Halloween pumpkin – throw nothing away!

Nämä Jack O' Lanternit virnistelivät kotonani viime lauantaina, kun vietimme pieniä Halloween-kemuja viikkoa etukäteen. Juttelin aiemmin työkaverin kanssa kurpitsalyhdyistä, ja hän kertoi väsäävänsä niitä lapsensa Halloween-juhliin. Noh, kysyin tietysti innokkaana kurpitsapiirakkafanina, että mitäs hän mahtaa tehdä sisuksista. Vastaus oli, että heittää pois! No way, Jose! Kurpitsa kannattaa pistää hyötykäyttöön siemeniä myöten. Ainakin, jos kyse on suomalaisista, syötäviksi tarkoitetuista kurpitsoista.

Itse tykkään piirtää leikattavan "hatun" sekä naaman lyijykynällä kurpitsan pintaan ennen leikkausoperaatiota. Tänä(kin) vuonna kaiverrusten kanssa tuli jäätävä kiire: vieraat olivat jo ovella, kun aloittelin. Erilaisia naamainspiraatioita on netti pullollaan, mutta nyt päädyin tällaisiin pikaratkaisuihin. Joskus olisi mahtavaa taiteilla ajan kanssa!

Kun hatut on leikattu irti, kannattaa "lypsää" siemenet hedelmälihasta ja pistää talteen. Sitten alkaakin hedelmälihan irrottaminen. Itse olen ottanut talteen sekä pehmeän hötön ja lusikalla kaiverretun kovemman massan, kunnes kurpitsat näyttävät tältä:

Sitten vaan taiteilemaan pelottavia virneitä, kynttilä sisään ja lyhty on valmis! Sisukset pistän soseeksi ja teen niistä kurpitsapiirakkaa samalla hyväksi havaitulla ohjeella joka vuosi (löytyy tästä postauksesta). Yhteen piirakkaan riittää 5 dl mössöä. Näistä kahdesta n. 3 kg kurpitsasta sain ainekset 2 piirakkaan, jotka tarjoilin kermavaahdon ja vaahterasiirapin kera. Ylimääräisestä mössöstä voi tehdä vaikka kurpitsakeittoa!  

Ja sitten ne siemenet. Myönnetään, että olen itsekin heittänyt nämä aiempina vuosina pois. Mutta nyt siis valistuneena paahdoin ne uunissa. Hakusanoilla 'roasted pumpkin seeds' löytyy kasa hyviä vinkkejä ja sekä suolaisia että makeita maustamisvaihtoehtoja. Itse sokerihiirenä päädyin seuraavaan komboon: sekoitin siementen (n. 2,5 dl) joukkoon oliiviöljyä, vaahterasiirappia (se loppu, joka ei piirakan kanssa tarjottuna mennyt), kanelia ja sokeria. Siemenet levitetään uuninpellille leivinpaperin päälle yhteen kerrokseen. Omani jäivät vähän päällekkäin, mutta ihan rouskuvia niistä tuli. 150 astetta ja n. 40 minuttia. Voi pojat, kyllä maistui! :)

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If you decide to carve a Halloween pumpkin, why not use the rest of the vegetable? I make pumpkin pie with the same recipe every year, find it here. Around 3 kg pumpkin equals one pie (5 dl mashed flesh). In case any leftovers, why not make a pumpkin soup? And the seeds. If I had known how tasty they are I'd never have thrown them away previous years. There are several tasty, both salty and sweet spice mixes you can use, but as a desperate sugar lover I ended up with this combo: seeds (around 2,5 dl) mixed with olive oil + maple syrup + cinnamon + sugar. Bake in 150 Celcius for 40 minutes and serve as party snack. Omnom!

Gingerbread and giggling

Pre-Christmas parties are just the best! You get to gather together with closest friends, eat Christmassy treats (Christmas spices and flavours are the best ones!), burn candles and perhaps zip a few glasses of glogg or red wine. My pre-party season started in the last weekend of November. It was nothing planned, just asked a few friends to come over and made something nice to munch. 

