About
Hello and welcome The Girls’ Guide to Guns and Butter. My name is Sofya and I am a 32-year-old, stay-at-home mom of three, living my American Dream in the rolling hills of the rural Driftless Wisconsin.
A recent immigrant to this country, I was born in Azerbaijan, one of the southernmost republics of the Soviet Union, wedged between Russia and Iran on the Western coast of the Caspian Sea.
My first language is Russian, but when I was 17, I decided to teach myself English. Less than a year later, I won a full scholarship to the American University in Bulgaria, or AUBG – an American-style liberal arts college with English as the sole language of instruction.
While I found it really difficult to be going to school in English and to adapt to a completely foreign educational model, I graduated with an Outstanding Achievement Award in English, although I strongly suspect that this had more to do with the fact that English majors were few and far between than with any real achievement of mine. So that’s how my English got to be so good.
Halfway through college, purely by chance, I found myself spending two weeks at an extremely isolated rural resort in the Bulgarian Rila mountains with a few of my fellow students.
Having grown up in a multimillion, metropolitan Azerbaijani capital, I had never seen countryside or forest or anything of the kind prior to that experience. It was on that trip that I fell in love hard with the peace and the natural beauty of the country and knew that this was where I belonged.
A mere year later, I would meet a 21-year old Wisconsin farm boy who transferred to AUBG after two years at Deep Springs College – an isolated, academically elite, all-male school on a cattle ranch in California’s high desert. We ran into each other at the cafeteria where I would help him buy a ham sandwich in Bulgarian. Within the first five minutes of conversation, I told him I wanted to live in a small, rural town, and he told me he came from one. Within the next five, I imagined us married and living on a farm raising kids and animals.
Ten years later…
Our ten-acre ridgetop farm is located on the edge of Viroqua, Wisconsin, a home to organic agriculture, a bustling food cooperative, and thriving Waldorf schools among other things.
Farming is more of a hobby for us, but it allows us to grow a large proportion of our food, including all meat and eggs, not to mention the fact that the country is a wonderful place for our kids to grow up.
I started this blog almost two years ago to share recipes and adventures in my then newly-found interest, deer hunting. I then expanded to include posts on homesteading, butchering, photography, and parenting.
Need help getting started? Here’s a sample of what I’m all about:
My Family
My Life in the Country
Homemade Lotion Recipe
Classic Russian Borscht
How to Make Yogurt at Home
Easiest-Ever No-Knead Bread
Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chicken Butchering 101
The Value of Killing Your Own Meat
How to Make Lacto-Fermented Dill Pickles
I Love Photography
{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
Sofya and Rebecca,
You’ve produced a really terrific blog and we’re happy to promote it to our readers! The food looks so good and yes, we share a sort of culinary ethic. Please keep in touch.
Cheers,
Steve & Jason
I’m glad I came across you guys! And thanks!
I like your site; I’ll definitely come back. Would you be interested in a link exchange on the blogroll? My site is: natashaskitchen.com. Looks like we have some Russian recipes in common.
Thanks, Natasha, I like yours too! Let’s do the blogroll exchange – I think it’s good for people perusing the web in search of Russian dishes to see both at once. I’m gonna add yours right now.
So glad I found this blog! I’m a Wisconsinite now living in the UK with my husband and and son but we are hoping to soon make the move back and settle somewhere in the driftless area. So happy to see other young like-minded families who obviously have a love affair with the land and food
It’s a good place to be!
Sofya, so nice meetingi you! You have a great blog! Wonderful recipes. Some of them (dovga, xingal) are my all-time favorites. Keep up the great work~
Well Farida, I couldn’t begin to tell you how much I like YOUR blog. Saying that I really really like it would be an understatement. I was going over your paxlava recipe last night and gearing up to make it. I think I might modify the filling a bit. You see – I love cardamom, and I don’t know why, I really associate it with cardamom. I love paxlava.
Really, the world needs you! Finding Azeri recipes with American measurements and ingredients is practically impossible outside of you blog. I don’t think your book has been published yet (?) but I would really like a copy once it is. I really struggle here because I grew up being offered all of those wonderful traditional dishes outside of my home back in Azerbaijan, but actually made very few myself – my mom was a somewhat limited cook, and we were Jewish, so many of the nice dishes, especially for pastries, I never learned how to make.
Which brings me to the following question – I was also wondering if you have a recipe for kutabi dough, and a recipe for shor-gogal. I don’t believe either is on your blog… unless I didn’t look well.
I have throughly enjoyed reading your blog and drooling over your recipes. A meal at your house is truly a celebration of real food and good food. I will be checking back frequently to see what might be served up in our home next! May you, your family and gardens/animals be richly blessed with abundance!
Thank you, Jacquelyn, I am glad you like it!
Hello Sofya and Rebecca. Great food blog! Glad to see another blogger in the Driftless Area. I love this place
Driftless Appetite? I like that! I like your blog too! I’m going to check it out some more.
Thanks
Can I put you on my list of Wisconsin Food Blogs on our page?
That would be great! Thanks!
Hi, I live in the northern part of the driftless region and blog about dogs, science, gardening, cooking and backyard chickens. I just found your blog. I think it’s wonderful and plan to add it to my blogroll.
