pea soup III

rehab is fast approaching... decided to do something about it today, went and got myself a stationary bike. certain someone helped to carry it and assemble it at my apartment. now, i only need to get rid of my super comfy armchair so that the bike would be the only place to sit on in my living room







lent is approaching as well, pea soup belongs to lent. have done it twice before, here and here. this time i got fresh reserves (just don't tell certain someone as i wasn't supposed to buy anything but use what we have...). pea soup is easy to make, just takes a bit of time.

started already yesterday by rinsing 500 gr dried peas, placing them in a pot with 1 liter of water to soak overnight







they did puff up quite a lot. today, to start with, took a bigger pot and poured the peas and water into it, added 1½ liter water, brought to a good boil, after 5 mins peeled the foam off...







...added 500 gr smoked shank and some smoke cured sausage (boar & roe deer)...







... turned down the heat to low and left the pot to simmer for an hour before adding a minced onion and a cubed carrot, left to simmer for another hour...







... after 2 hours turned the heat off, added crushed black pepper and marjoram. had to taste just a bit, eventough it's late... the best pea soup ever, it'll be even better tomorrow when heated







ps. the dog is a beast. we've known that all along but yesterday he did what beasts do... certain someone was way in the woods with the dog when the dog got away and dashed deeper into the woods. then there was a squeal and by the time certain someone got to where the sound was coming from, in hip-deep snow, the dog was doing what beasts do with their catch... the catch being a tiny roe-deer, it wasn't pretty i'm told. game warden was notified, he went to the crime scene later and took care of the carcass. not sure how i should feel about this...

down

down would be the word to descibe how i'm feeling at the moment. went to see the surgeon about my wrist on tuesday morning. she took a look at my x-rays, said "oh! no wonder you're hurting" and placed me on the list. i have to wait at least 6 more weeks before the operation. yep, i know that's nothing, some people are on the list for 6 months. bet those people aren't going to work on painkillers, still feeling the pain. pain that, how shall i put it, well, isn't making me any nicer as a person.

sorry, had to get that out of my system. could be that someone can't make their surgery and they call me next week on a day's notice... (not really that optimistic...)

anyways, my shift started at noon on tuesday and i had a couple of hours to kill after the doctor's. as a revenge i went to a cafe to have breakfast, croissant and a cappucino are quite ok, right? i think that for someone like me on a morning like that, also a macaroon was in order. might i add that it was the very first macaroon i've ever eaten







not sure if i liked it enough to try and bake some myself







today at the shack i did like i was told to do "dinner from our reserve supplies". dug out frozen broccoli, green beans, snap peas and shrimp, sliced a shallot and a carrot, grated some ginger, cooked some rice noodles and took out these







on a hot pan sauteed the onion, ginger and carrot first, then added the slightly thawed items, threw in some of each of the sauces, mixed well, added the rinsed noodles, mixed again and voila, dinner in 15 mins

pizza, vol II

i was so blown away by lahey's recipe that i needed to make sure saturday's pizza success wasn't just coincidental. i made some more on sunday... there was no flour left so certain someone made himself usefull and went to get some from our village shop. as a rule, i don't have anything against small businesses or village shops, but it amazes how this shops manages to stay in business as it's very expensive and staff is unfriendly.

anyways, my instructions were to get bread flour. certain someone calls form the shop and says they don't have any. he then listed what they had and i told him to get something that is called 3-grain flour (wheat, rye and oat). it was a bit coarser than i would have hoped but i used it anyway.

this time the dough looked more like a lahey dough, quite wet, and it was easy to mix with wooden spoon. before proofing here







after 2 hrs of proofing here. the dough looks quite wet but was actually very easy to handle with oiled hands







tomatoes, mozzarella, pepperoni and ham, pre-baking







all done







the crust was rather grainy, maybe even better than on the previous batch...







the dog has claimed this chair as his and usually sleeps on it. 3 years ago taking a pic of the dog was almost impossible as he would dive under any table or chair the second he spotted a camera. i got this close on saturday...







well, i guess he wasn't that much into posing for me...

lunches to go

as i have appointments before work on monday and tuesday, i wanted to make lunches and/or dinners today to take to work later in the week. i started by cooking some pasta, "some" is an understatement as i cooked the whole 500 gr package...

certain someone had bought some salmon, there were some mushrooms left... what was i going to do but the same old sauce... started by sauteeing onions and mushrooms until onions was wilted, then added 1 tbsp all purpose flour, kept mixing for a minute and then poured in 2 dl of the cooking water from pasta







cooked further for 5 more mins before adding the salmon, 1 dl of cream and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper, brought to a boil and it was done. got 4 lunches (2 for me, 2 for certain someone). forgot to take a picture of the sauce on pasta...







next dish was going to be a kinda side dish, i'm thinking of adding some feta cheese on mine and eat it like a salad, i'm sure certain someone will add some cottage cheese on his. started by thinly slicing some white cabbage (1 dl). as my wrist didn't enjoy that too much, i took out the mandolin (again) and shredded the carrot and parsnip with that. i should perhaps store it on the counter in order to remember to use it more often







cooked some barley to go with the veggies







while the barley was cooking, took out a frying pan, added 2 tbsp of vegetable oil on it and sauteed ½ dl onion slices (sliced a huge onion to use for everything) and the cabbage on high heat until wilted, then added carrots and parsnip, turned the heat on low and kept mixing for 5 mins. added the juice and grated peel of ½ lemon, generous amount of black pepper and the cooked barley. i might add some sesame oil to it before eating this







as there was plenty of cooked pasta, our lunch today was this: pasta with tuna and red pesto, fast and easy







this is what i got by playing with my camera on friday night as we were finishing off a bottle of asti tosti that we never got to drinking at new year's

laskiaispulla / lent pastry

although shrove tuesday isn't until feb 16th i baked a batch of laskiaispulla yesterday. i used the same recipe for pulla as on nov 21st entry. i used half of the dough to make cinnamon buns and the other half for these laskiaispulla.

divided the dough into 8 pieces and shaped them into balls trying to make them as around as possible. let them rise approx 30 mins before giving them an eggwash, placing some sliced almonds on top and baking them in 200C oven for approx 10 mins.







laskiaispullas are traditionally quite big. that is on purpose as shrove tuesday would have been the last day to eat any rich foods before fasting as part of lent







you thought that it's just a huge bun? no, first you cut the top part of...







... then you take out almond paste...







... place a slice on bun...







... or if almond paste isn't your thing (like it's not mine) you put some jam on the bun...







...and some whipped cream as well...







... place the top back on and there you have it, laskiaispulla ready to be enjoyed. however, have napkins ready as it can get a bit messy...







well, not as messy as the kitchen was yesterday. i have no idea how it got this bad, i always, always clean as i go, but not yesterday. washing dishes isn't one of my favourite things, therefore i usually wash any pot and pan that i'm done with in order not to have a pile like this