How I was baking Easter Bread (Paska)

Hey guys! Here is my photo report on my first ever Easter Bread or as we call it in Ukraine - Paska.

The recipe is pretty simple and there are not too many ingredients: 2 pounds of flour (I haven't figured out which flour is better: self-rising or all-purpose, this time I used self-rising), stick and a half of butter, 6 yolks and 3 eggs, a cup of sugar (can be a bit more since the US sugar is less sweet than Ukrainian), one bag of yeast, one box of raisins (I mean the bigger one), cup and a half of milk.

Now, let's go step by step:

Sift the flour even if the package says it's already been sifted since in the process of sifting flour gets saturated with oxygen and it makes the dough fluffier.

With a mixer beat the yolks and eggs into a foam (I have no clue how people lived without mixers, hallelujah to technical progress!)

Take milk, slightly warm it up, just a bit, then add a teaspoon of sugar and a bag of yeast (yeast likes sugar and warm liquids)

Cut a stick and a half of butter like that

and melt it in a microwave like that (or in any other way you know)

Add eggs, yeast mix and butter to the flour

and start mixing all that together

after a couple of minutes, the dough will stop sticking to your hands. Keep kneading the dough for at least 15 minutes and form a ball out of it.

Let it sit in warmth for one hour, but don't put in on any heated surface, cover it with some clean kitchen cloth.

In an hour it will increase at least two times.

Let's have some veggies! Just kidding, I bout these big cans to use as baking cups since Paska should have a certain form. In Ukraine, I could buy special baking cups in a supermarket, here in the US I had to use my creativity )))

A proof that I did take all veggies out )))

I cut out bottoms of wax paper so that my Paska didn't stick in the process of baking.

So you cut off a piece of dough, make it flat and put as many raisins as you like. You can put other stuff like dried pineapples or cranberries or anything else you like. I prefer raisins, A LOT of raisins ))

 

Then you roll the dough like this and cut it in half in the middle

Put your roll into the can and flatten it at the bottom so that the dough takes 1/3 of the can

I had way more dough than just for 3 cans so I made some other things out of it. Next, you cover the forms again and let them sit for another hour.

Warm up the oven to 370F and put the Paska inside. Bake for 30 minutes. I can tell you that there is a big difference between baking yeast dough in an electric stove and a gas one. I prefer gas ovens, but I have an electric at this point. 

TADAAAAM!!! Not exactly what I expected, I wanted my Paska to grow higher, but as I've mentioned at the beginning, I picked self-rising flour and I'm not sure whether it's a good choice for yeast dough. But, there will be another year and another experiment with all-purpose flour. Maybe even sooner than next year )))

Bon appetite, and Jesus is Risen! He is risen indeed! Христос Воскрес! Воістину Воскрес!

Have a great weekend and behave!

Q & A about Ukraine

Hello everyone everywhere! Hope you have a wonderful Friday and get ready to have a relaxing weekend. Every time I write about Ukraine I wonder if I do a good job telling about my country. I know that all of us are busy with own problems and lives and very often we don't have time to think about things that have no direct influence on us. However, I do want to tell the world about my country and I do want to hope that someone might get interested and decide to see it with own eyes. 
That's why today's text I will write in the form of question-answer format and all the questions I will take from the Google search. So let's begin. 

• Is it safe to travel to Ukraine?

Yes, it is safe to travel to Ukraine. It is the biggest country in Europe and if you take a look at the map you can see that the military conflict takes place on a small territory far away from major big cities or the capital.

• Is Ukraine part of Russia?

No, Ukraine is not part of Russia. We used to be one of the Soviet Union republics and prior to that we were part of russian empire for some time, but since 1991 we are an independent state that tries get away from under russian influence. Unfortunately, it cost us not just a lot of effort but also loss of some of our territories. But we don't give up.

• Is there still fighting in Ukraine?

Yes, unfortunately. Every day our courageous soldiers do everything they can to protect the rest of our country and let all of us live a peaceful life and develop as a democracy.

• What does Ukraine speak?

We speak Ukrainian, a lot of us are bilingual or even trilingual depending on where from the country you come. We speak Ukrainian and Russian, or Ukrainian, Polish and Russian, or Ukrainian, Russian and Hungarian, or Ukrainian and Czech. There are a lot of different combinations since we have a lot of neighbors in the west and it really influences which languages people can speak. A lot of Ukrainians learn English at school but they can be very shy to try speaking with foreigners. 

• Is Ukraine a developed country?

We are a young country, just 28 years old and after the soviet union collapse we were left with empty pockets. Most money stayed in Moscow and never made it back. So from an economic standpoint, we are a developing economy. You might hear a lot of complaints from Ukrainians about their well being, at the same time it's quite an advantage if you plan to travel to Ukraine.

