I previously told you about my email fumble with my partition mate way back when I was working at an ad agency. Well all sorts of funny things can happen or be heard over a partition at work. At another agency I had a buyer that worked for me. He was alright, he didn’t particularly excel but he didn’t get involved in office politics (a plus for me as I had the boss from hell). He was a blokey sort of bloke who loved soccer and used to have half naked girls on his computer screen all the time (a sexual harassment suit waiting to happen really). His negotiation tactic as a buyer was to use the good old “mate” or “guv” strategy when negotiating buys (guv being that he was English). I heard him speaking to a sales rep one afternoon. They were discussing the terms of an agreement and he was saying goodbye on the phone.
“OK I love you” he said to her and put down the phone.
The hairs on the back of my neck raised up. I knew who he was talking to and I was shocked to hear it. But not as shocked as he was.
“Ohhhh myyyy godddd” I heard him moan. I meerkatted at the top of the partition and looked down at him. His head was in his hands and he was rocking back and forth on his swivel chair.
“Did you mean to say that?” I asked him.
“Noooo. Definitely not! She sounded like my mum and….”
“Ok now that sounds creepy.” I said and burrowed straight into my seat again telling him “I hope you got us some good rates after that!”
Well it turns out his little inadvertent slip of the tongue got him some really good rates which came through shortly later. It also got him an invitation as her plus one to a few events including a rather special Sydney Olympics one that I should have been invited to. And I think he was reluctant to say as she was older than him but it may have been a cougar cub romance!
Buckwheat flour
These blinis are in place of saying I Love You. Should you want to curry favour with your father or partner this weekend serving a breakfast like this can’t help but make the day start wonderfully. Blinis are different creatures to pikelets or pancakes. They are made using a small amount of buckwheat flour which is a fine, gluten free flour that has an earthy almost mushroomy aroma to it. There is also yeast and sour cream added to blinis which gives these a nice light texture and an distinct taste.
Sweet blinis with jam and cream
They’re small and great cocktail party food and a variation of these was topping them with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for a breakfast blini. Like pancake mixes, these are best when left to stand for 30 minutes or so making the batter a day ahead or the night before is no problem. They can also be served with sour cream and jam for a sweet topping.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you find it hard to say I Love You to people? And how do you show people that you care about them? I cook for them! 
Breakfast Blinis
Adapted from Donna Hay’s A Cook’s Guide
Makes approximately 20-25 blinis depending on size
- 2/3 cup (100g) plain all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup (35g) buckwheat flour
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup (125ml) milk
- 1/3 cup (80g) sour cream
- 1 egg separated
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- oil for frying
For scrambled egg and smoked salmon or ham version:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup milk
- salt and pepper
- 200g smoked salmon or ham
- fresh chives to garnish
For sour cream and smoked salmon version
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 200g smoked salmon
- fresh dill
Buyer’s tip: You can find buckwheat flour in the health food section of most supermarkets or in health food stores
1. Place the milk and sour cream in a small saucepan over low heat cook, stirring with a whisk until lukewarm and the mixture is smooth. Add the egg yolk and whisk to combine. Meanwhile place the flours and yeast in a bowl and stir to combine. Gradually add the milk mixture to the flour mixture whisking until smooth.
2. Cover with a clean, damp cloth and set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface and the mixture is foamy and thick.
From this
To this!
3. Whisk the egg white until soft peaks form and add this to the mixture and stir well to combine.
4. Heat a medium or large saucepan on medium heat and add some oil. Using a teaspoon drop a heaped teaspoonful of mixture onto the pan-it is thicker than a pancake mixture so it can be dolloped. Cook for 1-2 minutes until bubbles appear on the surface and then gently turn over and cook until golden.
5. To serve with scrambled eggs, heat butter in a saucepan (I used the same saucepan that I cooked the blinis in). Whisk eggs, milk and salt together until beaten. Cook eggs slowly, moving them around gently and as little as possible. Break up the egg so that it can sit on top of a blini and top it with a triangle of smoked salmon and chives and a grind of black pepper.
6. To serve with sour cream and smoked salmon, spoon a little sour cream onto a blini and then top with a triangle of smoked salmon and a sprig or two of fresh dill.
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60 Comments | Add your own
Wow that looks yum! I always bake for people to show just how special i think they are
I’d love to eat that every morning! Buckwheat flour is so versatile and adds a lovely flavor to all your baked treats…
Cheers,
Rosa
Yes I bake with love as well. Decorated cakes for the little ones and it you get experimental baking from me usually it means your super special. That is a super funny story by the way.
mmm, you know i am a big fan of blinis. i miss participating in helsinki’s annual “blini week”, which, if i recall, is often sometime in january. puts me right in a coma every time!
The bilinis look so light and delicious!
Smoked salmon is my favourite breaky food.
I have done a similiar “I love you ” mistake. BLAH!
So embarrassing!
I definitely love to cook for people to show them I care!!!!
i say i love you to my mom all the time!
blinis look delish..i cook to express my love but i also say it..life’s too short not to..
I heard my husband sign off a call to his mum with ‘babe’ once… ONCE
I always wanted to make blinis, never had a recipe that works as I desire…I have to try yours but not with buckwheat as it is not available here.
