braised red cabbage & duck breast

had some red cabbage in the fridge and a duck breast in the freezer (i'm constantly trying to empty it). in days gone by we used stay at the taverna hotel (now called mercure budapest) in budapest. their restaurant used to serve the best goose leg and braised cabbage. oh well, maybe once again one day...

i've tried to braise red cabbage "their way" but obviously never got it just right. nevertheless, i love braised red cabbage, even my way. this time i wanted to try cooking the cabbage in the pressure cooker, to save time, for one. i did some googling and found lobstersquads (fun drawings!) recipe for it. and made this dish my way...



my way really isn't a recipe, sorry about that. in addition to cabbage i used 2 red onions, an apple and 2 dl apple juice (lobstersquad doesn't use any liquid in her recipe). i added red wine and raspberry vinegar, you might want to skip the raspberry vinegar, i don't know what i was thinking...



my mom shreds cabbage with a cheese slicer which does make the cabbage a lot juicier, but i made a mess, i continued with a knife.



dump everything into the cooker...



...mix the ingredients somewhat. i took my potato masher to pack everything, did not want a purple explosion on the walls...did add some salt and black pepper before pouring the apple juice and 2 tbsp vinegar in.



after a mere 8 minutes of phiffing and whisling later...all done!




now that i look at the picture i remembered that i should have scored the skin...




fried the breast on medium for 6 mins per side, then foiled it for 10 mins.



very red but don't let that bother you, green salad would have been a nice addition.



the sun shone for a few hrs last week, it was nice on the deck.




sun was melting ice and snow, but we just got 20 cm more snow...



i'm going thru my seed collection and wondering what all should i grow this year.



however, the sun needs to get pretty busy melting all this before i can hide any seeds in the garden.

lots of snowy pics, some of sun, the dog and birdies

whoa...i guess i should have kept up with blogger. there's been so many changes i almost just gave up. anyways, it seems darkness of the winter got me big this year, hence the long pause on this blog. i have been missing the sun. the statistics people have gathered that this winter has been cloudiest in 25 yrs, and third in 50, with mere 50 hrs of sunlight between first of december and mid february. i rest my case.

this sight was welcome this morning, despite the fog and thin clouds...

the dog seems to not have minded the darkness, he naps a lot, winter or summer

                                     the full moon on monday night, snow moon some call it 

here's what the sun does! past few evenings the sunsets have been glorious.

the fluctuating temps make fog, and if someone has a more scientific explanation, please fill me in.

i don't know what little bird this is. i only know little birds, medium birds, large birds, black birds, gulls, eagles and woodpeckers.

there was a lot more snow last year...

pod of...gosh...i forgot! fox something comes to mind...

this is a woodpecker who demonstrates acrobatics at the feeder meant for LITTLE (hint, hint) birds. whether this woodpecker is a great, middle or lesser spotted woodpecker i don't know...

UPDATE: an ornitholigist friend of mine told that this is great spotted woodpecker

these are little yellow birds, certain someone thinks they are siskins (carduelis spinus)...


UPDATE: these yellow shrirpers are yellowhammers

along the cottage road

this was taken on planet earth, and you can ask my mom, she saw this, too. weird sunrise indeed.

from another point

enjoy the snow while it lasts!

oh boy, time flies...

...even thought it's not been all fun and games. well, some of the time it has. this here is the last full moon of 2012.

i don't know where the last six months vanished. most of the time it seemed there were way too many things going on and that i had time for nothing, besides work (and on most days that ain't a picnic). instagram swallowed me and as posting there is instant (duh!) the more time consuming blogging was moved to the back burner. also, i noticed that my real cameras started collecting dust...

these two furry friends are patu from next door and the dog. patu isn't a year old yet and was only recently introduced to the dog. they've been barking at/with each other for months, though, much to the dismay of other neighbors i'm sure.

this year winter came pretty early and took a very cold start. it is unusual for the temps to drop to -20C (and below) this early in the winter. helsinki area almost broke the record of amount of snow by the end of december (record high was in 1965, 85 cm). the city of helsinki seems to take her time figuring out what to do with the accumulating snow and side streets are getting narrower and narrower and parking without a 4wheel drive and shovel are, shall we say, challenging.

but the snow, freezing temps and scarce daylight make great pictures, this one taken at the cottage.

how the squirrels at the cottage are able to haul themselves up this high on trees is beyond me. their midsections are getting huge with all the bird food they eat.

the dog has taken to sleeping on his chair, he rarely does that in the summer.

i'm not sure which one of these guys is more codependent...

some chocolate? i personally can't have another bite...

this was supposed to be the xmas card picture but...well, i noticed that the cards wouldn't arrive in time, not even for new year's, so there.

most of my moving boxes are where they are meant to be (at the new apt, at the shack, the cottage and mom and dad's garage...) and most of the things at the new apt have found their place. i'm still waiting for my murphy bed as there were unexpected difficulties in getting one (only one manufacturer in whole of finland, can you believe!) my books will need a home, i have a bookshelf designed, i only need to find someone to make it, or a workshop to do it myself (which, obviously, would the coolest option).

                                A THANK YOU FOR ALL MY VISITORS FOR 2012 AND
                                                  
                                                   HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2013!

well, it didn't!

the spring that is, didn't come. it would have been too good...instead we got more snow, plenty of it. we drove up to the cottage on monday and were lucky to manage the last bit on the small road. my dad had ploughed that road on sunday, but snow kept falling and falling. there was a good 20cm of fluffy snow on the road, the front bumper hit the snow which flew up and hit the windscreen blocking everything in sight...we did arrive with no ditchy detours.

the snow made everything at the cottage extra pretty...

...and covered me.

the clouds were dramatic and moved very fast with the wind.

ice on the lake is still pretty thick, but the sun makes it very brittle very fast, wouldn't take a walk on the ice after a week of sunny weather, my worst nightmare is to fall under ice and not find the hole and get air!

this was the last time before october that we could let the dog run free as soon there'll be the birds and others nesting.

we have made a little lean-to just by the lake...

...there is a place for campfire.

my dad and certain someone sat by the fire, the dog decided he needed to have a lay-down in between

not for very long, though. there was so much to see, so much to sniff...

...but resting in the cool snow feels good after running around..err...for hours.

this morning, just as we were packing the car to get ready to drive home, the dog started a barking fit, big time. well, he does that all the time, usually for squirrels. we were looking up the trees to see where the bugger was...soon saw this pheasant, which surely had no idea how bad an idea it was to come roaming around the cottage. fortunately we had the dog on a leash, the silly bird was mere 10 meters from the barking dog, eating juniper berries like there's no worries in the world.

i had already packed my camera, had to make a dash to the car to unpack it and get some pics before we had to leave. will be interesting to see if the pheasant makes a habit of visiting the cottage regularly, i'm sure the fallen sunflower seeds from the bird feeder will be a nice addition to juniper berries. we were a bit excited about the bird as they haven't been that common in our part of country.

as i was leaving work on sunday i spotted some witches...i didn't have any candy or cash on me so i sneaked the picture.

the witches were "conducting a finnish easter tradition not unlike the one in halloween; on the palm sunday a group of children disguised as witches go from door to door and give ornamented willow twigs for candy and other goodies". (quotation from www.suomisanakirja.fi). there has been reports that superman has joined the witches...