all saints & sky

this furry fellow ain't a saint that's for sure...his favorite toy, the monkey he got from nyc, now has only 3 limbs and no eyes...i was so close to booking flights and hotel to nyc for this week, what made me not to do it, i don't know. i would love to be there, but i guess there are people who need the warmth and comfort of a hotel room more than i do. another time...

the weather was odd all day, it was foggy at 9.30am, but cleared pretty soon after that.

walking about in the garden, i noticed the pods in the martagons (lilium martagon). i was thinking of collecting the pods and spreading the seeds later in places where the lawnmower wouldn't get to them...

in the afternoon the day started to get weirdly orange. i'm sure the dog was just happy it didn't rain all day, again.

the high clouds were vividly pinkish orange.

ok, not this vivid. this one was instagrammed and i think i used lo-fi filter on it.

while certain someone was walking the dog, i ventured closer to the lake where the fog was making magic...

the camera in my iPhone just blows my mind sometimes. it's been months that i've taken my "proper" cameras out...

since it was all saints' day here in finland we went to the village cemetary to light a candle on certain someone's dad's grave. the tradition is to remember not only saints but members of the family who have died. we do the candle lighting ceremony also at xmas eve.

not sure which spooky creature this was, but most certainly he ain't a saint!

little foraging

hmpr, i knew all along that my computer problems were caused by a tiny tack someplace, a wrong place. and what do you know, it ended up being stupidly simple, frustrating!

anyways, spent the weekend before last at the cottage, little niece came along. first order was to go and admire the scenery...although very autumnal and stormy.

when the rain halted, mom, little niece and i headed into the forest to look for some mushrooms, which are abundant from all the rain we've been getting.

i've always wondered what kind of gremlins and goblins live under the fallen trees...little niece wondered the exact same thing!

love the shade of green in the moss.

mushroom! hmm, a chanterelle (cantharellus cibarius) past its prime. a very nice mushroom, but we were after something else...

...these! cantharellus tubaeformis, oops, it's now called craterellus tubaeformis, also known as yellowfoot, winter mushroom, or funnel chanterelle.

we were out for half an hour and got all this. there's plenty left...

wood being the major form of heating, piles and piles of firewood are needed during the winter.

the fall colors of aronia mitschurinii at my brother's house are blinding. the berries make great cordial packed with vitamins.

the crab apple is shedding leaves and the apples.

back at the shack we decided to dry the mushrooms for longer "shelf life". spread them an even layer on newspaper / paper towel in a dry place, covered loosely with a single layer of news paper and left to dry for a week. there are plenty other methods, we do this 'cause it's easy, and i'm all about easy...

...after a week the mushroom were all crackly and wrinkled.

they ended up in a jar and will be used in stews, sauces and risottos.

and for you fans of the dog. here's one instagrammed pic of him chilling with his smelly rat...

delicate to disaster

how is it that this can turn into...

...this...

...into this...

into this? we were away for a week and came home to find that a huge branch of the biggest of the apple trees had fallen off in a storm. not exactly a welcome you'd need after a week in the sun...

nevertheless, certain someone got the chain saw out and got to work. sad, sad job.

hard hat needed.

my method to the madness, crates for still good apples, wheel barrow for the not-good ones, another for bigger sticks (to be dried, chipped and used later in grilling or smoking) and a huge bag for leafy small branches.

one of the elder neighbors said this has been the stormiest and rainiest september in 50 yrs. it certainly was gloomy yesterday...

one of six (yes, 6!) barrow fulls going to the compost heap. no pigs around to feed, taking some to a colleague for her chicken, though.

found these curious formations when hauling the smaller branches to where they'll be burned.

most of the mess cleared out...

...but at least a half day's work ahead...to be done some day, when it's not raining...

certain someone thinks the big tree will still be ok after loosing the huge branch, i'm thinking maybe it's time to replace it. the trees must have been planted sometime in the early 1940s, because certain someone tells that they were big enough to climb on in late 1950s and early 1960s. if it comes to cutting it down, i know there will be a happy carpenter somewhere after the tree is properly dried and ready to be worked on...

not the kind of apple your doctor prescribed, my apple crumble

the apples are plentiful this year, they are breaking the trees...the red ones on this very old tree are so sweet. even though that huge branch has almost fallen off, the apples are ripening happily. many fall on the ground and i bet it doesn't take very long when the deer start coming in for dessert as well.

these would be so very healthy like this, but you can turn them into a very yammy dessert...there really isn't a recipe, there really isn't a need for one as this is so simple.

isn't this a cool tool? i used think this was waste of material, but one autumn when i made about 40 jars of apple sauce, i suddenly figured how handy this actually is. but you could use a knife as well.

rolled oats, demerera sugar and very cold butter cut to cubes. let your conscience tell you how much of each. my conscience was pretty quiet...

you could use another fine tool the pastry blender here. i couldn't find mine, so used my fingers to rub the ingredients slightly together, it's ok to leave lumps of butter.

place the apples onto an oven dish, spread the butter-sugar-oats mixture on top and place on the lower part of 200C oven (preheated, no fan)...and let the dish bubble for a good hour...