• Is Ukraine a democracy?

Definitely YES! Our latest elections demonstrated it to upteenth degree. We are a parliamentary-presidential republic. It means that our Verkhovna Rada (an analog of the US Senate) has more power than our president. The president is responsible for foreign policy and is a Commander in Chief.

• Is it safe to go to Chernobyl?

A lot of people in the world have heard about the technogenic catastrophe In Chernobyl in 1986. I plan on writing a longer story about what happened there. To cut the long story short one of the nuclear reactors exploded causing horrible radioactive pollution to a quite extensive area both in Ukraine and Bilorus. Nowadays, you can go to the 30-kilometer exclusion zone and see with your own eyes the nuclear station and the ghost town of Prypiat. Your trip will be planned and controlled so that there is no harm to your health. Such a trip is on my bucket list because I want to see with my own eyes what influenced and changed the lives of so many people from my generation and not only.

• Is Ukraine a NATO member?

 Unfortunately not, otherwise we wouldn't have the problems with russia we currently have. At the same time, our troops are going through different military drills together with NATO troops and on the state level, we have proclaimed that NATO is our goal.

• What grows Ukraine?

Ukraine has 30% of the world's black soils. It means that we are an agricultural country and can grow pretty much anything that can be planted according to 4 seasons that we have. We export more than 30 million tons of grain every year. So no matter where in the world you reside, there are pretty high chances that the bread you eat might contain grain grown in Ukraine. 

• Is Ukraine a member of the EU?

No, we are not. We signed a so-called association with the EU. From a practical point of view, the association is beneficial for Ukrainian exports. A lot of goods produced in Ukraine are of good quality and can compete with the ones on the European market. From 2016 Ukrainians don't need visas to travel around Europe if they don't exceed the 90-day limit. As for foreigners, most travelers don't need visas if they come to Ukraine if they plan to stay not longer than 90 days. If they do want to stay in Ukraine longer, they can just cross the border and come back right away and stay for another 90 days. Convenient, right?

If you would like to get answers to other questions, I would be very glad to answer them. 

Enjoy your weekend and behave!!!

Pysanka and Krashanka

Hello dear everyone! How is life? What's new? I want to tell you about EGGS! I promise not to be as boring as modern scientists that can't decide whether eggs are healthy or not healthy food. I want to tell you about the sacral meaning of eggs across the centuries and cultures. Have you ever thought why Easter and eggs are going so well together? And why a bunny looks kind of weird in this team? So, eggs. An egg is a symbol of life in many cultures. In ancient Egypt, an egg has a symbolic role in the myth of Creation and in Christianity, it symbolizes Jesus Christ's emergence from the tomb after his resurrection. So you would wonder where is the bunny? That's very right, no bunny, at all. Easter Bunny showed up and became popular in the 19th century and is more of a marketing thing rather than any kind symbolic creature. On the other hand, a lamb is an animal that is directly connected to Jesus and when as a child I saw a lamb on Polish easter cards somehow I knew what it stood for.
So back to eggs, it is believed that when the Roman Emperor didn't want to believe that Jesus Christ resurrected the boiled eggs on his breakfast table turned red. Since then red colored egg symbolizes Jesus Christ's blood and cracking the egg on Easter morning symbolizes his emergence from the tomb. With time egg cracking turned into Easter game and the winner is the person whose egg stays intact after hitting the egg of the opponent. As kids, we always were trying to find an egg with the potential of the unbreakable hero ))
In Eastern Orthodox tradition exist four different kinds of Easter eggs: krashanka, pysanka, driapanka and krapanka. Each name derives from the method of putting ornament on them: krashanka comes from the verb "krasyty" - to paint (to paint with one color), pysanka comes from the verb "pysaty" - to draw or write, driapanka comes from the verb "driapaty" - to scratch (the egg is covered with one color and then an ornament is scratched on its surface with a sharp pointed object) and krapanka comes from the verb "krapaty" - "to drip" (when the ornament is made by dripping colors on the egg surface).
The most popular and widespread in Ukraine are Krahsanka and Pysanka. In my family, my grandmothers would usually make krashanka since they are the quickest and easiest way of decorating eggs. You just need to take a lot of onion skins which house ladies start collecting before Easter, boil them in a pot and you will see that the water changes its color to very intensive dark red. Then you put there either raw eggs or boiled ones. And in a couple of minutes, you will have a bunch of reddish colored eggs. If you feel very creative you can tie to the egg small cool shaped leaves like parsley, for example, and then immerse it in the colored water. There is a bunch of natural colorants that can be used to make the Easter eggs be more fun, especially if you have kids or grandkids all this coloring can turn into a really fun activity.
Pysanka is way more elaborate looking Easter egg and more loaded with symbols and meanings. Ukrainian pysanka tradition dates back to Pre-Christian era when the most important deity was Dazhboh (the God of the Sun). It was impossible for a human to get anywhere close to the Sun but birds could fly in the skies and it looked like they could get closer to the Sun than the human. Hence, the ability to harvest eggs that laid birds that could get closer to the Sun provided the connection between the human and the most important deity of that period in human history. In addition, the appearance of life out of hard eggshell embodied it with the power of giving life. The egg was a part of many rites and celebrations all year round. So when Christianity system of beliefs was forming the egg with its great load of meanings was made part of it. Pysanka combines centuries of traditions and can be read as a book if you know what each symbol stands for. In order to make a pysanka you will need a pysak (a kind of stylus) and wax. The wax gets melted and then you dip the pysak into it and draw an ornament on the egg. When you are done the egg is put into the colored water and after it's dry you put next ornament and immerse it into next color. This way the ornaments and colors on pysanka can be very complex and various. Traditionally all this process takes place at night when children are already asleep and all housework is done. The eggs were decorated exclusively by women after they pronounced a traditional prayer. Nowadays, in order to preserve this ancient tradition, you can attend workshops conducted both by male and female craftspeople. The Hutsuls (an ethnic group that lives in the region of Ukrainian Carpathians) have a legend that says the life on the Earth will last as long as the tradition of making pysanka will be preserved.
The variety of ornaments and colors can be really impressive and also depends on the region of origin. The main colors used on pysanka are red, black, yellow, blue, white, green and brown. The ornaments are numerous and represent both Christian and Pre-Christian symbols.
There are more methods of decorating eggs for Easter celebration. The laziest one is to buy Easter stickers. Another one that looks pretty impressive is to make ornaments out of beads. Wax coating is put on an egg and then beads are embedded on it.

