fresh

anna olson's fresh finally arrived today! i ordered it already in june, well in advance of it's september publishing date. usually amazon ships promptly after the publishing date, no idea what happened here, but i'm glad i finally got it. (M, you will get yours soon!)

quickly browsed the book thru, like i imagined, the recipes are from anna's tv-show fresh (that is now going on as re-runs, or should i say re-run's re-run's re-run...) not complaining, i like the show and it is kinda hard trying to write down the recipes from tv. there are definitely some that i need to try: spiced chocolate tart pear tart (mom saw this on tv and expressed her interest in trying one), plum clafoutis and club sandwich roll just to name a few.

i was almost tempted to pledge doing what julie powell did to "mastering the art of french cooking" (movie julia/julie) but as fresh is all about using produce that is in season, so thought i will pass. on the other hand, if i start now, i could do the book starting from winter, hmm...







for the last week my cooking has been close to zero, unless you count brewing a pot or two of coffee cooking... i was ailing at home, certain someone picked me up from my apt and we went grocery shopping before coming to the shack. since the forecast says it's going to be raining tomorrow as well, certain someone won't be doing anything outdoors, therefore i'll have an assistant in the kitchen (he just doesn't know it yet...)


somehow the amount of my cookbooks came up today (he noticed fresh...), certain someone seems to think i have quite enough and that instead of getting new ones, i should use the old ones. yes, yes, yes, but i do go back to old ones every once in a while. like today, i wanted finally get the meat parts translated properly from english to finnish, no easy task since the carcasses are cut differently. i pulled three books, one in finnish and two in english (one of which was martha's cooking school).

the finnish book was valitut palat's (=reader's digest) ruokavuosi (based on reader's digest the cookery year) from 1975, that's 30 odd yrs old folks! mine is from that year, there is at least one revised version from mid 1990's. what surprised me is how relevant the book still is today







i got mine from mom eons ago (or did i borrow it and forgot to return?), and it's been well used over the year. not so much for the recipes but for cooking techniques and general information on how to handle, store and prepare different foods. there is even a chapter on what should be considered when designing a kitchen. as you can see, my issue is well read







this afternoon, while enjoying my cup of coffee, i had a faint feeling that some pastry would be nice, even checked the freezer for some pulla, none there. 10 mins later certain someone asked if there is any pulla, not knowing what i had thought only minutes ago. so, i got an idea and casually mentioned that WE could bake some pulla tomorrow... he didn't outright throw out the idea, so i continued and said that he would have to help me in making and handling the dough... still nothing... is saying nothing same as saying yes? in this case, i think so! i would love to bake pulla (or anything!) but my wrist isn't well (still) enough for baking solo. well, we'll see what (if anything) happens tomorrow...

noticed the other day that i have new readers, dobrodosli!