Blinis for breakfast our small family tradition...

Last Thursday Pablo and I flew to Germany, to spend some days with my family. It was on time that Pablo was meeting his cousins again. The kids are growing up so quickly, even with regular visits it is nearly impossible to catch up with them. They grow, they change, they start to walk and speak and you are just wondering when did it happen...

The cool thing about kids is that time seems to stay still when they are around you and somehow you feel much younger....they inspire you to do funny things, all of sudden you find yourself on a trampoline jumping like crazy and laughing out loud, running behind a ball kicking it in every direction and making funny animal noises....All problems are forgotten and you are not afraid to make a fool out of yourself as no one will judge you on that behaviour. When did WE actually grow up?!?!?

My mom is blessed by many grandchildren, eight in total and she actually wishes for more. She gets quite busy when we all meeting up. It is remarkable to see a grown up women (who will be 60 next year) transforming to a teenager as soon as all her grandchildren are around her. She does not really care how it might looks like, she is just doing what her grandchildren are asking her to do....so you will definitely see her on a trampoline, playing football with Pablo, fooling around with the kids in the garden or answering some questions for my niece "friends book"...you know the one you are filling in the name of your friend, their hobbies and what they are wishing for. By the question what makes her happy she will always answer my grandchildren and by the question what is she wishing for the answer would be.....more grandchildren!!!

There are many other things our kids love about their grandma, but there is one they all have in common...her famous blinis (Russian pancakes). It became a small family tradition by now. Every time grandma is visiting there will be blinis for breakfast...

My mom would always wake up pretty early to start with the preparation of the blinis.. By the time we are all up there will be like 100 fresh made blinis waiting for us at the table. 

Each of us like the blinis bit different...my favourite is blinis with ham and cheese or the sweet version with honey (home produced honey from my mom), the kids love it simple with some powered sugar, traditionally you eat them with Smetana (Russian creme fraiche) and a bit of sugar. 

Blini - Russian pancake

• 1 cup flour
• 1,5 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• 1-2 tablespoons sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
• splash of vanilla essence (vanilla sugar)
• pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

Prepare your pan, put it on medium-high heat, grease it with little vegetable oil and let is get hot. If you have a blender put all the ingredients there and blend, till all well combined. The batter will be rather liquid, so it can spread easily all over the pan.

Preparation without blender: put the flour in a big bowl, add sugar, salt, vanilla. Make a whole and add the eggs and some of the milk...with a had whisk steer from the middle to the edges. Add som more milk as you go till all used. Keep steering to avoid clumps. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes. Finally add the melted butter and mix till all well combined. Pour some of the batter into the hot pan (not too much as the pancake shall be thin as possible) and spread it equally in the whole pan. Cook it till the edges start to brown. Turn it around and cook if for additional couple of seconds.

Serve it with jam, honey, powedered sugar, creme fraiche and fresh berries or with some ham and cheese (heat it up a bit in the microwave) tomatoes or bell pepper....

Enjoy!