April was not only full of rain (there better be a ton of flowers this month!), but celebrations. The first one was a big surprise party for my Dad's 70th birthday. I'm so impressed with my mom for pulling it off. We all had a great time: Galina couldn't believe the amount of food (all of it good), Igor enjoyed the line dancing of my aunts, Nikita feasted on popcorn shrimp, and Ivan could not keep off the dance floor - except when he was swung about by Igor.
Next was Ivan's birthday, which we celebrated twice because his real birthday fell in the middle of the week. He requested salmon for his actual birthday, and meat lasagne for the bigger celebration (which included his godparents). On both occasions, his birthday cake was a Russian Napoleon - the latter homemade.
I used this recipe. Yes, the cake actually has 15 layers. Igor thankfully put the boys to bed so that I could make the cake in peace, but I really credit parchment paper for saving my sanity. By the time I was rolling out the 11th layer, my elbow was about to pop out. The cake was worth the effort (the cream filling is particularly good), but next time I'll want to take it up a notch and try making puff pastry.
Ivan got tons of presents. Probably the coolest one was a complete knight outfit:
Finally, Easter! I got up at 6 am to apply the Georgian spice rub to the leg of lamb. Ivan came down afterwards and found his Easter basket full of Serenade chocolates (including a white chocolate rabbit), Kinder Surprise (Nikita's request), and Jelly Bellies (his request). He patiently waited for everyone else to get up by laying out all his goodies.
Easter lunch featured Georgian roast leg of lamb (served with Georgian sour plum sauce; we call it Georgian ketchup), rice pilaf, Salad Olivier, plus Igor's kulich (made even better with Kerry Irish butter; I guess the extra gram of fat per serving makes a difference) and my pascha (properly drained). Our eggs were "dyed" with yellow onion skins or shrink wrap:
It still amazes me how yellow onion skins make a red dye. The other eggs, however, were so pretty that Nikita didn't want to eat them, even when I told him that they would spoil otherwise.
This year also marked the debut of homemade Peeps:
A particularly good tutorial for the Peeps can be found here. The Martha Stewart recipe (my first one) is surprisingly simple: gelatin, sugar, and water. I coated them with colored superfine sugar (made in the blender) and used cocoa for the eyes. Yes, the Peeps are sugar bombs, but they almost melt in your mouth; I particularly like them after they have sit out for a number of hours - the coating becomes crispy. I don't mind that the Peeps each have their own unique look (as a friend so kindly put it), but I do need to work on the marshmallow consistency and piping skills so that I end up with chicks rather than anteaters (as scientists say: data not shown).
