Baba's Kitchen: Ukrainian Soul Food with Stories From the Village - Tapa blanda

What do Ukrainians want?

In a rollicking, entertaining read, Baba's Kitchen will lead you into the complex soul of Eastern Europe's Indigenous people.

Ukrainian author Raisa Stone spent 50 years collecting heart wrenching and hilarious stories and 190 recipes from survivors of Soviet and Nazi terror, including her family. Raisa's narrator, Baba (Grandma), is a composite of these invincible souls.

Ukraine has been continuously inhabited by civilized, immensely inventive people for 44,000 years.

What we see in Ukraine's recent events is resistance to hundreds of years of oppression.

For excerpts, audio clips and more, visit: www.ukrainiansoulfood.ca

Ukrainians: first tamed horses, invented pants (for riding!), the bow and arrow, built homes from mammoth bone & pyramids older than Egypt's, & created Europe's first democratic constitution.

Shamanic practices that sparked the original werewolf and Amazon legends (the latter documented by Greek physician Hippocrates) combine with recipes & customs reaching back to the Neolithic era.

#1 Bestseller in European & Ukrainian Cooking

#1 Bestseller in Ukrainian Culture

#4 Bestseller in Ukrainian Books, of 13,000 titles!

~Amazon

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Compared to erotic games in the village bath & shoplifting live turkeys in your bloomers, immigrant life is beyond boring. So Baba (Grandma) is brewing up Old Country customs in her kitchen.

She'll teach you to make delicious Ukrainian dishes (plus simple folk remedies) the traditional & The Lazy Way, sabotage frenemies with garlic, & utter chilling Slavic curses such as, "May you be kicked by a duck!"

Between tales of magical encounters with Nature spirits & steaming bowls of borshch is the true confession of the author's elderly neighbour: she murdered her abusive husband. The deadly story unfolds under the guise of cooking lesson, as unexpectedly as Roald Dahl's Lamb to the Slaughter. Raisa kept her neighbor's secret till after her death.

Veer into the wildly romantic with recipes such as Apple Cake with Wild Rose Preserves. Toast friends & family with the classic Drink of the Gods.

Imagine a mouth watering Honey Onion Sauce that recalls competing with cave bears and wild bees, and the seductive magic of preparing sweet delights for the Apple Harvest Blessing.

190 traditional Ukrainian recipes, taught step by step as if grandma were at your side:

• Borshch, including Vegetarian
• Holubtsi (Cabbage Rolls)
• Verenyky (Perogies)
• Honey Cake
• Stewed Fruit
• Traditional Holiday recipes for Easter & Christmas
• Kolach: Circle of Life Bread

*Warning: 18+ Restricted*

Wicked acts with honey and raspberries, pirates, cowboys, cossacks, bald men, bad boys and mounted police officers. Be prepared for fish net, scuba divers, body painting, eye rolling & squealing.

Your boyfriend/husband is the cause of your PMS! Learn what to do about it.

You'll laugh, you'll scream. By the time Baba is through, you'll wet someone else's pants!

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"Unique, funny, compelling & totally original. Baba is an amazing woman."~Jill McCaw, McCaw Media

"Brilliant humor...down-to-earth spiritual commentary on consciously healthy food for mind, body & planet."~Jason Matthews, author of The Big Bang

"Not only is it one heck of a belly laugh, Baba's Kitchen has recipes for good old fashioned tasty meals that nourish both body & soul." ~Paddy Head, author of Fixed

Author Raisa Stone ate pureed borshch as baby food & cut dough circles for varenyky (perogies) as soon as she could reach the table top.

She spent 50 years collecting outrageous stories from survivors of Soviet & Nazi oppression, including her family.

Raisa's writing has been mentored by Steve Allen. She is a former Features writer for The Winnipeg Gazette and instructor for the Victoria School of Writing. Her poetry was chosen by national Ukrainian magazine Nasha Doroha to commemorate the Chornobyl disaster. She attended classes at Winnipeg's Ukrainian National Home throughout childhood.

Raisa's passion for promoting Ukrainian culture comes not only from its proud richness. Her father was the only member of his family to escape Stalinist Ukraine. He then landed in a Nazi labor camp, from where he was liberated to Canada.

Raisa is a professional singer, storyteller & Animal Intuitive. Chicken Soup for the Soul regularly publishes her stories.

Learn more about Raisa & Baba:

www.ukrainiansoulfood.ca

www.reisastone.com