whipped lingonberry semolina pudding & sunflowers

little did i know, you don't cook up a porridge out of semolina, it's called a pudding, i stand corrected. i whipped up a pudding out of semolina and lingonberries yesterday. that pudding was my childhood staple, and probably thousands' of others as well. it's very easy to make, provided there are lingonberries where you live. you might be able to make it out of lingonberry jam but that might be awfully sweet, at least to my taste. if you're feeling experimental, i guess there is no reason why you couldn't try this with any berry.

i halved the recipe on the box of semolina and cut down on the sugar, the full recipe calls for:

1 liter of water
4 dl (or approx 200 gr) of lingonberries (or red currants)
1½ dl semolina
1½ dl sugar
pinch of salt

you start by boiling (medium heat) the water and berries (some mash the berries a bit, some cook them whole, i use mashed) for approx 10 mins. after that you add the semolina, stirring it in well in order not to have lumps. turn down the heat to medium low, and cook for another 10 mins. turn off the heat, add sugar and salt. as of rule, i don't put salt to my porridge, so i don't put any in this either. the amount of sugar is totally up to you, i have some sugar in my lingonberries so i used only 2 tbsp for the half recipe, and i don't like this very sweet.

this is how it looks like bubbling away after semolina has been added. some strain the liquid before adding semolina to get a very smooth pudding, but then you loose those valuable fibers







the whipping part comes next, you'll need to cool the pudding down to lukewarm. then take your hand mixer and whip the pudding for 3 to 5 mins, or until it turns pale pink, like here







i eat mine with very cold non-fat milk, any milk (or whipped cream, if you want to go fancy) will do, or none at all. this company makes semolina in finland, but i'm sure semolina is available anywhere. after i'm sone with my box of wheat semolina i am going to switch to oatmeal semolina 'cause it has more fiber. while googling semolina and found fineli, i'm not going to freak about my food but i'm going to check, from time to time, what it says about the food i'm eating







i associate sunflowers with summer, like most people do, right? well, this summer, and spring and the start of autumn for that matter, have been weird, at least in finland. like in the spring we (at the shack) lost almost all of the apple blossoms and now have next to nothing in the trees. i got my first sunflowers (all four of them!) on the second week of september, and this is not your "late" variety... this wall at the shack gets a lot of sun, but look how twisted these came out







the bigger one got little help from me to "pose" for this picture. there won't be that much to eat for the birds coming winter and i so need to find another spot for sunflowers next summer

lingonberries & plum kuchen

i made a detour driving home from rehab on friday and stopped at my brother's house in my hometown. mom had been busy picking lingonberries, she had left 2 pails for me to take home. since i had to work the weekend, taking care of berries took its time. i bagged and froze half of them on saturday evening, but had time for other pail only today. i had planned to mash and jar them with tiny bit of sugar (just to make them keep better, they are still super-tart), which i made today.

these here and a few more got frozen saturday







got the berries, jars and gadget out







i started with my bamix thinking that it'd be perfect for the job. well, it was until i pulled it up too soon and red splatters were all over. made me regret not putting on my apron, 'cause i do have one, quite many in fact. somehow i ended up making a mess on my clothes, the tiles etc. this seems to happen a lot lately (remind myself to take out some aprons and hang them in the kitchen)







next i took out my kenwood blender. in case you always read the manual and know that you should have the lid on, well, the "rule" is in the book for a reason... (more red on the wall)







got all this from one pail. this is approx 6 litres, i used 1 kg of sugar for the whole patch. certain someone can have them as tart as they come, i need some sugar to go along. they'll keep like this refridgerated until next summer. in fact, i still have some jars from last year (remind myself to make "whipped porridge" tomorrow)







downstairs fridge at the shack, barely room for beer in it...







alexis had made plum kuchen and posted it on her blog. i know, lame, but i wanted to try if this kuchen could be made of nectarines. here is what goes in the batter







my kitchen aid doing all the hard work







nectarine slices on pan, remember to put the "good" side down







batter poured on, starting the second rise







fresh from oven







nice pattern, but i do think i need to make some adjustments when i make this again. first, i used lime peel instead of lemon peel, that worked fine with nectarines, not so sure it would be equally good with plums. second, our yeast must be different and i need to use more of it (it did bubble up with water so it was working). third, oven temp and/or time needs to be adjusted, the bottom seems a bit raw. i will also used less butter, or maybe some other fat and less sugar or maybe canderell instead of sugar (see, last week is starting make me into a health freak, never!)







