last of summer leave

the last week of summer leave was warm, had it not been for the almost constant wind by the lake at cottage, it would have been down right hot. the lake, however, was way too cold for me to swim in. that makes me wonder what has happened, since as a kid i never got to swim quite long and often enough. it's not that i still don't enjoy, even love, swimming, but i hate the feeling when you first get into water that's not quite warm enough (that would be over 24C...). i should mention that i didn't get to travel on this leave either, so certain someone has better come up with something sooner than later. i'd pack in a minute and just go, but that's just me



on the contrary to what is said about the amount of blueberries there will be this year (we hear not a lot) my mom is picking manically and says that there is no way she'll be able to pick all of them in the forest around the cottage. mom, you're not supposed to! not that i don't love the fact the she does the picking for me (thank you mom!) but the freezers will be bulging and where will you put all the moose meat? but back to blueberries. i mentioned talkkuna and blueberry mush on my june 11 entry. here is how you go about making blueberry mush, a bowl, some talkkuna, sugar and fresh blueberries and then you just mash







and you get this wonderful mush that is just oh-so-good with cold milk!







empty the freezer continues (how convient for the blueberries!) took out some lorchels / morels (one of these days i need to get the name right), first sauteed some leeks, then added the mushrooms







made a savory pie crust from modern baker. i did replace 1/3 of the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour to add some bite, and it did give a nice nutty flavor as well. sour cream & 2 eggs mixed went on top before baking, plus the usual salt and pepper







you might remember (or perhaps not) not so long a go when a pie took a detour due to the fact that the oven wasn't wide enough, or maybe the pie pan was too wide. that's why this pan is rectangular, it is a perfect fit to the oven at cottage. sadly, i only got a hot bakers sample of this one, i left for home that afternoon







i did stop at my brother's on the way and got to taste this "taco cake" / sandwich cake, which was layered like a regular cake but with bread, chicken, salsa and quacamole, frosted with cream cheese, topped with tomatoes, lettuce and spring onions and garnished with crushed nachos. it tasted like a soft taco, quite yammy!







on my first day back at the shack we took a trip and went all the way to downtown helsinki and the market square. we bought new potatoes from the weather beaten old man on the boat on the right







as rule, every summer there is hype about new potatoes. these potatoes were something else, i could go on for quite a while, but i'll just say that they were the best i remember i've ever eaten in my life, ever. as much as we ate, we couldn't finish all of them, but they were still delicious next day when i fried them







we got also some smoked herrings







and smoked eel...of which i had only the tiniest bite. certain someone insisted that i take a pic of his "mexican" drink as well (beer with lime), he ate all of the eel but it looked like with some effort







another day, another dish. here are the ingredients for a black trumpet risotto







another empty the freezer meat dish, deer filee browned on all sides, sliced, salt and pepper, anything else and it'd be spoiled