Briefly, on a completely different note: Hi, my name is Uwee, and I'm addicted to caffeine. I can't live without it. I am not a normal happy person without it. I will no longer deny my body caffeine during the day. I must have at least 2 cans of caffeinated pop a day.

Ok, now that's out of my system: Parties. Food. The topic of this journal. Doug and I, with the little bit of time we had yesterday after attacking some adoption paperwork, thought it'd be fun to cruise the Internet for Russian foods. Then we thought, as we host the annual New Year's party for our friends far and wide, we could do a Russian themed New Year's. How fun!

So here's a little history for you: When the Communist party took over, religion was suppressed. To make sure the people didn't protest the vanishment of Christmas, however, the commies did something interesting; they revamped St. Nicholas into Father Frost, and instead of giving presents to children on Christmas, Father Frost gives presents on New Year's. Now, this is Jan. 1st. Russians also celebrate New Year again on Jan. 14th, which would have been New Year according to the Julian calendar originally used before the October Revolution, 1917. Hey, any reason to drink vodka, eh?

We found some interesting recipes. Some, I will never make. Some, however, sounded delicious! Mushrooms are a big ingredient, as are egg and sour cream. I found a chicken recipe that of course, included vodka. It sounds wonderful.

Doug has been tracking down alcoholic drinks. One, called vishnyovka, only takes... oh... a year to 18 months to come to fruition. The fastest drink we've discovered takes about 3 weeks to ferment. All including cherries and vodka, of course!