Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

October 18, 2012

Let the cheese melt!

I admit, clubbing is fun. BUT so is a night spent indoors with fabulous friends, good food and fine wine! We got invited to a friend's house in Porvoo, a small city about a 45 minute ride from Helsinki. The Friday night started with glasses of sparkling wine and went on with preparation of the meal, which we cooked with a raclette grill. All sorts of cheese, meat, sausages, pickled onions, tomatoes, shrimps, zucchini, mushrooms, garlic... am I forgetting something? Oh, and wine :).


Who would have believed all the energy we got after a day at work. Despite staying up late, we hit the city on Saturday. Ok, only in the afternoon, but still. The old city with its architecture and small boutiques and cafes is like a fairytale village straight from Astrid Lingren's books. Can't wait to get there at Christmas time again.

We visited several little stores, of which the Little chocolate factory is one of my favourites (who would have known). From the store, you can see them making the chocolate right behind the glass wall. I got blueberry and cardamom truffles, yum! They also have white chocolate mustard, random but could work as a gift.

We finished our visit with cups of coffee and apple pie at Cafe Helmi, a lovely little place with beautiful furnishings. Helmi (Pearl) is also my dear, dear grandmom's name, so kind of liked it before even stepping in :). They use dishes most of us have seen at our grandparents' house and the whole atmosphere is like decades back. After travelling in time we had to return to hectic Helsinki. Everyday rat race, here I come again!










June 27, 2012

Vintage shopping and sushi – love at every sight

Yesterday almost turned out as a perfect day, unless we hadn't had a parking ticket while shopping at a vintage store Buffalo Exchange. Santa Monica parking regulations are strict: after 6 p.m. only the ones with permission can park. In Finland it goes vice versa, you pay for parking on the street during the day, but it is free during the nights. So besides what I paid for the things I got, there's also a 60 dollar extra bill waiting, yay! Ok, I spent 2 hours in the store, so perhaps this was a wake up call for me to control my inner shopaholic.

Gina Tricot lace top, Sandro shorts, RayBan shades,
second hand hippie bag, Urban Outfitters sandals.
I found this hippie bag at a flea market in Helsinki (Valtteri).
All Maya inspired designs seem to attract me right now.

Fish dish

We had a nice fish dinner the other night: baked cod, mashed potatoes and sweet white corn. Won't take credit for it, this is not my recipe, but wanted to share it!

 Step 1: chop the garlic, potatoes and parsley.


 Step 2: place the cod files into a oven safe casserole dish. Pour over sauce made of lemon juice and butter. Sprinkle garlic, parsley, capers, and lemon slices on top of it. Bake in the oven for about 25-30 minutes.

Step 3: Roast the garlic in butter, boil the potato chunks in milk until the milk reduces and the texture of potatoes is creamy after mashing. Add garlic chunks, butter, and parsley.

Boil sweet corn for about 4 minutes.


Step 4: grate some lemon skin into the mashed potato.



Step 5: enjoy with white wine! Sweet corn is best when served with butter and sea salt.