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...

chocolate swiss roll lightened up

i was tempted to make a proper birthday cake for certain someone, but that kind of cakes usually require outragious amounts of butter. therefore, i decided to make one that had no butter. traditionally the filling of chocolate swiss roll in made with butter but i took a light way out...

there are a number of good swiss roll recipes around, i used one from the book tee hyvä kakku, the author's website is good, too






whisking the eggs seemed to take forever...







finally managed to get the eggs and sugar "fluffy" enough to add the flour/cacao powder mixture







trick from the book, roll the roll (hih) in parchment paper right after oven, that way you won't have cracks on the surface







once cooled, unroll the cake sheet and get spreading. i made my filling with 2.5 dl quark, 1 dl whipping cream, ½ dl sugar and ½ real vanilla sugar (vanilla extract would work too). our quark is rather stiff and tart to my taste, therefore the cream and sugar. but i think in a pinch you could get away with just whipping the quark and some sugar into a smoother consistency







with the help of parchment paper, roll it back into a log...







...like this. now, it's up to you and your conscience whether you leave the unsightly ends like this, or whether you trim them and not tell anyone what you did with them. main thing is, if you're planning to serve any of it as a dessert or with coffee to others, you might not want to trim off too much...

this roll benefits a night in the fridge but can be served right after filling







i was tempted to whip rest of the cream to go with this, opted not to, but you could!

storm damage

last sunday was the first day back to work after 4 months of medical leave. oh boy, new offices, same old routines...i'm going spare you of my thoughts of architecs and their ability to make user-friendly spaces.

on wednesday evening i was sitting in my livingroom and watching out as a storm started to develop. i'll admit i was hoping for a proper thunderstorm, with lightning and rain (actually, i think the weather person kinda promised a thundrstorm). it would have been fun to sit on my glassed balcony, sip something and enjoy nature's show...well, be careful what you wish for...

...meanwhile back at the shack the storm really picked up, hit the biggest apple tree and did some major damage







such a shame. this was the biggest tree and if there were apples in any of the trees, this was it







huge trunk, there is approx one fifth of our apple crop in there







such healthy looking apples, all going to rot







however, there are plenty in the other two trees







hmm, apple sauce or pie?







the apple tree that lost the trunk is very old, this tiny rowan has found a home on it (might have to get rid of it, though)







moss has grown on some of the branches







one of the apple trees (the one i was betting was not going to survive the bruning) is doing amazingly well, lots of new shoots







need to be more vigilant in the autumn and snip some these new shoots off







the mezereon suffered as well. it really is a shame, poor mezereon has been fighting to stay alive after the surrounding trees were cut, it prefers shade place to a sunny one. we'll see if it'll keep fighting







since we are dwelling in garden issues...my arch-enemy, the rose is back. i think this was when my wrist took a serious turn for the worst, obviously, certain someone needs to address this rose-problem, soon







the storm had thrown this hazelnut (common hazel, corylus avellana) to the deck







i had recently seen the british cooking show what to eat now with valentin warner. i think he did crawfish with hazelnuts. warner picked the hazelnuts from a tree in the show and as i had not, during all these years at the shack, ever tasted the hazelnuts, decided to do so today. cracked one open with my teeth (don't tell my dentist!), it tasted quite bland, maybe i need to taste one later in the autumn (unless the squirrels hide them all...)







after all that excitement i sat (well, lay) down on the deck and started browsing these. i only dot thru the orange binder (recipe-cut-outs from martha stewart living magazine) and michel roux's pastry (there is some serious baking to be done once the weather cools a bit). looking thru all those recipes got me hungry...in the binder there was a martha recipe for iceberg vedges with buttermilk dressing that caught my eye, but i'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

not done with fish yet...

i have another soup (what a surprise!) for you, this time with fish. the nets were doing their thing at the cottage and dad pulled out a big burbot along with the pikes. you know burbot, the ugly fish, that hasn't got scales but skin? the ugly bugger was frozen at the cottage.

basic fish soup ingredients: fennel, shallots, potatoes (i used 4 for this soup), dill and some leek that didn't make it to this picture







i started by adding water to barely cover the pieces, in went whole peppercorns and little salt, this was simmered for 10 mins after which i got the fish out and strained the stock







fennel, leek and shallots finely chopped. i gave them a minute alone to wilt on the kettle before adding the potatoes and pouring in the strained stock







veggies were left simmering for 15 mins, meanwhile i deboned the fish and returned the pieces back to kettle for the last 5 mins







after the potatoes were done, i turned the stove off, added 1 dl of cooking cream, some dill and left the kettle on the hot stove for 5 more mins, very nice with rye bread







somehow, while i was away, the mailman had brought a package to me. after i discovered the pioneer woman and knew of her cookbook, i knew i had to have it







i had thought of making every single recipe of a cookbook even before i saw julia/julie, but had not managed to decide which one (they're all so thick...) perhaps it was amount of cooking and inevitably making something that would be tossed because (confession time) i do have my culinary inadequancies (liver comes to mind first, followed very quickly by kidneys). anyways, i was showing this book of cakes to certain someone and half jokingly saying that i would bake every cake on this book in 2010. he looks at me and asks "are trying to make me fat? do you realize you'd be baking a cake almost every fourth day? who's going to eat them all?" i answered i was going to sell them cheap to the neighbours, but he does have a point, that's a lot of cakes...







