ice, little signs of spring, maybe

on wednesday, there was a biting wind at the cottage by the lake. the sun made everything pretty, though.







so fragile







and sparkly







this tiny lingonberry is making its way thru the snow already







strong spring sun melts parts of the road to cottage early on, some shady parts remain frozen until late may...







once back at the shack, the dog stole my socks and the mouse punished him immediately!







this morning we woke up to this...maybe spring isn't here just yet

jumbo size laskiaispulla

for some reason i made the first batch of laskiaispulla already a month ago, maybe because lent was in the mid february last year, or something.

i wanted to experiment a little and made a normal pulla dough but baked it into 3 jumbo buns.







first divided the dough into three pieces and formed them into huge balls which i places in paper baking tins (more or less to secure them from spreading allover in the oven). here, all three after the second rise getting an eggwash.







sprinkled some slivered almonds on top before...







...placing them into 190C oven for 15 mins.







once cooled, i cut top third off with serrated knfie...







...and took out the strawberry jam and marzipan.







i decided to grate the marzipan in order to be able to spread it more evenly on the bun.







as this was to be his and hers, the other half got jam.







generous amount of whipped cream before placing the "lid" on.







i would like to be able to tell that this served 8, the truth is closer to 3...

lent menu, pea soup & lent buns / pastry (hernekeitto & laskiaispulla)

today is ash wednesday, the beginning of lent. everyone, i assume, might have a few things to repent, observing lent isn't neverthelss my way to do it. after the long, dark, cold, dreary (did i forget something?) winter the renewal comes naturally with spring.

however, i did make the traditional pre-lent dishes, laskiaispulla (lent pastry) and hernekeitto (pea soup). my laskiaispulla is filled with strawberry jam and whipped cream...







i made pulla dough with 2,5 dl milk, full recipe here. let the dough rise till it doubles, then roll it into a log, divide into 8 pieces, roll them into balls between the palm of your hand and the work surface, place on a baking sheet and let rise for 20 mins...







...normally i'd make about 15 smaller buns of the same amount of dough but as it's lent... traditionally you're supposed to eat big and fat (so that you pigs will grow to be huge and your grains plentyfull in the coming summer)







before placing into 200C oven for 10 mins, i eggwashed the buns







certain someone likes to have his with marzipan (almond paste), on the right







the pea soup then...another very old tradition.







i've made it several times before so this time i wanted to try little something different. there is a recipe on the side of the package of peas, to that i added 0,4 liter water, 2 carrots, 100 gr celeriac and fresh marjoram







i cubed the carrots, celeriac and the smoked ham. i added these only after the peas and onions had been simmering for 2 hrs.







i had some smoked ham rind in the freezer, the rind was simmering in the pot from the start. the ham appreared on this post. the ham rind in totally optional but gives a lot of taste. this could well be a veggie dish as well, just leave out the smoked ham and replace it with smoked tofu (if there is such a thing!)







the soup was garnish with fresh marjoram and served with rye bread.

little bling & other things

these past few weeks haven't done anything good to my aging body (feel free to laugh), aches here and there. that aside, this little bling is so pretty it makes me happy. seepia from work makes and sells them. this bracelet is from (the aptly named) aim so häpi! series (that would be "i'm so happy" for those of you who don't "read finnish"...







i'm not the only one getting old. this beast has mellowed so much that i'm starting to think someone has changed him for another dog. he has taken to sleeping under the table and resting his head on the trestle of the table.







the dog has grown very hairy paws this winter...







i might have mentioned that the magazines i subscribe have recently had many interesting recipes...now, if only there was time to try them all!







certain someone has, on more than one occasion, reminded me of the number of cookbooks i already own. however, amazon was kind enough to ship these to me. i will be trying macarons in the near future. tried them last may, but wasn't quite happy with the results.







confession time...i'm, gasp, a maplesyrupholic! the other day i was taking out recycleables and found not one but 4 empty bottles of maple syrup and got a little scare, do i actually eat it this much? that needs to change, i have to start eating natural yogurt with berries for breakfast more often, sans maple syrup!






last week i finally got rid of my comfy armchair, it went to a good home. there is the floor to sit on, or this to peddle... from now on, i really shouldn't have any more excuses not to exercise even in foul weather...