This Russian saying summarizes the article emailed to me by the local (and maybe even regional) knitting goddess PlazaJen.

The store hired Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the stylized Hope poster of Barack Obama that became one of the most highly visible, though unofficial, images of the presidential campaign, to design its catalog covers and shopping bags. They bear a rather unsubtle allusion to advertisements made in the 1920s for state-run department stores in the Soviet Union.

Russian posters of 1920’s served as  a primary source of  commercial as well as social advertisement, when a drawing and a short phrase understood by mostly illiterate population conveyed a simple message or directive. There is a reason why contemporary designers keep coming back to these styles – they just look cool and as an added bonus in the West – exotic. Even I used it to create the header for the this site without knowing anything about Alexander Rodchenko who was one of the founders of Constructivism as this style is called.

I scavenged a few posters for your enjoyment:

Few commercials that I might have previously linked here also take advantage of this style.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tawPsdFQxdA

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ_6_vo8Uak

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CaMUfxVJVQ

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Preface:

Hundreds of thousands of people with better cameras and better photography skills vacation at the same places as me.

Hundreds of thousands of people are better at travel writing than I am, better at writing in general, and are clearly better than me at speaking English.

Go read their damn blogs….

I love to travel. It helps me to relax; feel in charge when I am planning my next trip, buying tickets and making reservations; learn new things; change the scenery; feel better (or worse) about my hometown. Most importantly, it helps me not to raise a moron. This year we traveled to the Pacific Northwest, a place that until now remained a blank spot on my travel map. We visited Seattle, took an Amtrak train to San Francisco and drove 450 miles along the Pacific Coast on Highways 1 and 101, stopping for a night in Monterey. The trip turned out to be even better than I imagined.

The next several posts will be about these places illustrated with tons of photos (I brought back 1,214, which would probably weigh tons if I was using film).

Face:

If there was a god, the Pacific Northwest would have been his reward to the people who didn’t quit going West in the middle of Kansas, and, instead of making “Ad Astra Per Aspera” their motto and giving up, continued to endure and persevere for months and years, slowly consuming their mates on the way. When these people, exhausted and with little hope remaining, saw the water in front of them (after the rain stopped and the fog cleared 6 months later), they knew it was all worth it, and everyone they ate on the way would have wanted it that way. Over time they proceeded to cut and kill most of the things so abundant in the area, swindle the Indians, build depressing slums and fill the void with homeless people, Mexican radio stations, French-speaking tourists and a special breed of people who ride the Ducks.

Over time, people had an epiphany, and after multiple fires and earthquakes, the Pacific Northwest and Northern California (I have no idea if these are considered one geographical region) are an American jewel, a place where the nature, weather and landscape combined with the architecture, city planning, atmosphere and a number of Asian restaurants approaching infinity make one understand why people are willing to pay mind-blowing prices to live there.

If I had to summarize Seattle in one photo, it would probably be this shot of a redheaded, bearded guy in a cap, wearing sandals and smoking a pipe.

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So I am standing on the corner of Westport Rd. and Pennsylvania, minding my own business, when KC Mayor is walking across the street, without a posse. Then his wife finally caught up with him, because he makes giant steps and she has to run just to keep up, and they walked into Harpos.

I need a better camera but trust me it was him.

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During my conversation with George Detsios he mentioned that his restaurant had a very short menu which included stuffed peppers and stuffed cabbage. Stuffed peppers are not hard to make and if you purchase the peppers at the City Market like I did for 3-for-a-dollar they are also very inexpensive. I am not sure if they will be as good as George’s but you wouldn’t know any better anyway.

First, assemble the ingredients and equipment. You will need 6 peppers, lean ground beef, a carrot, few stalks of celery, an onion,a handful of rice, a can of tomato juice, cooking (olive) oil, salt, pepper, large pot to hold the peppers, smaller pot to boil tomato juice and a skillet. If you have a choice pick the peppers other than green, they are sweeter.

Put a handful of rice into a small pot of water, heat it up until it just boils then rinse. Remove the tops from the peppers, clean out the seeds and wash the peppers inside and outside. Do not discard the tops.

