anniversaries & pancakes

missed my blog's 1 yr anniversary, it was on oct 27th. kinda remembered it, but was busy with little niece, and it was raining. guess i could come up with more excuses, but plain forgot the day... so there you have it.

also, approximately year ago certain someone flew to a faraway country in the east, not china, but almost. don't think i ever showed you what i got as souvenir. these, hmm, slippers, i think







they are very warm as they're made of wool. it took me a while to figure out how to walk in these (best way is not to lift your feet too much) but i almost fell only a few times







did i fool you into thinking that my floors are clean? good, that is what you should be thinking. and if you're ever thinking of coming over, give me a warning and i actually make them that way!

came to the shack after work today. certain someone has been busy with clearing the mess the trees made a week ago. right after i got here he asked, in his roundabout way, if i brought any eggs. (as it happens, i did) he then asks if i had plans to make some pannukakku (for those of you not in the know, pannukakku is a big pancake baked in oven, will show sometime). well, i didn't, but ended up making some actual pancakes.

really need to get to the bottom of this pancake business one of these days, the english terms of pancakes are a bit confusing to us finns. hmm, i seem to remember that martha had an acticle on the subject some years ago... oh, yes, she did. but who uses cardamom in pancakes? pulla yes, but pancakes?!

used this silver dollar pancanke pan (why such a name?), that's how lettupannu is called in english. this particular cast-iron pan was certain someone's mom's back in the day







batter is easy to make. you'll need 2 eggs, 2 cups (5 dl) milk, 1 cup (2,5 dl) all-purpose flour, ½ tsp of salt, 2 tbsp of sugar nnd 2 tbsp of melted butter. first mix the eggs, add half the milk, then the flour, mix well and add rest of the milk, mix in salt, sugar and melted butter. let stand for up to an hour, heat the pan on medium and once the pan gets hot, butter each hole and start frying.

like mine a bit on the blond side, dad wants his made with sparkly mineral water so that the pancakes come out crispy, and his need to be really dark brown







someone (obviously me) has forgotten to make strawberry preserve, which i think is a must with pancakes, as is a glass of very cold milk. had mom's raspberry preserve, it was quite nice as well







certain someone had his birthday last week. it's always hard to figure out what to get him, but thought of seepia and that her jewellery might be nice. she was kind enough to make a bracelet for him, he thought that i bought it in nyc! he's also very happy that his idol billy gibbons of zz top has a similar bracelet. there are much nicer pictures of the bracelet on her website