Just found your site thanks to A Little Bit of Spain. Odd how we foreigners end up in the Midwest. Looking forward to trying your yogurt! Also meanwhile checking your whole site. Thanks from yet another Sofia (different spelling) in WI!
Sofya, we’re new to the driftless region. Can you help me with a recommendation on where to buy trees (fruit and other) as well as fruit bushes? I’d like to get some things in this fall. We’re north of Westby. Thanks!
Hi Jenny, welcome to the Driftless! The place where I would head (and where I bought many wonderful trees and bushes in the past) is the Reed’s Creek Arboretum/Nursery. If you google it (the address is in Reedstown), their site I think will tell you where to go. I can’t remember right now if it’s before or past Reedstown, but basically you gonna wanna go East on 14 past Viroqua and towards Reedstown. Will take about 20 min for you.
Sofya,
Found your website through a link to your no-knead bread (which I’ve used twice now because it’s better than any other dutch oven recipes I’ve tried; also, my husband says it’s one of the best I’ve made). Thanks for sharing! Can’t wait to try your borscht.
Love your website, everything about it! I’m a big fan of guns and butter, too – grew up receiving bullets for Christmas and using ample amounts of butter.
Thanks Elizabeth, so nice of you to take a moment to say that.
Thank you for all the great information. I’m hoping I can pass some on to you. I was reading “Killing your food…” and read that you were having a hard time finding women hunters. You can get in contact with women hunters at Prois, a women’s hunting gear retailer. They have Facebook page where hunting women can connect. Hoping you can find others who share your passion.
Just joined your blog! I’m always excited to find fellow female hunters like myself! I love to deer hunt and and cook! Therefore I’m my husbands best buddy! Thanks for sharing your experiences with us! Look forward to reading more about you and what you do in the future!
Love the always interesting posts, and the delicious recipes. Thanks for sharing.
I did not intend this for posting but I enjoy your blog and just wanted to say congradulations on your most recent addition to your family and I hope you never change a thing on your blog!Just wonderfull!Best of luck to you and yours.Rob from Western NY>
Email me for a phone no on where to get Tee Shirts made, in Missouri. I am making a bigger garden just because of your site. Right Now I am gardening 12 months per year, with Winter Kale going great here in North Missouri, 12 months from now plan on a bigger garden. Love your new Avatar on fb !!! Can I use it for a while with credits to your site?
That’s awesome Paul, what a long gardening season!
Sofya! I love your blog! There are so very few blogs out there that incorporate Russian food and recipes with actual proper grammar! Shock!
Glad I stumbled upon you! Love the name of the blog and the recipes! I am a fan! I will definitely keep coming back!
Mila Sky recently posted..My Biggest Fan… Bakes!!!!
Mila, check out AZ Cookbook:
http://azcookbook.com
It’s like that but more and better.
Do you have email subscriptions available? I’m not seeing any buttons or forms to fill out to get updates..
No Penny, I don’t. I don’t like that option. You would need to come to the site to read or add it to your googlereader via http://girlsguidetobutter.com/feed. Thanks.
Hi Sofya-
I have had so much fun reading your blog and getting to know you and your life and delicious recipes! Can’t wait to read more!
xoxo Susie
Susie @ Foodie Fabuliusta recently posted..Friday FoodGawker Favorites
It makes me wonder that you have a sweet smile despite the cold weather pictures you got there. I find them adorable as mine
Julia Robyn recently posted..Rheumatoid arthritis – is Celebrex good for this?
Try 9 months pregnant, too. I love cold weather. And being 9 months pregnant for that matter.
Dear Sofya, I am glad you like Wisconsin, it is a wonderful state (that said by a native of nearby Iowa). My husband is a Georgian and his Kakhatian mother made fantastic borshch — but I think your version may be better. I am definitely going to try it, esp. roasting the beets. Can you let me know you advice for freezing borshch? I have a huge pot left from a student reception and fear we won’t finish it in the next 4-5 days. Thanks!
It does freeze well – just divide it between your desired tupperware containers, leaving about 1/4 unfilled for expansion, and stick it in your freezer (deep freeze is best). It will keep for a few months. Then just thaw and reheat.
So happy to have found this site! I have lived in Wisconsin my whole life, and I’m pretty sure no other region of the world could satisfy my dairy addiction. Thanks for sharing your wonderful recipes – I’ll be stopping by regularly!
Thanks, Wendy – I love Wisconsin.
I have been making maple Syrup the past couple years but surf the web for pointers. That is when I found you’re web site. I enjoyed reading some of you’re articles and pointers. I also am into being self reliant and have a mini farm as a hobbie in Ohio. I have been doing bee keeping for over 3 years and have grown very addicted to the hobbie. My garden gets out of control with the help of the bees and i enjoy trying to keep up with the canning.
Welcome to America
Shawn Henry
I loved reading about your “story”- very entertaining and interesting to hear how you came to live in the U.S. I’m getting ready to make your Russian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls for cooking club this week. As always, I love your recipes and don’t know where you find the time to do all that you do. Thanks
Sarah @ Homestyle Cooking Around The World recently posted..Blueberry Scones… a tea party… and reminiscing about Victoria magazine
Hi Sarah… my secret is simple… I barely manage to get things done and always feel behind!