this one seemed like it has very simple asian recipes, maybe i'll cook all in this book...







i've made jim lahey's no-knead bread a few times, i first heard about it on the martha show. the no-knead bread really is easy to make and requires very little hands on work on the dough, however, you need to plan ahead as the first rise takes up to 24 hrs. i got his book to try the variations of no-knead, and i think i really should start baking more bread if i'm ever going become any good at it







hope you all are keeping warm, my thermometer's showing -14 C right now, brr!

fresh

anna olson's fresh finally arrived today! i ordered it already in june, well in advance of it's september publishing date. usually amazon ships promptly after the publishing date, no idea what happened here, but i'm glad i finally got it. (M, you will get yours soon!)

quickly browsed the book thru, like i imagined, the recipes are from anna's tv-show fresh (that is now going on as re-runs, or should i say re-run's re-run's re-run...) not complaining, i like the show and it is kinda hard trying to write down the recipes from tv. there are definitely some that i need to try: spiced chocolate tart pear tart (mom saw this on tv and expressed her interest in trying one), plum clafoutis and club sandwich roll just to name a few.

i was almost tempted to pledge doing what julie powell did to "mastering the art of french cooking" (movie julia/julie) but as fresh is all about using produce that is in season, so thought i will pass. on the other hand, if i start now, i could do the book starting from winter, hmm...







for the last week my cooking has been close to zero, unless you count brewing a pot or two of coffee cooking... i was ailing at home, certain someone picked me up from my apt and we went grocery shopping before coming to the shack. since the forecast says it's going to be raining tomorrow as well, certain someone won't be doing anything outdoors, therefore i'll have an assistant in the kitchen (he just doesn't know it yet...)


somehow the amount of my cookbooks came up today (he noticed fresh...), certain someone seems to think i have quite enough and that instead of getting new ones, i should use the old ones. yes, yes, yes, but i do go back to old ones every once in a while. like today, i wanted finally get the meat parts translated properly from english to finnish, no easy task since the carcasses are cut differently. i pulled three books, one in finnish and two in english (one of which was martha's cooking school).

the finnish book was valitut palat's (=reader's digest) ruokavuosi (based on reader's digest the cookery year) from 1975, that's 30 odd yrs old folks! mine is from that year, there is at least one revised version from mid 1990's. what surprised me is how relevant the book still is today







i got mine from mom eons ago (or did i borrow it and forgot to return?), and it's been well used over the year. not so much for the recipes but for cooking techniques and general information on how to handle, store and prepare different foods. there is even a chapter on what should be considered when designing a kitchen. as you can see, my issue is well read







this afternoon, while enjoying my cup of coffee, i had a faint feeling that some pastry would be nice, even checked the freezer for some pulla, none there. 10 mins later certain someone asked if there is any pulla, not knowing what i had thought only minutes ago. so, i got an idea and casually mentioned that WE could bake some pulla tomorrow... he didn't outright throw out the idea, so i continued and said that he would have to help me in making and handling the dough... still nothing... is saying nothing same as saying yes? in this case, i think so! i would love to bake pulla (or anything!) but my wrist isn't well (still) enough for baking solo. well, we'll see what (if anything) happens tomorrow...

noticed the other day that i have new readers, dobrodosli!

been at the cottage

drove to my hometown for my days off. seems it's never a good idea to start driving right after work, almost had to stop to take a nap... fought the urge to do so for the last 50 km of the drive and made it to my brother's in one piece.

now, for those faint of heart (anita comes to mind...) you might not want to look at the next pictures. my dad hunts moose... they have shot all 3 they had permits for. the last one they shot will appear next.

don't think this is too bad. nasty stuff they take out of the cavity in the forest, that would be bad. this has been hanging for 4 days and it was time to chop it to smaller pieces

dad keeps saying this is the last year he'll hunt, that remains to be seen







this mount of meat was his cut from the carcass. helped a bit to clean the pieces for freezer, there were some gorgeous pieces of meat, can't wait to cook some of it later on






had my littlest niece with me at the cottage, it was raining and raining but we ventured out to forest and found these craterellus tubaeformis







mom knows where to find them, they are kinda hard to spot at first from among all the fallen yellow leaves







might have mentioned that my brother & family were in nyc the week after us. usually when i visit them, or they visit me, my nieces and nephew want american pancakes. they got me these pancake moulds as souvenir and wanted me to make some for breakfast. nephew even took out all ingredients for me




figure out what this is?

this needs no imagination

this is supposed to be a pumpkin

why the blurred face, you ask... well, the night had not been gentle with my face... way worse than normal, and too early! that's in my bro's kitchen

my copy of dinner at home finally arrived today. browsed it thru qickly before work, there are a couple of lamb recipes that sound good. need lamb recipes since certain someone bought half a lamb (yes, half a lamb!) from a friend. will bother you with pics of the poor lamb as well as soon as it arrives...