spring outings

we have had a few wonderful sunny spring days, and some of them have fallen on my days off. the dog needs his walks, so on a sunny day both of us enjoy them...

those huge white marshmallow-type formations are feed for cattle. the farmers keep them by the hay fields by the time they need. as you can see, there are tractor tracks leading to those piles...we love the tracks. i for the fact that on them you can walk and not sink knee/hip deep in the snow like you would on the so called path on the left...

...the dog loves the tracks for crawling sideways...







well, he likes to crawl anyplace, really.

now that they have repaired the bridge over a dam near the strawberry farm, i dare to go and take pics of the rolling waters. there's plenty, but it's under all the snow and ice...

yes, we will move on...

...just one more picture...

...and a nice pose from you, thank you very much.

the ditches, or would this be a stream, are filling up.

the snow is melting rapidly and making slushy puddles all over, even the driveway at the shack. and yes, you need to get your paws in there.

while some have to get into the car and drive to work, other creatures get to stay home and bask in the sun, not fair!

pak choi soba salad with asian dressing & spare ribs

certain someone had been talking about spare ribs for the longest time. he'd seen a cooking show where they barbequed spare ribs...with all the snow bbq isn't going to happen so i decided to bake some in the oven.

this is a no-brainer, place the ribs in a heavy duty plastic bag and pour in the sauce...

...mix well and let marinate over night, or at least a few hours.

found these in the pantry and thought it was time to utilize them. the asian markets have such a variety, i always buy something with the good intention to cook something with it soon, like the next day, sometimes the items lurk around a wee bit longer...

normally i'd cook this much for one person but since they were going into a salad...

before cooking the noodles, i put the ribs on rimmed baking tray lined with foil (clean-up is no much easier) and placed the tray in 180C oven for 40min, after that hiked up the heat to 200C and put the fan on for 5 mins more.

got the pak choi at oriental market in helsinki. i see their point in selling them in 1 kg packages but that's a lot of pak choi...need to ask them to sell ½ kg packages as well.

rinsed the pak choi well and chopped quite thinly...

...like it did with this very bendy spring onion.

normally i'd use red chilli but i had some green ones left from the indian cooking. used only about a half of one since they were rather hot...

made the dressing with soya sauce, sesame oil, grated ginger and the minced chilli. the soba noodles were rinsed with cold water after cooking, strained them and mixed the dressing first with the noodles...

...before adding the pak choi and spring onion and mixing well, yammy!

there are about 1600 pics from india and i'm still in the middle of the arduous job of sorting them out...they will appear, one day.