Usually you can find a lot of party clothes at this time of year, since it's supposed to be one of the biggest party seasons. Yet I ran through several stores and found nearly only outerwear and jumpers. I was looking for something a bit festive but not too fancy. I found this fishnet top at Vero Moda, where I don't actually shop too often. It looks pretty basic, but when taking a closer look you see a hint of metal on the surface of the fabric.

Vero Moda tank, Gina Tricot jeans, Zara heels, vintage snakeskin clutch.

Pink vintage snakeskin clutch from Beyond Retro, Stockholm.

Vintage tiger-bracelet from 80's, my favourite one, from Flea Market Valtteri (which doesn't exist anymore, R.I.P.)

Blue cheese & persimmon gingerbreads: simple and fast but pretty and tasty!

Dolling up for the night.

Ghost cake pops & other Halloween must-haves!

Halloween fuss hasn't been around for too long in Finland, but every year you can see more and more spiders, pumpkins and witches decorating store windows. The Halloween bug (spider in this case?) bit me 5 years ago, when I got to spend it in the USA. There's something magical about the whole celebration, even though the idea of the souls of the deads hanging around isn't exactly that, um... tempting.

Based on conversations I hear at coffee tables, on bus or wherever, we don't really know which weekend Halloween should be celebrated in. In most countries Halloween happens on October 31st, on the eve of All Saints Day, so the "right" time would be the last weekend of October, not the first of November. Anyhow, the Finnish style to solve this dilemma is to celebrate both weekends, which doesn't get any complaints from me :). 

Ghost cake pops.

I decided to throw a small Halloween party for friends last weekend, and wanted to serve something yummy in the spirit of the holiday. I've made a vanilla pumpkin pie for Halloween two years in a row now, and this weekend was no exception. This recipe is simply amazing, beats many cheesecakes (my favourites cake-wise) if you ask me. I only skip the cooking-the-pieces part because I use more of the soft inside, not the hard flesh, and mash it as raw. The funniest part begins when the pie is in the oven: carving the pumpkin! I'll make another post about that soon.

For other treats to serve I went through some googling and ended up with the following menu (find recipes below pictures):

Pumpkin pie served with whipped cream and maple syrup

Ghost cake pops

Breadstick bones with pesto "blood" dip

Cheese bones with apple/cinnamon "brain" jam

Halloween spirited candies 

Purple punch

GHOST CAKE POPS (around 20, variation of this recipe, decoration inspired by this recipe)

2 tubes of Domino/Oreo mint cookies
100 g cream cheese
200-300 g white chocolate

Smash the cookies until fine. Mix with cream cheese. Put in fridge for about 1 hour until the dough is a bit harder. Roll small balls of it and put in fridge for a few minutes. Melt the white chocolate, dip the other ends of the sticks in it, stick the stick into the ball and roll in chocolate. Let dry in fridge and paint the faces preferably with black pasta colour or other powdered colour mixed with water. 

The baking store had run out of black pasta colour, so bought an edible ink pen, which turned out to be a fiasco: the colour just didn't come out of the sharp end, so I had to go back and forth with the sides of the head. I overpainted the scary little faces with dark green powdered colour I happened to have. That's why my ghosts have blurry faces!

Vanilla pumpkin pie with whipped cream and maple syrup.

VANILLA PUMPKIN PIE (for 12, find the recipe in Finnish here.)

400 g of refrigerated shortcrust pastry

2 dl crushed pecan nuts
5 dl mashed pumpkin
4 eggs
2 dl vanilla quark
1,5 dl cane sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
0,5 teaspoon ginger
hint of powdered clove
0,5 teaspoon salt

whipped cream and maple syrup

1. Melt the pastry, roll it a bit thinner and press it on the bottom and sides of a pie tray.
2. Crush the nuts and roast them on a dry pan until they get some colour. Be careful not to burn them. Pour the nuts on the pastry.
3. Cut the "hat" of the pumpkin off, remove the seeds, gouge the flesh and boil it until soft and smash it (I never boil the flesh, just smash it raw).
4. Whip the eggs until soft foam. Mix all the ingredients together and pour over the nuts. Bake at 200 C for about 40 minutes. When done, let the pie cool down completely befor cutting it.