And like you, I cook for my lovers…
Haha I’ve accidentally said ‘I love you’ to the wrong person as well
Your blinis look wonderful! It’s a tempting recipe for Paul’s birthday this weekend, but he can’t get over the eggy crumpets, bacon & maple!
I had these at a friend’s Russian themed party just last weekend! They were fantastic!
Although as an actual russian (and the only ‘authentic’ russian at that party
), it is strange to me to see these little plump blini.
Blini originated in the Slavic culture, and are a stample of Russian cuisine. In russia, blini look more like crepes – large and very thin, and are made with regular flour (though sometimes buckwheat flour can be used), milk (or buttermilk), egg, sugar, salt… few other things.
I guess the little versions are the westernised hors d’oeuvres, which indeed are great for parties.
Excuse the geeky outburst, I just love knowing the history of food and how it evolves & adapts
I must tell you, Leanne, that the REAL RUSSIAN BLINI (no ‘s’ is needed as the word BLINI is already a plural, and singular is BLIN), are nothing like what you are told here in Australia. The true recipe calls for large thin shape, very much like a French crepe, only with yeast. The Russians traditionally make blini at Maslennitza time, to celebrate specific religious and calendar events. We cook blini with BUTTER, not oil, as the name Maslennitza comes from MASLO – butter.
The thick little creations you talk about here are called OLAD’YI in Russia, they can be made with different flours too, they usually contain some sugar and are served as a sweet treat, with jams, whereas BLINI are usually a savoury affair, and are served flat out or rolled like a cigar or folded like a parcel, with various fillers, such as minced meat, caviar, potato mash with fried golden onion, mushrooms, and even cabbage if one was poor.
So, here is your lowdown on the BLINI and the OLAD’YI.
Good luck!
These blinis look great. I cook for people too – well bake more than cook
Well thank you Lorraine, I have found the perfect fathers day breakfast now thanks to you, these look delicious and my dad is going to love these!
As for the I love you thing, it’s something I have never had a problem with and thankfully most of the people around me dont either, though once I thought it was my gentleman friend calling me as he often say’s “hey you” when I answer, I heard this and said “oh baby I love you” and it wasn’t my gentleman friend, it was some bloody recruiter calling me trying to get me to take his bloody candidates!
—Dear, Brilliant Lorraine,
That story about Mr. Bloke was superb. Just what Ms. Cougar needed. Fantastic!
–This breakfast most certainly says “I Love You!” Anything with Salmon does.
How do I say I love you? With chocolate. With pasta. With brownies. Or….I just exclaim…I LOVE YOU!! btw, I looooooooooooooooooooooove your blog. U already know that. Right?
Bahahaha a friend of mine did that once to me. I was on the phone with him and just out of habit to his gf, before he hung up with me he said “I love you” I wet my pants and hung up haha
LOVE Blini’s, TRUE!
Where the Russian vodka and caviar too?
Life’s too short not to say I LOVE you! Remind people who mean the most to me EVERY time and EVERY day!
As no one never knows when it is the last time we will ever say
If blinis are love, I sure hope someone showers me with a ton of them soon. More comforting than a hug, me thinks.
These look great. Big fan of buckwheat. Love the lightness of these blinis.
It’s easy for me to say I love you to my husband. I try to say it as often as possible. On the other hand I find it so hard to say to anyone else, whether it be family or close friends. I prefer to cook for them to show that I care rather than saying “I love you”.
What a hilarious story! I love that you tell all of us funny stories in your posts
Those blinis certainly do look fantastic, I might have to try out those jam ones tomorrow morning!
thats so cute… aww… like little pikelets only savoury.
ive never had buckwheat before.. *facepalm*
Funny story.
These little blinis look like a lovely way to say “I love you!”
This is bizarre..I just finished making blinis to go with salmon and dill this morning! I agree, food always says I love you and so does the response people give when they eat your food.
I tell my kids I love them all the time. But my parents were never really ones to say at, so I’m uncomfortable saying it to anyone else. Funny story!
Well, if you have seen a’thing on my fb this am – you know why I am ‘late’ and able to read all these marvellous posts! To me there are no blini w’out caviar/smoked salmon and sour cream and vodka [jeepers, I was but 4-5 when I had them THAT way]! I am used to see them look the way you portray! When I knew Mom and Dad had a reception with blini I’d completely ‘lose my head’ and manage to go to all my ‘aunties’ and ‘uncles’ cadging rather successfully!! I find it very easy to say ‘I love you’ [how many times have you been called darlingHeart by me?], but mean it in a multitude of ways and hope the person ‘receiving’ gets the ‘right message’!! Oh, boy, you can get into trouble on facebook
!
I cook for the people I love as well–a family tradition.
The blinis look great–I love buckwheat (just ate some while in the States), but am still unable to find it here in Mexico where I live. To bad, because this recipe looks GREAT!
I love that story! I am also salivating at these blinis.
You know, I sort of do find it hard to say I love you. With my kids it’s easy, but I don’t think I’ve said it to my mum or dad since I was a child. It’s weird isn’t it, since I do really love them. It shouldn’t be so hard.