So with this post, I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter and Tasty Easter Bread as we say in Ukraine. Unlike everyone on the 21st of April Ukrainians will abide the Palm or Willow Sunday and our Easter will take place a week later. All this mess is again because of "old" and "new" calendar. Hopefully, at some point, we will be able to celebrate Easter and Christmas with the rest of the world.

With all of this said and done I wish you a great weekend and as always - behave!

Here are a couple of photos of incredible Pysanka and Krashanka. All of them are taken from the Internet except the one showing my silver coin Easter Pysanka.

My precious ))) (imagine me saying it with the Gollum's voice from the Lord of the Rings)

This coin is a copy of Vegreville pysanka monument located in Canadian town Vegreville. If you want to learn more here is a Wikipedia link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegreville_egg

Photos taken from the Internet.

Do Ukrainians celebrate Easter?

Hey Guys! How are you? Did you miss me??? I'm sure you did, you just didn't know how to tell me about it ))) So here I am! Spring is a great time of the year. If you live somewhere with 4 seasons you do know what I'm talking about: nature wakes up, birds are chirping, the grass is getting green, tree buds are turning into beautiful flowers and all the worries and depressions go away. Well, maybe not all of them but at least some weather relates ones at least )) Spring is also the time of one of the most loved and celebrated holidays of Easter. Even if you don't know much about its religious background I am more than sure you still do like it. From my own experience, I know that it is celebrated differently in the US and Ukraine. So here's how Ukrainians celebrate Easter.
To begin with, I want to remind you what spring is a very important season for everyone who's involved in different agricultural activities. I've written about it before and if you missed it here's a link to my story about Ukrainian spring activities:

https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/03/what-do-ukrainians-do-in-spring.html

