Let's Talk About Food: Тушеная Капуста и Ватрушки

Тушеная Капуста

Ватрушки

      One of the many activities I enjoy partaking in would be cooking and when I can put two loves together in one, it's magical! So I would like to share two of many loves I have: food and Russian. I found a website created by a Russian cook and her family. They put traditional Russian recipes with little twists up on their website but they also like to put twists on many other types of food. If you like to cook and try new recipes go to their website at: http://natashaskitchen.com/
     The two recipes that I will be trying out soon and have pictures of above are Тушеная Капуста (Russian braised cabbage) and Ватрушки (Sweet cherry filled buns). Everything about Тушеная Капуста is about the same as it was originally made in the past but Ватрушки is not originally made with cherries, they are typically filled with just farmer's cheese. Both dishes are very popular in Russia and Ukraine. Тушеная Капуста can be made for a main dish for dinner and it's major components are cabbage, pork, and shredded carrots. Ватрушки is clearly a dessert but it could also be eaten for breakfast, it's major components are dough, farmer's cheese, sugar and red cherries. If you want to try these recipes out soon like I am going to over holiday break here are the links to deliciousness!
Тушеная Капуста - http://natashaskitchen.com/2011/01/19/russian-stewed-cabbage-тушеная-капуста/
Ватрушки - http://natashaskitchen.com/2014/06/18/sweet-cherry-filled-buns-vatrushka-recipe/

Фотограф Маша Демианова!

    There is an up and coming photographer from Moscow, Russia named Masha Demianova/Маша Демианова that I discovered over the summer when I was taking a photography class. I love her work, her portraits are very contemporary.

     A little about Маша: when she was 14 or 15 is when she bought her first Canon AE1 and has done nothing but shoot since. When asked about what she tries to achieve in terms of effect on her viewers and she answered as follows, "I guess I'm trying to give people the possibility to see more than what appears in a picture – not just a girl in a dress laying on the grass but also a feeling of inner substance within the frame. If I shoot with a particular idea the goal is to transmit it as honestly and purely as possible." Маша has a number of influences from already renowned artists, such as Vincent van de Wijngaard, Tim Barber, Ryan McGinley, Cass Bird, Lina Scheynius, and a influence of a personal mentor and some American and French film directors. Маша enjoys shooting in nature, it is her ideal place to have photo shoots with her models. She has said that loves to shoot in her grandma’s country house and around it; "cause I spent lots of summers there as a kid and I really know the area. I know where my favorite tree is and how the light works on every inch of grass in the forest."Маша believes gender matters for photographers, her reason being that men and women do everything differently and they are completely different creatures. Her last words in an interview she had with Dazed online magazine were "Keep shooting. I'm only at the beginning."
    I think that is great to hear from her, I am excited to see more of her work and see how she grows as a photographer. Attached to this entry are photographs of Маша's, and for more of her work and contact info here is her website: http://mashademianova.com/ Enjoy!

                             

A Vocal Artist of Russia: Ёлка

    Ёлка is a popular singer-songwriter-producer in Russia. Her full name is Єлизавета Вальдемарівна Іванців and she was born in 1982 on July 2, in Uzhhorod, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. Although she was born in the Ukranian SSR, Ёлка is half Ukrainian and half Russian. She grew up in a very musical family where her father was a jazz music collector and her mother was a musician, playing three instruments.
      Given her musical background she was bound to end up doing something with music and she started young. In the mid −1990s, became part of the Christmas tree Uzhgorod group "B & B", where she performed as a backing vocalist. She went on with the group "B & B" for a few more years until she became a soloist in 2004. Ёлка's first well-known and award winning single was called "Девочка-студентка" which was on her second album in 2006 known as Тени. In 2011, she gained great popularity with the song "Прованс" and was nominated in three categories at the Muz-TV 2011. That album that followed this single received positive reviews from critics, who considered it the best pop album of 2011. Also in 2011, she was recognized as the Singer of the Year by Glamour magazine and among the ten most successful people in Ukrainian show business, according to the publication Focus. By the end of 2012, she was recognized as the most played performer on Russian radio stations.
     From, 2010 to 2012 Ёлка worked as a judge on the Ukrainian X-Factor. Elka is three time winner of the "Golden Gramophone" award ( for the songs "Мальчик-красавчик", "Прованс" and "Около тебя" ) and nominated for RMA channel MTV. Ёлка is still working and singing today and here are some of her songs that I personally enjoy: 

Валенти́н Алекса́ндрович Серо́в

     This Russian painter known as Валентин Серов was the first of his era to perfect the "selfie". Joking aside, Серов truly was one of the premier portrait artists of his time. Серов was born on January 19th, 1865 and died on December 5th, 1911. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia to a Russian composer named Александр Серов and another composer of Jewish-German background named Valentina Bergman.
     In Серов's time span alive he accomplished many feats in his career. In his childhood he began studying art in Paris and Moscow, and as an adult studied in the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts under Павел Чистяков. Серов's early creativity was influenced by Чистяков's realist art of Repin  and strict pedagogical system. His later influence came from old master paintings he viewed in the museums of Russia and Western Europe.
     The greatest works of Серов were his portraits. In fact, his portrait known as The Girl with Peaches (1887) was the painting that inaugurated Russian Impressionism. From 1890 on, his focus was mainly on portraits and Серов's favorite models were actors, artists, and writers (Константин Коровин, 1891, Исак Левитан, 1893, Николай Лесков, 1894, Николай Римски-Корсаков, 1898). When married to Ольга Трубникова in 1887, his wife and children were became subject of many of his works. Notably, his painting Children was of his sons Юра and Саша. In 1900, Серов was a member of "The World of art", an influential Russian art association and magazine. At this point in time a turning point in the art community began and Серов's modernistic style started to develop. The last years of Серов's life were marked by works on themes from classical mythology. While addressing images from the ancient tradition, Серов endowed classical subject matter with a personal interpretation.
     When Серов died he left behind a legacy for all Russian artists, and artists in general to admire. The best works of Серов are among the greatest of Russian realistic art.Also a random fact would be that a minor planet discovered by a soviet astronomer named Людмила Журавлёва named it after Серов  as 3547 Серов.