it might come soon

spring that is, some days it takes giant leaps. like monday, at 9.55 am these little ones were almost buried in the icy, slushy snow...

...at 3.10 pm they were all exposed to the warming sun and the snow was but a memory.

4 days later they are all out and beginning to bloom.

the dog is enjoying the warming sun, and keeping ferocious guard in the yard (poor squirrels).

most of the herb garden is exposed, i think the sage and both the thymes (lemon and regular) survived winter, lemon thyme is very fragrant already. made me want to cook lemon chicken...

these tulips with funky color leaves are finding their way above ground, too.

the dog couldn't care less about the tulips.

i found these by the house and vaguely remember planting some bulbs there, oh, four or five years ago. never seen these before, could be they bloom so early for such a short time that i've missed them!

these are the buds of a tree onion. i found them on a brittle dry stalk and half buried them in the soil thinking they might have better chance of growing there.

i wish i had had my camera ready to film how the dog "makes a bed" for himself in the snow. it is quite amusing and not a task he takes lightly. there is a lot of jumping up and down and scraping the snow before laying down.

there are still a few places along the walks where the snow is almost belly-deep for the dog. had i known how deep the snow still is, i would have avoided that particular route. the dog was very happy in the snow (lots of deer and rabbit smells around) but my poor butt was aching for tramping in the snow.

fake jansson

the other day i felt the need to have jansson's temptation for dinner but felt lazy. normally i would think that getting something pre-cut is a waste of money as you'll end up paying a lot more for potatoes and onions (needed in jansson's), but like i said, i felt lazy...

...therefore got a 1kg package of frozen potato-onion mix from the store's freezer (jansson's is such a staple dish in finland, they sell the mix a lot, and the recipe is printed on the package). i thought i had a tin of anchovies at the shack but all i could find were a jar of "sardells"... closer inspection proved that they are the same, just prepared different. in a tin the fish would be packed in salty, vinegary and oily brine, which is ideal for seasoning jansson's. the jar lacked the vinegar, but i decided to use the oil anyway (duh! there wasn't anything else).

first poured half of the semi frozen potato-onion mix into a dish, spread the tiny fish on top...

...then poured in the other half of the mix, made it somewhat even, poured the oil from the jar all over, then poured the 3dl cooking cream all over as well.

after 40 (or so) mins in 220C oven...

...you get this bubbly goodness.

you'd be wise to wait a few minutes before digging in, you really don't want to burn your mouth (like i did). for me, you absolutely have to have pickled beets with jansson's. i know people who will eat jansson's with lingon berry jam, but it really doesn't need anything. if you think you don't like fish, well, by the time the dish has been bubbling away in the oven, the tiny pieces of fish have gone to mush and you almost don't even see them...love this dish (it's good even cold).

year of a tree

i wanted to record what happens around a tree during one year. i had been walking past this tree numerous times with the dog and thought it would make an interesting subject. my plan was to take a picture of the tree every time i passed it with the dog, from the same spot.

in the beginning, there were a few occasions on which i had to turn back to get the camera (quickly learned to check i had it with me). sometimes in the winter it was too late and dark to get a picture at all, and sometimes it was raining way too much to take out the camera. the dog quickly learned that we had to stop at this particular spot and waited patiently (a small miracle).

first picture was taken on august 7th 2010, the last on july 27th 2011.

spring outings

we have had a few wonderful sunny spring days, and some of them have fallen on my days off. the dog needs his walks, so on a sunny day both of us enjoy them...

those huge white marshmallow-type formations are feed for cattle. the farmers keep them by the hay fields by the time they need. as you can see, there are tractor tracks leading to those piles...we love the tracks. i for the fact that on them you can walk and not sink knee/hip deep in the snow like you would on the so called path on the left...

...the dog loves the tracks for crawling sideways...







well, he likes to crawl anyplace, really.

now that they have repaired the bridge over a dam near the strawberry farm, i dare to go and take pics of the rolling waters. there's plenty, but it's under all the snow and ice...

yes, we will move on...

...just one more picture...

...and a nice pose from you, thank you very much.

the ditches, or would this be a stream, are filling up.

the snow is melting rapidly and making slushy puddles all over, even the driveway at the shack. and yes, you need to get your paws in there.

while some have to get into the car and drive to work, other creatures get to stay home and bask in the sun, not fair!

pak choi soba salad with asian dressing & spare ribs

certain someone had been talking about spare ribs for the longest time. he'd seen a cooking show where they barbequed spare ribs...with all the snow bbq isn't going to happen so i decided to bake some in the oven.

this is a no-brainer, place the ribs in a heavy duty plastic bag and pour in the sauce...

...mix well and let marinate over night, or at least a few hours.

found these in the pantry and thought it was time to utilize them. the asian markets have such a variety, i always buy something with the good intention to cook something with it soon, like the next day, sometimes the items lurk around a wee bit longer...

normally i'd cook this much for one person but since they were going into a salad...

before cooking the noodles, i put the ribs on rimmed baking tray lined with foil (clean-up is no much easier) and placed the tray in 180C oven for 40min, after that hiked up the heat to 200C and put the fan on for 5 mins more.

got the pak choi at oriental market in helsinki. i see their point in selling them in 1 kg packages but that's a lot of pak choi...need to ask them to sell ½ kg packages as well.

rinsed the pak choi well and chopped quite thinly...

...like it did with this very bendy spring onion.

normally i'd use red chilli but i had some green ones left from the indian cooking. used only about a half of one since they were rather hot...

made the dressing with soya sauce, sesame oil, grated ginger and the minced chilli. the soba noodles were rinsed with cold water after cooking, strained them and mixed the dressing first with the noodles...

...before adding the pak choi and spring onion and mixing well, yammy!

there are about 1600 pics from india and i'm still in the middle of the arduous job of sorting them out...they will appear, one day.