Chop an onion, and saute on the skillet with (olive) oil until translucent and soft. Shred a carrot into the skillet and continue sauteing on the low heat.

During that time boil a pot of water, turn off the heat, put peppers with tops in the pot and let them soften up for a few minutes. Drain the water and remove peppers.

While the peppers are cooling, boil tomato juice. Adjust salt/sugar levels to taste.

Mix ground beef, onions and carrots from the skillet, shredded celery and a couple of handfuls of water. Add salt if needed.

Stuff the mixture into peppers. Do not try to fit as much meat into a pepper as you can, this is not a meat-stuffing contest. Place peppers into an empty pot and cover with tops.

If you still have leftover meat  – roll it into a meatball and place it in the pot with peppers.

Pour boiling tomato juice over peppers, bring to boil, then simmer for 20-30 minutes. The goal is to have the stuffing cooked without letting the peppers disintegrate.

Serve with sour cream.

Here are the rest of my photos.

Disclaimer:this blog assumes no responsibility if the words “stuffing meat” got you excited. Please move on.

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The good news about the green borscht is that it doesn’t have the dreaded beets in it. The bad news is that it’s made out of spinach. I understand that when you list the ingredients – spinach, green onions, boiled eggs you may not find it to be an exceptionally enticing combination. Nevertheless, it’s one of my favorite soups, light, easy to make and delicious.
Assemble the ingredients: 3-4 eggs, spinach, green onions, parsley, potatoes, rice and dill (or dill weed, still legal in all 50 states), which I unfortunately forgot to procure.

Start by boiling eggs in a medium pot of salted water. The new scientific way to do this is to cover the eggs with 1 inch of water, bring to boil, turn the heat off and cover for 10 minutes. No need for little cute egg-timers and no room for guessing, the eggs will be perfectly done.
In the meantime, start boiling some water in the large pot. This is not a thick soup, I filled up my pot about half-way. The recipe says to boil some rice (about 1/2 cup) separately and rinse before adding to the soup. I skip this step and put rice directly into the pot when the water starts boiling; you are cooking borscht, not trying to get every pot you own dirty.

Next, finely chop some green onions;I used a whole package from WalMart, or 1 bunch. If some Emeril wannabes want to call them scallions, just roll your eyes quietly and let them have their moment.

While chopping onions both the white and green ends go into the soup but my Mom says that the middle part is bitter and throws it away. I personally never checked if the middle part is really bitter but I take my Mom’s word for it. Don’t send me comments about how useful the middles are, or how you can weave a blanket out of them; I will still throw them away because my Mom said so.

Add chopped onions to the pot. Make sure it doesn’t boil too hard, adjust heat as needed.
Cube 3-5 potatoes and add to the pot; add salt.

Now on to the spinach. I buy pre-washed baby spinach in a box or a bag. You may be tempted to overpay and buy organic, but keep in mind that they probably used something that rhymes with schmecal schmatter to fertilize it (that what makes it cost more). I go for chemicals every time. I used one package, 8 oz, I think.

Tear off stems from the spinach leaves and chop them medium. You can stack several leaves together to make this process easier, then it’s will be what’s known to the Food Network watchers as chiffonade.

Chop the parsley. When potatoes are almost ready (can be cut with a spoon with a slight effort) add spinach and parsley to the pot. Boil for 5-7 minutes.
While all this boiling is going on, use a box grater to shred the eggs, or just chop them with a knife.

Add 4-5 tablespoons of the sour cream and mix it really well. Add chopped dill, if your Mom didn’t have a schmuck for a son and you didn’t forget to buy it. When the soup boils again, turn the heat off, add the shredded eggs and adjust the salt.
You are done.

Eat warm or cold, I don’t like it really hot. We used to eat it straight out of the fridge in the summer months.
P.S. The beauty of this recipe is that you can’t screw it up by adding too much or too little of any ingredient, except for the salt. So go easy on salt and you will not be disappointed.

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