On Saturday, we hosted the family’s 4th pre game meal in the Rugby World Cup series. You might recall that we previously hosted a long Italian lunch (cannelloni and caprese salad) when Australia played Italy, my mother in law made Irish Stew when Australia played Ireland, and my sister in law hosted us for homemade burgers and apple crisp when Australia played the USA). As the Wallabies were scheduled to take on Russia (and won yay!), our theme for the pre-game lunch was therefore, obviously, Russian.      I really loved reading all your wonderful suggestions for Russian dishes and food that we could cook. I was really keen to try the Lorraine’s Russian doll cupcakes (as suggested by the Intolerant Chef) , but sadly time did not permit. So in the end, given we were a little short on food preparation time, we decided on the following… Buckwheat blini to start… Topped with prosciutto, basil pesto and chives (recipe to follow). Then it was a battle of the stroagnoff’s for main course! In the blue corner….. Mr BBB’s beef stroganoff (prepared with the trusty guidance of Maggie Fulton). And in red corner… Tofu stroganoff – my attempt at a vegetarian take on the old classic! We served both dishes with a side of brown rice…. Topped with some fresh parsley.   And we had ourselves a hearty, belly warming lunch. Perfect given how cold it was outside! We did, of course, also save room for dessert… White Russian cheesecake slice!    Ok. So this was not strictly Russian – but let’s call it a tribute to one of my favourite cocktails 😉 Recipe to follow. But now, its time for me to enjoy the last day of this long weekend.  We have friends coming over for lunch, so I better get grocery shopping. And cooking! What about you? Do you have a favourite Russian dish?