Once
a month my friends gather for a very nice event, sort of healthy cleaning
ritual with plenty of fun and tasty dinner. There is a sauna in my garden. It
is a small house with two rooms or cameras and a swimming pool. The walls from
within are covered with larch boards.
The first room is for rest after steaming
procedures and a place where
oak brooms
and smelling wild herbs are kept.
I
pick these herbs in the mountains,
where they grow in abundance
This doll is a symbol of sauna Good Spirit
The steam camera
On
the upper shelf there are several pieces of juniper trunk from Elbrus area,
herbs and oak brooms
The
deference between Finnish sauna and Russian ‘bagna’ is that we pour water or
some aromatic tasty liquid on the heated
stones.
The scent is incredible…
Heat
and steam (+80 - 120°C ) emit sweet-scented natural resin from the boards of larch. And if
you add beer to water before pouring it onto heated stones, you get the steam
with the aroma of fresh baked bread!
You
stretch out on the shelf, surrounded by herbs.
The
hotness of stem disappears quickly, pores of the skin open…
And
then somebody from the band starts ‘beating’ and caressing you body with one or
two oak brooms, knocking-in the healing steam into your skin…
After
this procedure you jump into the swimming pool with cold water (icy in spring
and autumn). The circle – heat, steam with booms –cold water is repeated as many
times, as you wish.
Russian bagna tradition
Of
course, in-between these extremes, there is a luxurious dinner.
Shashlyk (roast) is obligatory
This is my garden stove
Festive dinner in preparation
In
the warm weather we usually have dinner in my garden with juicy red apples
everywhere.
Last
Sunday (yesterday) I made baked fish
with mayonnaise and lemon.
Anyone
can do it!
You
pour oil into the baking pan, covering the bottom and put there fish cut to
pieces, salt each of them.
Then you put a slice of lemon onto each piece of
fish
You
can also add some spices and onions, the way everybody enjoys!
Put mustard and some salt in mayonnaise and mix
Mustard
adds unforgettable taste to the whole dish. I make very strong mustard myself. Later
I’ll show you how to prepare it at home.
Cover each piece with this mixture
And
put the baking pan into the oven for 25-35 min.
Your
fish is ready
Your friends are happy! You become happy, because people you love
and value are in high spirits, clean and satisfied…
Life
is great!
Natalia
Levis-Fox,
No comments:
Post a Comment