may day lunch

did remember to take pics! the weather wasn't too warm yesterday, sunny but windy. my wrist isn't getting any better, the docs are figuring out what happens next. the surgeon thinks he'd like to do what he does best, cut me up. we are waiting what the MRI pics show. because of the wrist, my cooking has reduced to dishes that can be done with minimum effort and basically with one arm. may day lunch was super easy, just needed to cook pasta and potatoes (separately, duh!), open a jar or two and a few bags of frozen veggies, etc


here is pasta salad: whole wheat pasta, corned beef (not canned!), gouda cheese, peas and corn (frozen), bell pepper, sun dried tomatoes (from a jar, already minced), dressing made with buttermilk and mayo, salt, pepper, apple sider vinegar and some chili powder





chicken legs cut in half, marinated overnight in a mixture of bbq-sauce, brown sugar and thai sweet chili sauce and baked in oven. would have been just as fine to grill them but that would have been a lot more work...





tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, balsamico





all time favourite , warm german potato salad





corking the bubbly, this time it was latvian





half way thru lunch i remembered that i forgot to make dessert. quickly thought of using up some bananas that were about to get tossed. i know you should make this with firm bananas but trust me, this was equally good. i served them with vanilla custard. those of you who aren't in the know, the gooey stuff on the pan is brown sugar and butter...





this was last weekend's menu, deer patties in creamy sauce. minced deer came from certain someone's freezer, used my gadgets to mush onion, garlic, parsley, egg, breadcrums and sour cream. hardest part with this dish was turning the patties...





tabbouleh made with wheat berries instead of bulgur, took some liberties with massoud's recipe





a classic cole slaw, added some cellery, though





there is a squirrel problem at the shack, they bother the dog big time. the other day the dog was going crazy in the front, i went up to see what was going on this time. i found the dog barking, yelping, making all the dog noises in the book and trying to get on, under and in my car which was parked next to the shack. it was obvious that there was something of great interest under/in my car. watched the dog for a while and decided to pop up the hood to see if there actually was something. this little creature was all couped up under the hood, shivering. i took the dog away, left the hood open and hoped that the squirrel had gone when i half hour later left for errands with the car...

hauskaa vappua! happy may day!

yesterday, vappuaatto / eve of may day was sunny but on the chilly side. we celebrated with this:



not much of a beer drinker but half of this went down quite effortlessly. later on we had company over, we had quasedillas (anna olson style), gancia asti and beer. quesadillas are super-easy to make, all you really need is tortillas,cheese and jalapenos, but it's easy to add minced beef, black beans, bell peppers. unfortunately, and it seems that this happens way too often nowadays, i forgot to take pics of the food! so you'll just need to take my word that it looked, and tasted, great.

certain someone's mom is coming over for may day lunch. i'll try to be more diligent with pics this time. in the meantime, hope your hangover isn't the killing kind...

all bananas

in my fair and ever growing collection of cookbooks (remind myself to take pics to show you) i took the baked cookbook to bed with me the other night. there were a couple recipes that looked good, especially the banana espresso chocolate chip muffins. the wrist is still not right and this recipe requires only minimal stirring by hand, therefore ideal in my condition.





as i recently bought another gadget (yes mom, i do have some already but not this one...) i thought it would be cool to try it mashing the bananas (like i couldn't have used a fork) in this recipe.





the batter was looking ok, but you think it should be darker as i mentioned espresso and chocolate chips. well, i did some virtual tasting and decided that i didn't want coffee taste with banana, and i like chocolate chips better in cookies.





here, only slightly cooled, they still look quite ok. now, several hours later, they are starting to get an ugly color. i guess the baked boys were on to something adding darker ingredients in the recipe. well, live and learn. anyway, the muffins taste great and that's what counts in my book.





as i had the bamix out, and i was preparing fresh sausages from reinin liha at hakaniemen halli i decided that the sausages need a slaw and a slaw needs mayonnaise. haven't done mayo myself too many times, not sure why because it's easy and a lot tastier than what you get in jars. there is a very basic recipe in the booklet that came with the gadget, did add more lemon juice, though. and, as i had the oven on already, decided to roast some potatoes, carrots and sweet onions as well. this is what i had for lunch, it was a nice day so we lunched "out".

ice fishing

although the calendar says it's spring, the lake is still frozen. my wrist is still sore, so what better way to spend time that ice fishing in the sun... that's dad





the dog was running around all over





the dog is very curious





line, hook with wormbate going down






did i mention that the dog is curious?





this is what he got, a perch





lots more




scaling




gutting




and ready to be fried. you need butter (the real thing), barley flour and salt





some on the pan





ready to be eaten





this is finger food, best way to get the tiny bones out





another sour lemon cake. the donna hay cake was very good and super-easy to make so i wanted to bake one at the cottage as well. naturally, i forgot the latest donna hay issue home so i had to search the web for a similar recipe. i found one (will post it later, if i find it again...) that i "fixed" a bit, doubled the original recipe and adjusted the amounts a bit. don't tell my dad there is spoiled milk in it!

spring, perhaps?

last thursday was quite sunny and warm (+11C) so i took the camera out to the garden. not much to see yet, except for these exeptions. these snowdrops are strong pushing themselves up thru the leaves!





wonder what this is going to be?





succulent sempervivum





these will become apples





daphne mezereum, this used to have more shade around it, we'll see what happens during the summer. i think we'll need to move to another place in order for it to survive





this is how it will look later on