Borscht

So - today we made borscht from start to finish...and we have pictures!  We started with a beef roast with a bone in it and a pork roast with a bone in it.  We boiled them in salted water for two hours and them cleaned all the meat off the bones...and included the bone marrow which our cook instructor (Lena Markelov) insisted we add for the delicious flavor.  We chopped up onions and cabbage and grated some carrots and a large beet.  We also cut up a few potatoes and cooked them in the meat broth.  After they were cooked we mashed them a little. Then the onions and cabbage and beets and carrots were cooked in a little oil and a couple tablespoons of vinegar was added to maintain the red color.  Mix it all together and simmer a few hours and voila, you have borscht.  There is a certain sequence everything happens in that I'm not too sure of...I think it's a Russian secret.  Everyone here has their own borscht recipe and this batch is different from the last batch we made with her.  I've included a couple of pictures of our helpers...Tonya, the shopper and Lena, the cook.  We're having borscht for institute Wednesday night.  Yes, of course we will make some for you when we visit...and if I eat it EVERYBODY eats it!

Institute Opening Social

Saturday we had our institute opening social in Saratov.  The neatest thing for us was that it was completely planned and carried out by the institute council...all we did was provide the food.  The students even cleaned up which was awesome!

The theme was the Book of Mormon since that is what we are studying this year.  The students went on a trek like Lehi and his family...they had to answer various questions to proceed.  There are pictures of us gathering,  Sherry with one of our daughters, the "daughters of Ishmael" and, of course, the food.  It's all about the food.  It was a really fun evening with about thirty in attendance.

Basketball

I found a new game online the other day...basketball!  You get two teams and each team member gets a chair.  They can set the chair anywhere they want on the basketball court/room/whatever.  Once they set the chair where they want it they sit in it and then they can't move the chair.  So - seated basketball!  We started with four players per team and then five.  When we first started we said they could stand on their chairs if they wanted...that got just a little too aggressive!  In fact, two of them were wrestling for the ball near the basket and made a little "ding" in the drywall!  Oops!  Of course, we know how to fix that!  Except we don't have any drywall mud or drywall tools or touch up paint...we're working on them!

Saratov Institute

We had sixteen students at institute tonight!  Sherry made soup and crackers which we ate from 17:30 - 18:30 and then class until 20:00 and ice cream afterwards.  It kinda looks like a real institute doesn't it!?  Off to Samara this weekend to get Zhenya's new car and visit the Samara Institute Council...then next week we have our Saratov opening social.  The most coolest thing is next week Zhenya is taking us to the store to shop for institute food!!!  In his new car!!! No more buses!!!

Life is good