A Postcard a Day - Saturday 21 Nov 2015 - Belarus

Good Morning! 
It's weekend! Whoopee!
Are you going to do something exciting? Or is it a normal workday for you? (I used to be a nurse, so weekends didn't mean anything to me. And if i were working I knew that I'd be working with a skeleton staff.i.e. we'd be much busier).

Here is one of the cards I received this week from Belarus:

I like it very much. It is a map of the country with the relevant national costumes. 

I already had another card from the same series:

Beautiful, aren't they?

The stamp on the first card is very colourful:

In reality the red is bright red. This photo doesn't do it justice. The ladybird on the stamp is also embossed. 

The ladybird is called the Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata.  This 22-spot ladybird is different to other ladybirds because it eats mildew, unlike all other ladybirds who eat aphids. 

The other card I got this week from Belarus is this one:

Grain pudding. I have no idea what grain berries are so it will be difficult to make this at home. 

Again I already had a card from the same series with a potato pancakes recipe on it (which I shared with you a while ago).  

The stamp is very special. I can't read Belarussian but I reckon it is a painting by Marc Chagall.

OK, I've just looked it up and it is from a series of stamps about artists of the Paris school that were born in Belarus. They are Ossip Zadkine (the lake), Ossip Lubich (landscape with red roof), Chaim Soutine (Eva) and Marc Chagall (two lovers):

In case you wondered what the letters N and M stand for,  N is for surface mail abroad, and M is for air mail abroad.

That's it from me today.

Have a lovely weekend,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Tuesday 13 Oct 2015 T for Dutch apple pie (+ recipe)

Good Morning! Welcome T for Tuesday dwellers.

We've had a lovely weekend. It was an extra long weekend here in Spain. Monday was a national holiday! So people were visiting each other from afar and going for picnics etc.

I made a Dutch apple pie for our friends on Sunday afternoon. My mum taught me to make it.There is a little bit left, I was just about to have a cup of tea. Would you like a piece? Now, now, don't fight!

I posted a photo of it on Facebook this weekend and got several reactions. Mostly people wanting the recipe (Bridget, this is for you). 
The dough is made with runny butter and made into a dough. Then, rather than rolled out (it would be too sticky to roll), you push it into place with your hands, and work it up the sides of the mold.
Here is the recipe :

For those of you across the pond used to 'cups', I went to a conversion site and came up with the following:
300 gr = 1 and a quarter cup plain flour
125 gr = half a cup sugar
200 gr butter = 0.9 cup (nearly one)
100 gr = half cup raisins

I hope that helps.

Keeping in with the Dutch theme, the postcard for today is one that I am sending (not receiving) for a change.

I bought it in Holland when I was there last. It's on its way to someone who specifically asked for a card with a bike on it. 
As you might know, in the Netherlands everybody rides a bike and there are literally millions! These particular two boys on the card are not Dutch, but from the Chong Khneas village in Cambodia. I think it is a great photo, don't you?

I'm linking in with Elizabeth at Altered Book Lover for T for Tuesday. Come and say hello if you have anything drinkable to share.

Have a lovely day and see you hopefully tomorrow when I link up with WOYWW (What's On Your Work desk Wednesday).

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - 22 August 2015 a recipe for borscht

Good Morning! It's weekend! (important for those people that have to work)

Fancy doing some cooking this weekend? We are going to have bacon, eggs and baked beans and fried tomatoes on toast for lunch. The English call it a Full English Breakfast. But we have it for lunch.

If that is not what you fancy, how about some soup? Here is a recipe from Russia of their traditional soup called borscht. It is printed on a postcard I received from Moscow.

(Aubergine is egg plant for those in America.)

It sounds really nice. Here is what you do:

I haven't made it yet so if any of you make this soup, please let me know what it's like.

The stamps are really nice:

The one on the right celebrates the 350th anniversary of Irkutsk. That was in 2011.
The one on the left with the train is from 2013 and commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Kolomna Locomotive Works. 

Thank you Daria from Moscow for sending me this card.

Have a great weekend all of you,

See you tomorrow,

Lisca