warm salmon & sprout salad

had some brussels sprouts in the fridge, they were on the brink of going south so i needed to figure out how to cook them. i've become dead set on starting to like brussels sprouts...

halved and rinsed the sprouts, minced the leek







then sauteed the sprouts in rapeseed oil on a hot pan for a few minutes, turned the heat off and added about ½ dl pinenuts to the hot pan until slightly browned...






then added the minced leek just to wilt it on the warm pan. meanwhile, i had cooked some rice







mixed all the sprouts, leek, pinenuts and rice in the pan, placed some of the mixture on a plate and flaked hot smoked salmon (that dad smoked at the cottage) on top, garnished the portion with a splash of olive oil and a pinch of maldon salt.

took a bite and noticed that the salad was screaming for some balsamico, so added about 1 tbsp of it. not sure if it was the combo of flavours but i think i'm starting to like the sprouts...







other than the salad, my day wasn't a very good one. went to see the surgeon about my wrist in the morning. the doctor was a nice guy, very blunt in a good way, but i was close to tears when i came out. it seems that my wrist is now as good as it will ever get, what the doctors can do is try and keep the wrist pain-free. this surgeon thought a total druj prosthesis is what is needed...(if you want to gross out yourself click the upper download under the picture of the device in the link). i was also told that as my wrist is a very complex matter a joint meeting with several of the hospitals hand surgeons is needed, that is scheduled for mid january. oh, i'm also invited...

tiikerikakku, marble cake

every cakes starts with preparing the pans. i used pan-spray and coarse cornmeal for that. for some strange reason the dog licked and licked my hands later that day, something i found out of the ordinary. later in the evening i figured that as i was spraying the pans, some of the spray (=vegetable oil) must have landed on my hands, and that rather than showing his affection to me, the dog was more interested in the oil on my hands. oh, well...







the recipe called for:

200 gr butter
2½ dl sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 dl cake flour
2 dl potato flour

for the "stripes"

2 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp cream









those who paid any attention to the list of ingredients and the picture...yes, i made some changes. i doubled the recipe (two pans fit into the oven...), swapped the vanilla sugar for pure vanilla and added one 1 dl of coconut flakes for the "white" batter.

i so love my kitchen aid, and my new long-handle spatula from broadway panhandler






first mixed the first 7 ingredients, then scooped out one third of the batter and mixed the cocoa powder and cream to it







this was one of those occasions that perhaps required some thinking before doing anything...the other caked got a lot of white batter...the other quite a lot of darker batter. then again, it looked like the double recipe wouldn't fill the pans. i had decided to make two cakes so i filled the two prepared pans...thinking i'd get flat rounds of two-toned mess







after the cakes had spent half of the required 60 mins in 175C oven, i was glad that the pans were only half full...and i remembered a banana cake disasters some years ago...the cake ended up volcanoing in the oven and spitting the gooey batter onto the bottom of oven creating...well, you get the picture






the bloder cake looks, well, quite blond







the other does look pretty as well...








...but isn't exactly "marbled" when cut...







for some reason i don't seem to be able to post comments on my own blog...must be a tick or a tack someplace that isn't were it should be...but...

hi anonymous!

DL means deciliter. liters are the common measurement in finland. i use US, UK and finnish measurements in my recipes, sorry if it confused you.

you can find conversions here

happy bakings!

aladdin on ice

on sunday i went to see the little niece perform in aladdin on ice. almost 2 years ago somebody revived the ice skating club in my hometown. little niece was sold almost instantly and she now eats and sleeps skating, making her way from point A to point B by way of pirouettes and jumps, not forgetting to pose on the way...

the show was quite charming as everyone from the club got to skate in it. the youngest can barely stand on their skates, but these two were rather skillful. the local newspaper has more (and better) pictures.







the little niece played fire







i didn't think the tiny arena would be filled to the last seat, bearing in mind that outside temp was -18C when they started, it wasn't much "warmer" inside the hall. my nephew dared to make comments on how i looked ready for a polar excursion. i did wear quite many layers of clothing...

winter & winter food

certain someone and i took the icy roads to the cottage to visit with my parents, we left the dog home to keep company to certain someone's mom.

the ice-lanterns light the path to the little cottage where we sleep. it took my parents a good 2 days to warm up the little cottage, it was -10C inside when they started...







the sauna, a must even in the freezing -12C weather







the lake is almost frozen, very early for it to happen







the low sun made everything georgeously sparkly







everything is frozen a round the shoreline







just don't go walking on the ice...








my dad and i went to get some smoked ham from a guy who does it at his house (in almost middle of nowhere)







the guy's father had originally built this smoking house/hut decades ago. i was warned that the buckets contain the fat the drips from the hams...there was plenty of it! he uses freshly cut alder for maximum smoke







he also had these cute calves in the byre







what would a farmhouse be without a farmhouse dog? he was a very puffy







back at the cottage we had to taste the ham...so gooood!







this fatty (although i think fatty doesn't apply to him, he's too thin) came to feast with the sunflower seeds and peanuts my dad puts out for the birds







the sun just makes everything so much prettier

baked chicken in tomato sauce

found that tin of olives in the pantry, it had been there for a very long time. decided that its time had come, i initially bought those olives to make maroccan-type dish but never got to it. i haven't really been to the stores after i got home, the other ingredients were scraped from the fridge and pantry.

here's what went in:

2 cans (400/240gr) of crushed tomatoes
2 medium onions, minced
4 carrots, cubed
3 stalks of celery, cubed
20-30 olives, stuffed with lemons
1 huge clove of garlic, grated
4 chicken brests, skin on (optional)







mircoplane should start paying me for promoting their stuff...







i was hesitant to taste these as they were, but i quite liked them...so much so, that i had to put some aside to make sure there were some left for the dish







i browned the chicken breasts on skin side, then placed in oven dish skin side up. you could used any part of chicken here, with or without the skin. i wanted to use the skin to get some of its flavour. or, you could go all veggie and use eggplant (cubed), zucchini, potatoes, etc







then removed some of the fat left from the chicken and sauteed the onion, carrot & celery mix for a few minutes to get their flavors going, then added the crushed tomatoes to heat them up a bit...







...before pouring the mixture into the oven dish and onto the chicken







i had preheated the oven to 200C, i put the lid on this and placed it in the oven







you could cook this on stove as well, i took the dog for a walk and wanted to have my luch ready after i got back...the dish ended up being in the oven about an hour and a half, but i guess an hour would be enough. the chicken was still juicy after the longer cooking time as it had been submerged in the tomatoes







you didn't think i forgot the olives? nope, olives sometimes start tasting funny after cooking too long, so i wanted to add them to the dish once it had done cooking. i did pour in approx 2 tbsp of the brine of the olives, but in case you didn't notice, there is no salt anywhere before this, no pepper nor chili nor nothing. i did add 1 tbsp of sugar to cut the acidity of the tomatoes







cooked some whole wheat pasta to go with it...for the leftovers, i removed the skins, shredded the chicken into smaller pieces, mixed the chicken and cooked pasta into the dish. certain someone had one portion for dinner, took one to work for lunch and there is still some for my lunch today