...the smell will be mind-blowing. you need to be patient here, you really don't want to burn your mouth...

...while the bake is cooling off, you can take some (full fat) cream, whip it, add a generous amount of vanilla paste, some sugar won't hurt either, and mix them well. when you're absolutely sure you won't burn your mouth, or just can't wait any longer, spoon some of the bake on a bowl, add some of that cream...gosh, you gotta know how good this is!

i just had a check-up with blood works and all, the company wants us to have one every other year. my numbers are great and my risks of getting diabetes or heart disease are minimal. could be my genes, could be what i eat when i'm not indulging in desserts like this...

cabbage casserole & another with pasta

went to the store to get ground beef for a pasta casserole i was planning to make for dinner, but noticed this nice head of cabbage calling my name... sometimes that happens. this time listening to that voice resulted in very tasty cabbage casserole.

as you would have it, it all starts with cabbage, recipe is very simple and adjustable:

1 kg cabbage, shredded
400 gr minced beef browned (or go vegetarian and use tofu in some form)
1 liter veal stock, or any stock you have around (i made some from knorr fond)
2 dl barley pearls (quick cooking rice is fine, or precook brown rice for half the cooking time before adding to this recipe, if you omitted the beef and didn't use tofu of any kind, you could add more grains, if so, add more stock as well)
1 dl dark syrup

cooked in 200C oven for 1 hour, first half hour covered.

here, although the in season young cabbage cooks relatively fast, i wanted to save some time and sauteed it for about 10 mins on medium high heat, just to wilt it and get the cooking going. (if time isn't an issue, skip this part and mix with other ingredients raw. cook in the oven for 2 hrs, first hr covered with foil, for the second hr make sure the dish doesn't dry out and have some more stock around to add if needed.)

browned ground beef is one of my sins, i could eat all this...but didn't!

there are several types of fonds (basically it's an industrial variety of concentrated pan-juices) around. they are very convenient, but some contain too much salt, and of course, additives of all sorts. this particular "taste" from knorr is ok, but there is the fine line after which, if you add too much, the food has an "industrial" taste.

pearl barley, quick cooking kind. as the package says "domestic option to rice".

the dark syrup i used, to me syrup is the secret to this dish. if you think it's going to make it too sweet...start with a smaller amount.

i had one medium size sweet potato around, grated it roughly and added half to this dish (sweet potato is good for you, don't have any, don't worry, not essential). placed the cabbage, browned meat and barley in a big bowl, mixed well, placed the mixture into an oven dish, poured the stock and syrup on. on hindsight, some butter on top would have made everything taste even better...

...but for someone who used to hate everything with cabbage (=me), this was oh-so-good. when taking off the foil at half-time, check if you need to add some more stock. if it looks wet, you're good, if it looks dry at half-time add a good 3 dl more stock.

the second dish was mac and beef casserole. in finland it is traditionally made with white elbow macaroni, ground beef, milk and egg mixture to set it. i'm not a fan of white pasta, so i used full-grain spelt pasta.

recipe goes:

400 gr pasta, cooked
400 gr ground beef, browned
150 gr grated cheese (i used swiss type polar)
3 dl cream (used the fattier version, there are some lighter ones around)
(and that half of a roughly grated medium size sweet potato, totally optional, but it'll be good for you...)

you can certainly use more cheese if you like, i thought that with the full fat cream, i should go easy on the cheese (the cheese is only 15% fat).

again, mixed 2/3 of the cheese, pasta, ground beef and sweet potato in a big bowl, placed the mixture into an oven dish, poured the cream on top and covered with foil and placed next to the cabbage dish into the 200C oven for a half hr.

after the half hour took the dish out, added rest of the cheese and returned the dish to the oven for another 15 mins for the cheese to melt.

the spelt pasta might be an acquired taste as it is very "healthy" (but nothing a good squirt of ketchup can't cure). this was perfect to have right out of the oven, but if re-heated it could use a bit more liquid, whether in the form of cream or stock of any kind.

tomorrow you'll see what we had for dessert...