Now it is my time to be a guest blogger

The previous post was by a guest blogger. I am very excited about it and hope it opens a door to many other guests in my virtual kitchen. I was a guest blogger too! 

The post for Traveling Canucks about Volgograd, my Grandma's hometown, I wrote several months ago, when she was still with us, but it went live after she had passed away. So it is in a way my tribute to her. 

I was contemplating on re-posting it on my blog - it is more a travel post than a kitchen one, but since I don't have a stand-alone travel blog yet (Dave and I have been thinking about it for quite a while but when do we have time to get serious about it?), and the post is featuring a local specialty ...so I think it is ok post it here too. And hey, it is my own blog so I can do whatever I want here, right?

Here you go: Tribute to the WWII Heroes on the Banks of Russia’s Volga River

Would you like to see more travel-related posts on this blog? Comments are always welcome;)

Cook Like a Cowboy - Bison Burger Recipes

This is a guest post by Kara Taylor, a freelance writer who loves to write about a number of topics including cooking, health, and the outdoors.

For burgers, it's bison or bust! After falling into a long-time nationwide bad habit of poor diet and nutrition, with belts a bit too snug around the waist, America has started to look for ways to stop their old bad habits and seek healthier alternatives.

One of those healthier, more nutritional alternatives is bison meat. It's probably not something most people would even expect, but it's true.

Bison meat is a hit across America, and for a whole lot of really great reasons. Excitement mounts as the trend continues to grow and the popularity of this healthier, leaner, better tasting meat soars. Hopefully soon everyone will have tried it for themselves and know just how amazing bison meat is. The flavor, texture, and nutritional benefits just can't be beat by other meats. The chemically enhanced and genetically engineered pre-packaged meats just don't stand a chance.

Russian comfort food: Stuffed peppers

This blog post is a part of The FaveDiets Blog Hop, The Healthy Hop: Your Favorite Recipe From the Last Month. I’ve decided to share one of my all time August-September favorite recipes. Why August-September? The answer is simple: we are talking what’s in season, and there is nothing better than a couple of stuffed peppers with some sour cream.

This is an easy recipe you can also cook in advance and then just re-heat: it will taste as good as freshly made and saves you from unhealthy frozen dinners on a week night. When I was a kid, we used to cook it a lot in our country house, and since back then stuffed peppers are on my list of perfect end of summer meals. 

All-time favorite fall food: eggplants

Recently I got an email from Matthew Kaplan, the editor of FaveDiets Blog, who was asking all the recent blog hop participants about their favorite fall foods. My top-5 list definitely includes eggplants. 

When I was like 14 my aunt shared with me her favorite eggplant recipe that she learned from an Ukrainian woman while living in India. Since then I love it. I have no idea if this recipe has an official name but in my family we refer to it as just ‘sinenkie’ (the blue), the way eggplant lovers call this divine vegetable.