve or pour some fruit syrup. Adds great twist to the cake. The last layer I cover with cream and sprinkle with left over crushed uneven edges that I saved.
Let the cake stand on the counter for 1-2 hours so all of the layers can absorb the cream and become softer.
For those who don’t have time to bake all of the sheets
I sometimes cheat and use graham crackers(Honey Maid) and lay them out in a square form and use the same cream recipe. Then I crush some more graham crackers and sprinkle the top layer. Of course it is still not the same as the baked cake but this is bakeless version and is also pretty good.
Enjoy and God Bless.
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Wow! Lena, thank you soo much for the recipe. I really appreciate it. I can’t wait to try it! God bless you too and welcome to the site – I hope you find recipes that your family will love
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Hello. I just found your blog. A friend mentioned eating some apple piroshki and I googled it. Yours was the second or third on the list.
At church I’ve helped make (literally) tens of thousands, but never sweet. Meat, cabbage, mushroom, carrot, fish. But never any sweet.
So, yet another blog to peruse.
Cordially,
Joe in N. Calif
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I love your blog, I’ve always been looking for all kinds of Russian/Ukrainian recipes, I will definitely cook some of this amazing food, thanks for sharing, God Bless You
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HI Inna, thank you for your sweet comment! God bless you too and I hope you enjoy the recipes!
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I definitely will, I also shared your blog with my friends and family and they absolutely love it, how can you not? amazing food
Thanks again
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Hi Inna! Thank you, I really appreciate that!
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Natasha! Thank you so so so much for creating such a wonderful and deliciously brilliant blog!!!
I myself am Ukrainian, and sometimes it’s ridiculously hard to get exact recipes from family, so this blog really helps alot!!
I love the pictures – photography is amazing! I am glad I ran across your blog – it’s alot better than checking out 6 russian cookbooks from the local library and trying to pick apart the recipes! :p
I am looking forward to digging right in and creating some of these long time loved recipes!
God bless you and your beautiful family!
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Natashka Hi. Do you have any Piroshki recepie here? I’m just not looking good enough?
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Hi, I do have piroshki with potatoes and piroshki with apples. Are these the types of piroshki you are looking for?
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Hi Natasha, so I’m trying to make the korzinki, and the dough is a little too soft, should i add more flour to make the dough a little firmer?
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Sorry I didn’t get your comment sooner. You’ve probably already made them. If you could roll it into a ball, the dough should be fine, otherwise, sprinkle some more flour until it looks like the dough in the picture and doesn’t stick to your hands when you roll it into a ball. What did you end up doing and how did they turn out?
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I’m am so thrilled I stumbled upon your website!! We are hosting an orphan from Ukraine over Christmas and last year she ate like a bird. Actually, she seemed to live on Cheetos and pickles. Eww…Hopefully, some of your recipes will entice her. We’re hosting her brother this year, also.
Question–any way to translate a simple recipe into Ukrainian or Russian. Or any website you’re aware of that is in both languages? Anya loved helping me in the kitchen and it would be awesome if she could make a few things on her own.
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I hope the little ones enjoy whatever you make from this website. If Anya has a preference for pickles
– you may want to try olivye its a very common salad in ukraine and has pickles! You can translate anything on Google translate
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I just found your blog through a friend on facebook! I love Jesus, I love food, and I love Ukraine. I think we could be friends.
My husband and I are missionaries who have done some work in Ukraine and plan on returning very soon for five years. I love Ukrainian food and I look forward to following your blog!
Keep up the good work!
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That’s awesome! God bless you both in your work in Ukraine. God bless you to be incredibly fruitful, so the seed you plant in your ministry will produce fruit 100-fold!
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Hello there! I am so excited to have found your blog. I grew up on a farm in a Ukrainian community in ND. All four sets of my great grandparents are from Ukrainie. My parents grew up speaking Ukrainian as their first language. My grandmothers cooked a lot of traditional Ukrainian dishes. I can’t wait to go through your blog and look at all your recipes. I have posted one or two Ukrainian recipes on my blog. Hope you can stop by and say hi!!
Dobry vechir –
~Tania
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