I have always loved my birthdays. I love being the center of attention for that one day and feeling special. I love birthday wishes, presents, flowers and balloons and fun birthday cards. As far as I can remember, I always wake up happy and excited on the day of my birthday anticipating something magic to happen, almost like on the New Year’s Eve (which for Russians is the biggest holiday of the year, when Ded Moroz brings presents to kids, like Santa Clause does on Christmas).

When you get older, I’ve heard, birthdays tend to become less exciting and even depressing. It’s the day when you get one year older and it’s not that fun anymore as it was in your 20’s. I’ve been waiting for this to happen with a sinking heart for a couple of years now. Yet, I didn’t feel sad or depressed on my birthday this year, just like the last year or the year before that. I turned 32 on Friday. “Yeay!” I told my boyfriend, “I was born today and I am so happy that I did!”

I couldn’t help but notice a number of food-delivery startups being advertised all over the internet lately (it’s been happening for a while, I know, I am slow as usual). Plated, Blue Apron, Hello Fresh – just to name a few. They assemble and deliver meal boxes to customers with all the ingredients and instructions to cook meals at home.

So, I thought, “I love startups, I love things being delivered to my door and I love trying new stuff. Hmmm…I have to find out what it is all about!”

There are people for whom it is so easy to fall apart, but so difficult to pull it together. I am one of those people. I have always envied the lucky fellows whose confidence is as steady as a rock. On the contrary, my inner confidence and harmony have always been fragile and could easily falter because of mere ignorant comments, especially if that comments have been made by someone, who is supposed to be your closest person. Being younger, I used to build shields to make me immune to words which could easily hurt, offend or ruin my self-esteem. With time I became more relaxed, patient and stopped paying much attention to who said what. We are all different and nobody can expect that others would say exactly what they wanted to hear. You listen, consider, accept it or deny it and go further. 

It was early Sunday morning, when my sister and I packed our travel suitcases, arranged things in the car, tuned in to some local radio station, placed Snusmumrik conveniently in the window and began our five days road trip to France. It was rather chilly at 8 am and everything was covered in morning dew. Germersheim, the city where my sister lives and the starting point of the trip, was still silent, sleepy and foggy, but to me it looked mystical and enchanting, as if promising the great adventures ahead of us.

I have never planned on posting recipes to the blog. First of all, because I am quite an average cook and second, because I did not want to promote any diet, since I follow none and my food choices are rather inconsistent. In other words, the last thing I wanted to do is to position myself as somebody knowledgeable or skillful when it comes to culinary practices. But… yes, there is always a “but”.

The other day I woke up in such a great mood and, as a logical consequence, felt like cooking breakfast (which is a rare occasion for somebody who is not a morning person). Anyways, I checked the fridge and decided to go for syrniki. As I was mixing the ingredients and humming Kiesza’s “Hideaway” (oh, those miserable attempts to succeed in singing, can I accept already that I am doomed for life?), I had a thought. I wanted to create a blog focused on positive things, things which make people and me in particular happy. Food (its consumption, as well as preparation) is a huge part of those things! For me even more so, because I looove delicious food. Ok, enough of excuses, I am posting a recipe and so be it!

My vacation is over, but here with me are my memories, emotions, numerous pictures waiting to be organized and retouched, gifts and souvenirs ready to be presented to their new owners and most importantly hopes to transform events and scenes of the journey into stories which could attract and inspire the reader.  As you might remember, this was my first trip to Europe and I am thrilled to announce the verdict – I absolutely loved it! No exceptions. Yes, I know that 10 days are probably not enough to reach an objective conclusion, but let me have my subjective one for now. It is never too late to get disappointed, so why not try to stay excited for as long as we possibly can? I think the ability to get excited and curious about new things, like little kids do, is a true gift and the right way to go.