They look scrumptious!
I cook to tell people I love them. Or send them special little gifts that I’ve made or bought particularly with them in mind.
Yummy breakfast indeed! Especially with that smoked salmon too- but even better if there was some caviar on top!
I have no trouble saying I Love You, but when I was 15 I would say it to my big 21yr old sister every day and she would NEVER say it back. She later told me as she found it difficult to say she didn’t think I was sincere or I wouldn’t say it so often! I also love to show love through cooking, and make special treats for my sweeties too
I bet that guy made record figures that quarter, but sorry you missed out on the special party- maybe if you’d made her som blinis you could have gone instead?
Ha ha ha! “She sounded like me mum…” famous last words!
Food is a great way to say I love you. I like your sweet and savoury toppings – nothing like a two course breakfast.
Just back for a minute to print out a letter: came to see what everyone had written about my favourite pancake? Kind’of realized I just may have left a peculiar impression earlier
! I did just cadge for the blini [and I loved caviar and still do!] – vodka definitely was not on the list: oh, had had a little try once and thought adults were idiots for drinking that awful stuff! 
!
Ahahahahaha.. oh my… that was a cringe delightful story!! And I’ve never had binis.. so this is something that looks amazingly difficult
Oooooooh NICE!! Love how CUTE these are. Love both the savoury and sweet versions. LOL on your story! I cook to say I love you! Seriously words don’t slip off my tongue easily!
Blinis look really good Lorraine. In the absence of bacon, eggs, sausages or nasi lemak, this would be my choice
Tee hee, I hate work phone slip-ups… but I like blinis!
As long as the half-naked girls on his computer screen weren’t stalker shots of co-workers…
I’m a bit of an “I love you” floozy when it comes to my family and friends, but I think I’d be very nervous when it came to telling a romantic partner that. Hmm, I wonder what that means?
I love cooking for, and to be honest, with the ones I love. Nothing beats a romantic dinner for two, cooked by the two or making and passing down family recipes to your child. Cooking is an act of love
i often wondered what made a ‘blini’, thanks for that!
my hubby will want bacon and eggs, think he would be slightly amused if i made this
Ha! I’ve done the same thing!
Ooo this looks like such a perfect breakfast OR appetizer — yum!
Lorraine, you and I are sisters.Cooking is my love language.I have three friends who used to say I love all day long on the phone to their husbands. They are now divorced. I just tell mine what we’re eating. He’ll know if it’s a good day or bad day.
Yum! Great blinis and great story…funny I’ve had three conversations this week (before seeing your blog)about blinis…must be blini season!
I frequently tell my family and friends I love them… occasionally colleagues too but that’s a little weird,I know
Food cooked from the heart is definitely my “love language” and my family all show their love in this way too. I cherish many happy memories of wonderful meals shared with the ones I love…and if someone is having a hard time my first thought is “what can i cook for them?”
Mmm yum! Have my recent posts of Russian food inspired this too?
I used to find it hard to say I love you, but not anymore
. Its so important to say it though. People need to know they are appreciated.
Scrumptious breakfast, I so want to come over and eat some blinis!
*kisses* HH
OMG!!!!! No wayyyyy? That’s so weird. I can’t believe. You must of seriously found that so funny. Turns out most will take the love and run with it, no matter where it came from. Nice work gov. I’m impressed.
Me, I’m good with the saying I love you, and I show my people the same way as you. The rounder their tummies, the more I love them. 
))
love how dainty and cute these are. they look like the perfect mouthful! i also love how you can make them savoury or sweet .. great for party nibblies!
What a great story. To be honest, I don’t think we say “I love you enough” although, saying it to a business associate could be a bit weird! I love the blinis you made; they look very tasty.
Oh the embarrassment of the faux pas, you’d have to go far to beat your buyers slip. Great story. The blinis look great too. I’ve never made them but they look so much better than the cardboard blini we buy in the supermarkets here. GG
Yum! They look lovely. I love this type of breakfast.
I don’t have any problems telling people I love them, if I do that is.
talk about a slip of the tongue! i’m glad it worked out for mr nqn–these days, he’s lucky he didn’t get sued for sexual harrassment!
Oh they look beyond delicious with the scrambled eggs & smoked salmon!
I have loved blinis ever since I first had them in Russia in 1993.
How lovely to now have your good recipe for them. 
Oh my, came to work hungry … the salmon and ham look wonderful …. thank you for your yummy posts!
I’m definitely one who cooks to show my love. I’m not averse to accepting love through food either.
My one issue with blinis is that I can never get the full-sized ones right. But perhaps I’ll have better luck with these miniatures.
Oh that is a reason not to tell your mum that you love her! Funny, the things you overhear in offices. I use food to say I love you and these pancakes would do nicely.
Too too funny, my hubby just said “I love you babe” to his Mum on the phone a couple of days ago….he had just spoken with me on the phone previously and was obviously still filled with loving thoughts! lol He was MORTIFIED! I think it’s hilarious!
Btw: These blini’s look divine!!
That is a hilarious story, how embarassing! These blinis certainly spread the love!
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