i did like this, the nectarines have a very peachy taste to them. however, i think it should have risen a bit more, taste is still great







today's lunch, thick bed of lettuce, half a chicken breast, half an avocado, some mozzarella, mini tomatoes and a pinch of chile powder on top, and some lemon vinaigrette

yippii!

we are going to NYC in october and i'm going to see the taping of martha, yee! got the confirmation to my ticket request today, i'm so excited!!! (in case you didn't notice...) now i need figure out what to wear, no easy task, i could be on tv!

back to today and rehab III. we had the inbody (this link in english) test done today. the results, well, didn't tell anything i didn't know already, i gotta loose some fat, not as much as i thought, though. this test tells your whole body compositon down to minerals in your body, how much of body weight is muscles, how much fat, etc. there was a lecture on nutrition and weight loss after the results, their lecture makes sense on some many issues, throws some old theories to waste basket. there were some older ladies on the lecture and obviously some of what the lecturer said rubbed them the wrong way because a few left. obviously, when someone questions your decades long practises on what your thought was the right approach to fitness and proper nutrition, the natural reaction would be to rebel, or like in their case, leave the lecture.

my eating habits aren't that bad, for food i mean, it's my baking and love of chocolate. not giving them up, however, but will cut down on portion sizes and have them less regularly.

all in all this week has been a good spark for my starting to get fit again, and to loose some flab as well. the food here... excellent but isn't helping me (nor anyone else, it seems) to loose weight because of the portion sizes, another issue i need to address. no pic today, been too busy with lectures, massage, circuit training and turkish bath

rehab II

i'm sore in places i didn't remember i had muscles, like my butt. sure, i walk the dog, but not having been to the gym in (confession time) 10 yrs has done something to my rear end...

we've had fitness tests, let's just say there is quite a lot i could (and will!!) do for my overall health and fitness. yesterday we had a lecture on food and fitness. nothing new there, i'm so aware that chocolate cheesecake is sooo bad, but did you know that one beer (3,3dl) has the same amount of energy as 9 cubes of sugar?







or that a chocolate bar has the same amount of energy as 15 cubes fo sugar







when they put it like that... but i still don't want to know how many cubes of sugar there is in a chocolate cheesecake, you gotta treat youself once in a while.

although i had the tests yesterday, and went nordic walking before dinner, today was by far the most excercisefull day. nordic walking for 45 mins first thing in the morning, then streching for another 45, then i had a pedicure (blissfull!), circuit training for 45 mins, lunch, lectures for 2,5 h, indian scalp massage (which included pulling my ears, literally!), and a very humiliating experience of etnobaila (45 mins)... i don't remember the last time i've sweat out that bad. i should have known better, i have 3 left feet and no sense of rhythm, there was no way i was going to be able to move my feet, hips and hands all at the same time, and in beat... i went to the pools afterwards, swam a few laps and sat under a water fountain and got my shoulders "water-massaged". after all this i felt almost not hungry, but went to dinner anyway. i'm so ready to bed now.

here is the yesterday's sunset by the local lake







tomorrow everyone in our group will have InBody (link in finnish and norwegian only, sorry). it's a test in which a machine calculates (by electricity) what you are made of, how many % of your body is bones, fat, muscles, water, etc... it'll be a rude awakening. not sure if i'll share the results with you

rehab

as in rehabilitation to maintain working ability. there are 9 others from my work place and we'll stay here for the week, and come back for 3 more sessions during the next 13 months. the link more or less explains what we do, or are supposed, to do here. this place also has a spa, best part of the whole deal is that these sessions are like a paid vacations. well, we are expected to "work" some, like i have fitness and muscle tests scheduled for tuesday, there are group exercises, lectures on how to prevent burn-out, among others. i did schedule some extras, like a massage, facial, pedicure and indian scalp massage, for those i do have to pay myself.

the facility has saunas, pools, gyms, etc, and very good food. which kinda fights against my decision to loose some "flab" with all these excellent opportunities to be active and excercise, we'll see...

i was going to hit publish but then thought that this might even more boring than usual without a picture... here is one i took this morning before my doctor's appointment







i was rather good today, i went walking for hour and a half. weather was gorgeous, i loved these trees which are near this facility, they are salix fragilis bullata