So everything starts on the Palm Sunday or as we call it in Ukraine, Willow Sunday. You see, we don't have palms like in Jerusalem so palm leaves were changed for willow branches since willow is one of the first trees to get bright green buds. On this day Ukrainians make small bouquets out of willow branches and take them to churches to be blessed with the holy water. After the Sunday service, people slightly whip each other with the bunch of branches saying: It's not me whipping, it's the willow is whipping you, Easter is in a week! There is a whole bunch of different traditions connected to this day, and some people believe that if you have a sore throat and you eat a bud from a willow branch blessed on Willow Sunday you will get rid of the sickness almost instantaneously. That's why people keep those bouquets for the whole year will next Willow Sunday. They also believe to have a protective power against anything evil. Monday is the first day of all the fun! Starting Monday all the cleaning and preparations in full swing set off: cleaning in the house, outside the house, cooking and sometimes even some bigger things like painting inside and outside (fences, benches and what's not). One of my grandmothers was very big into Easter preparations. Every spring she would clean all the windows, whitewash inside the house and even paint the wooden floors. 
On Thursday all the "dirty" work was supposed to be finished since it is called the Pure Thursday (Maundy Thursday, commemorates the foot washing and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles). In old times people that ran homesteads had to clean every corner of their property paying a lot of attention to barns and stables since even their cattle was supposed to have clean premises for the Easter. 
Easter Friday or as we call it Passion Friday is the day when Jesus Christ was actually crucified and to honor him this day no loud music, laughter or any kind of entertainment is allowed. Of course, it's not a must and in big cities, you will not notice any difference between regular Friday and Easter Friday but in smaller towns and villages this peculiarity is usually more noticeable. Another big thing about Easter Friday is that this is the day of baking Paska. It is a traditional Easter bread if you have ever had Panettone that's the closest you can get to Ukrainian Paska. Since it's a yeast-based bread the process of making it is quite challenging and not all ladies of the house have mastered this art. Apart from being not that easy to make there is also a great variety of traditions and rules of behavior when making Paska. Nowadays you can buy Paska in all big supermarket chains since they usually have own bakeries or you can order it from small confectionaries. In my family, Paska is usually baked by my grandfather and my mom in case my grandfather's Paska hasn't turned out well and there is no power in this world to persuade my grandpa to buy one, even if you used to negotiate with terrorists you still won't be able to make him buy a Paska. 
For me, Easter Saturday always associated with planting potatoes. My grandfather and I would do it every Easter Saturday together. I don't know if we broke any church rules by doing it but it was our own tradition. In the afternoon we would usually put together an Easter basket and go to church to bless it. According to more strict Easter rules you are supposed to go to the Easter Vigil that starts at midnight and at the end of this service your Easter basket will be blessed by a priest with the Holy Water. With years the church has developed more liberal rules for people who don't go to all church events and created an alternative option that is very popular with many families. We always go to bless our basket on Saturday afternoon. 
When I was a kid my parents took me to the Easter Vigil once. I will never forget that experience. It was special because of several reasons. As you know religion was forbidden in the Soviet Union but closer to the end of the soviet union existence many restrictions were ignored by people. One of them was connected to religion and churches. That night all the churches in my native Volodymyr were open and priests were serving the Vigil. I was sitting on my father's shoulders so that I could see the priest dressed in a festive gown and I was breathing in warm night air mixed with incenses. I was too little to understand that it was the smell of freedom in the air. There was a big crowd of people, all of them were happy and joyful, we met a lot of our acquaintances and some relatives. The best part was that we didn't go to one particular church but we made a real tour to a couple of them and everywhere we went there was this great spirit of joy. 
What do we put into the Easter Basket? Well, in my family we put an Easter bread in the center, some specially prepared eggs that we call pysanka or krashanka (I plan to write about them a separate story), homemade sausage and salt. In other families, the variety of items can be different, but the Easter bread and eggs are a "must". When people come back from church this food can't be touched till morning unless you went to the night service and came back home early morning, because all family is supposed to get around the table and start their breakfast with the blessed food. Since all the time before Easter is a very strict lent, the breakfast is the first meal when the meat is back on the table. Before starting the meal the eldest person in the family says a short prayer asking God for health and an opportunity to meet the next Easter in the same circle of people. The blessed egg is the first item from the basket to be eaten due to its sacral meaning as a symbol of life and a role it had according to the Bible. The next meal of the day is usually a time when relatives and family friends pay each other a visit. 
In Ukraine Easter is celebrated three days. The most fun day is Monday, it's called Wet Monday because it's an official tradition to pour, splash, sprinkle water on girls and young women (you can try it with grandmas too but I don't think they will be very happy about it). Real water battles take place on this day because in order to avoid gender discrimination girls strike back! One year my best friend and his cousin decided to "surprise" me with an unexpected visit to my home. They did the worst thing that could come to their heads - instead of water they used (for some unknown reason) perfume!!!! I couldn't get rid of that smell for the next couple of days. 
During all Easter holiday period and till the Holy Trinity Ukrainians don't greet each other differently than "Christ is risen!" and the answer would be "Indeed, he is risen!"

Next Sunday after Easter, we have a so-called Antipascha or St. Thomas day, the day when we go to cemeteries and commemorate our deceased family members and relatives. We bring Easter bread and eggs to share with them and leave lit candles. 

So that's my story for today! Hope you had a great Palm Sunday. Ukrainians will abide Palm or as you know now Willow Sunday next week because of the calendar shift that I've described in my Christmas story (https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/01/how-ukrainians-celebrate-christmas.html).

Have a great Sunday and behave yourself!

As always here are some photos of Easter bread and Easter basket that my best friend was so kind to lend for my story (and she makes the best Easter bread I have ever had in my life!!!)

Traditional Easter basket

Easter Bread

An embroidered serviette saying "Christ is risen" embroidered by my friend's mom