Ya Tibya Lublu (I love you)

My love for food and a little girl named Nadyia motivated me to do something. And something became a cookbook to raise money to improve living conditions and educational opportunities for orphans living in state-run institutions in Russia.

I met Nadyia when Mike and I traveled to Russia to adopt our twins in 2003. She was so much like the daughter we came to adopt: both were born in a Soviet-era hospital in Arkhangel'sk, Russia in 2001, both abandoned by their mothers and living in the city orphanage in 2003.

But their futures will likely be dramatically different. Elena and her twin brother Nicholas are now part of our family in the United States. They ave a baby brother and grandparents and aunts and uncles and friends. They go to school, have birthday parties, take family vacations. In fact, sometimes at the kid's most happy moments, I can't stop myself from crying at the thought of what their life could have been like if we hadn't come along.

After all, they are the lucky ones. Only a small fraction of the 750,000 orphans will be adopted. Most of these children -- kids like Nadyia -- will live in a state-run institution only to be released on their own by the time they turn 18. Once out, the odds are not good: 40 percent will become addicted to drugs or alcohol, 10 percent will kill themselves. The average life expectancy for a child who grows up in an orphanage in Russia is just 30 years.

I compiled and edited "Ya Tibya Lublu: Recipes of Love for Orphans of Eastern Europe" for Nadyia and the other like her. It's available on my web site at www.arkangels.org for $17 (plus $3 shipping and handling). The recipes come from adoptive parents of children from more than 30 regions in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan (as well as a few celebrities -- more on that another day).

Of the 400 recipes in "Ya Tibya Lublu," about half are Eastern European specialities, and the rest are everyday family favorites. Some samples:


Eastern European Side Dish: Baked cabbage
1 head cabbage (green or white)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons water
3 to 4 Tablespoons vegetable or chicken stock
4 firm, ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp. chili powder
1 Tablespoon parsley or fennel, chopped (optional)
Salt to taste
Put everything in a large pot and cook, covered, until all ingredients are soft.
Recipe note: This recipe comes from a mom of 16 --bio and adopted from Mexico, Russia and Ukraine. She said they ate this recipe everywhere in Russian and Ukraine during their many adoption trips.

Family Favorites Main Dishes: Christina's tuna rice
4 Tablespoons butter, plus more for finished casserole
1 onion
3 Tablespoons flour
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste
1 tsp. mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 1/2 cups cooked rice
2 cups milk
1/2 lb. sharp cheese, shredded (any cheese will do)
1 can tuna
bread crumbs
Preheat oven to 400 f. Melt butter in a saucepan and saute onion until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. Add flour, salt, pepper, mustard and Worcestershire and stir to combine. Add milk and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Add half of the cheese and the tuna. Put half of the rice in the bottom of an oven-safe casserole dish. Cover with half o the remaining cheese and half of the tuna mixture. Repeat the layers and sprinkle top with crumbs. Dot with butter and bake for 20 minutes.
Recipe note: Contributed by a mom who adopted her now 10-year-old from Khabarovsk in 1998. She said her daughter was 2 1/2 when she was adopted and could be a picky eater, but this one has always been a favorite.