Ukrainian Roulette

I mentioned earlier that my cousin's wife if Soviet born and speaks both Ukrainian and Russian. Unfortunatelly there are times when I end up eating out without her.

Usually what happens is that I end up in a smallish restaurant where the menu is presented to me to make my selection. The options there are the following: Ukrainian/Russian only, or an English menu with very fancy names (Baba Yaga Salad was one) with absolutely no description. If I'm lucky, the dishes are grouped in some way or another, if not, they are in random order. Then I smile and point to something on the menu and then pray that it will be edible. The trouble continues with me having no idea what blessing say on my food--Jews have several--so I tend to just skip that all together with a G-d help me!

So far most of the dishes I picked in this Ukrainian Roulette were ranging from okay to great. But today I had the worst ever experience with practically uncooked sauer kraut and what looked like a pig's jellied foot. Now, my Hungarian friends, yes, I'm known to have eaten körömpörkölt without much trouble, but this was plain weird. It had a very odd texture, too, something that is a major issue for this former preemie after 27 years, still. It also tasted somewhat disharmonic. Like dishsoap with sauerkraut and plainly cooked pig foot.

Tonight I have to balance the awful foot with something nice: ice cream and mushroom soup!

School lunch woes

Christine from Smiles and Trials is doing an adoption decal giveaway! Go check it out, and see if you'd like to win one!

I was reading back on some blogs, and a certain post by Christine reminded me how packing the equivalent of school lunches has become a cherished tradition in my home. I'd be writing about this even if it wasn't for the giveaway, because now life is different.

First of all, all the kids are in school, so the restrictions by the gan (a sandwich and a piece of fruit! No bananas! Nothing that needs to be peeled! How dare you send in a tuna sandwich, that's messy!) are gone. At last.

At this point my kids get a hot lunch at school, and they stay in school/daycare till 4 p.m. 5 days out of the 6 schooldays. (Fridays are half days.) That means, at least for the twins, two snacks to pack: one mid-morning snack they eat at 10 a.m. and one mid afternoon one they eat around 3.

This is where it gets tricky: my kids have to prepare their snacks themselves, and they have to be kosher. So every evening when they get home we check what lunch will be the next day, and depending on that, they pack dairy or meat, or, preferrably pareve (neither dairy nor meat) sandwiches or other goodies.

Because the turkey-ham-and-fake-cheese sandwiches get boring fast, we just decided on introducing the kids to bento style meals. Tomorrow, for example, all three of my kids are packing away Shabbat dinner leftovers: a chicken wing each, cookies, green peas, humus (ok, so only Justin is taking hunus), toasted challah pieces, pieces of chicken breast, bean snacks, pickles and some brown rice with more beans. Matthew also made a hard boiled egg, so he is taking that, cut in four. I'm sending home made iced tea with them and Craig bought a can of cola yesterday, so he is taking that.

Now Monday will be a lot more difficult. I can kinda see the twins making Jewish eggs without the liver to make sandwiches--possibly using some of the can of smoked sprats to go in the sandwiches and then asking me for Tic Tac. Yeah, those things are delicious, but should be eaten next to an open window.

So here is the question: What are some kid friendly, easy foods that my sons could learn to fix themselves (with assistance from the adults in the family) that might actually be kosher? Would love to hear some suggestions!