I know that I recently posted another Ukrainian recipe for Borscht but this one is in a totally different category so I am not really being redundant. 

These are so good (and bad, addictive bad). Just one of the many ways that you can prepare potatoes. They’re like chips on the outside and french fries on the inside. Definitly a crowd pleaser.

This recipe wasn’t completely my idea to make so I will not take all the credit or the blame. My family is full of potato lovers but I have two sisters who are major fans. This potato recipe just happens to be inspired by the latkes that they used to eat. This was their doing. 

I could almost say that my entire family loves these but that is not completely true. My picky brother saw me adding onions and even though they are undetectable once you have fried them he wouldn’t even try a bite. He has an unnatural fear of onions. I keep telling him that there are onions in everything, including most of his favorite foods, but it doesn’t help. This isn’t a recipe that I feel the need to force on him. Mostly because I know that if he tried it he would love them and want to eat them all. It is better this way. More for everyone else.

This soup is a traditional soup that is very common in many European countries. I know this because it is something that is familiar to two of my sisters. In 2006 my family hosted two beautiful little girls from Ukraine during their visit to the states. We knew right away that God had planned for them to be part of our family all along. In 2007 they became my sisters and have been ever since.

It is strange to talk about it now because it seems like so long ago. I never think about the fact that we have only been sisters for half of our lives. You would never know that they were not born into our family if you met them. People tell us all the time that we look so much alike. They are as much gringas as I am.

I’ve never tried making borscht before, but we had all the ingredients so it seemed like the perfect time to try it. It is already a very red soup but instead of green cabbage and white onions I happened to have red cabbage and red onions. It made the soup even darker. You could just call this “A Whole Lot of Red Soup” I can see why it is such a traditional dish in Europe. It is so cheap to make and so healthy.

This recipe may not be as welcome in households with picky eaters. Mostly because of the color. I don’t know about you and your family but in my house there are a lot of visual picky eaters. Meaning that they will only try things that  look good to them, regardless of what it tastes like. My youngest siblings will decide whether or not they like something prior to tasting it. It is so frustrating! I keep saying that I am going to get blindfolds to cover their eyes before they taste things because then they would eat way more things. This soup is really good and I think my entire family would like it but I won’t sugarcoat it and tell you they do. I did, however, get my little sister to try it when I told her about the sour cream that goes on top. You see, she has this thing for sour cream. I think she would eat a bowl of it by itself if we let her. She loved the fact that it turned the soup pink when you stirred it in. She is a very girly 5-year-old. She really liked the soup.