This week, I've been reading about old Russian folklore beliefs for my Russian fairytales class. (yes, it's a course offered at Duke, and yes, I'm taking it. :) The following is part of a story that I came across in "Russian Folk Belief" (by Ivanits) last night:
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Christ and the apostles spent the night at the poor widow's. In the morning thewidow said to her daughter-in-law, "Go and scrape the flour from the bin. Perhaps we can pull together a handful for bliny to feed the wanderers." The daughter-in-law went and carried back a sizable jugful of flour. The old woman didn't wonder where so much had come from; there already had been a little there, and now it would suffice for bliny. But still the daughter-in-law said, "There's enough left over in the bin for another time." The widow baked bliny and greeted the Savior and the apostles with, "My dear ones, eat what God has sent..."
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Talk about a game of telephone! This story, and several others, is somehow what the Russian peasants ended up with after their (official, though perhaps less sincere) transition from pagan to Christian. Maybe sleeping was the usual practice during mass, or maybe they just really didn't want to let go of their traditions. At any rate, while it appears the true story got lost in the shuffle, one can't but wonder what "bliny" tasted like...
So I searched the internet and came up with this recipe:
Blini
There is a LOT of milk in this stuff...
... which makes them really thin....... but absolutely delicious!
Spread some strawberry jam on them and voila! A delicious Russian peasant's breakfast!
