I debated long and hard whether ordering @darra_goldstein's new Russian cookbook could be considered "essential" and decided that yes, it most definitely is. So happy to have received 'Beyond the North Wind' in today's post.

I'm grateful to have a sunny spot to read this wonderful cookbook. Over the winter I read her 1987 cookbook "A Taste of Russia" in bed, back-to-back, like it was a novel. Planning to do the same with this one (but outside).

And once I'm done, looking forward to preserving and fermenting everything I can get my hands on.