Serve with whipped cream and maple syrup.

Breadstick bones.

BREADSTICK BONES (in Finnish here)

PASTRY
70-80 g grated parmesan cheese
3 cloves of garlic
5 dl milk or water (I used water)
1/4 pckg yeast
11-12 dl flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 dl olive oil
2 tablespoons dried herbs (eg. basilica, rosemary, thyme)

ON TOP
olive oil
grated parmesan cheese
sesame/poppy seeds
sea salt

1. Heat the milk/water until warm, crumble the yeast into the liquid. Add 8 dl of flour after the yeast has dissolved. Knead the pastry until elastic and go on for about 15 minutes.
2. Add cheese, garlic, olive oil, salt and herbs. Mix until even. Cover with a towel and let rise for half an hour. Press the pastry and let rise for another half hour. Heat the oven to 225 C.
3. Divide the pastry in four. Use a rolling pin to roll the pastry into a rectangle (15 cm x 25 cm) and cut it lengthwise into 8 pieces. Roll the pieces between hands until finger thick sticks. Place on a baking tray, brush with olive oil and sprinkle other ingredients on top.   
4. Bake for about 15 minutes or until slightly brownish. Preferably serve right away.   

I made a red dip for the sticks by mixing sour cream with red pesto.

Chocolate (pumpkin) balls, cheese boned with apple/cinnamon jam. With a bone-shaped mold these were super easy to make.

PURPLE PUNCH

Almost a whole bottle of Parfait amour liqueur (the purple one)
1/2-1 bottle of dry white whine
Red soda (eg. Fanta Exotic)
Sparkling water


Wow, that was a lot of recipes for one post! Happy and creepy Halloween! It's time for this witch to park the broom and go to bed.

Party like it's 50's!

I know some people just hate theme parties, but I'm not one of those. I've come into the conclusion I live my childhood dream of becoming an actress through them. Dressing up as something else than yourself kind of makes you jump into a role. At least I've noticed I e.g. start to walk more elegantly with 20's dress on. Well, the bad language is stille there ;).

My dear friend turned 30 this week and threw a party with a 50's/pin up theme. The celebration took place at Navy Jerry's, a marine inspired bar, which turned out to be a perfect choice. It was my first time there, and have to say the atmosphere, decoration, staff and music were all good. A big plus is also when a bar has mojitos on their list. Believe me or not, but it hasn't been in one or two clubs where I've heard "we don't have mint" when ordering it.

Right after receiving the invitaiton I had a clear vision on my mind of what to wear: a tulle skirt (which I already had thrown into a 'sell at flea market' -pile), a top and knee socks. Of course I didn't try them on before Saturday, and when I did, felt like a clown. It was just simply too much. Fortunately I had something navyish in my closet – less festive, though – so made it on time. It's been a looong time since wearing these high waist jeans. They were once my favourite pair.

Vintage jacket, Guess jeans, second hand tee, vintage handbag, vintage heels, pearl necklace from Gina Tricot and earrings from Vero Moda.

Flow wow wow

For the past two years I've wanted to go to Flow Festival, but for some reason never made it. This year I finally executed my long-term plan and went. The most memorable shows for me (as could be predicted) were Lykke Li, The Black Keys and Björk.

I really liked what my friends, Mari and Sini, had picked out of their wardrobes for the festival, so decided to share these pics of them with you!

Mari: Cheap Monday pants, Urban Outfitters body, Makia hoodie, Lacoste bag, Nike Dunk Wedge Sky High sneakers, shades from a friend.

Mari was super excited about her new wedge Nikes. Can't blame her, they are fabulous! :)

I love traditional Norwegian sweaters and immediately liked Sini's outfit. Can you believe it's only August and a thick sweater like that was not too much? I was wearing a coat myself and freezing my butt off! Summer, please don't go!

Sini: vintage Norwegian sweater, Stocker jeans, H&M sneakers, Fjällräven backpack, RayBan shades.

It's officially end of summer. I was cold in this almost-winter-coat. I've only worn this Finnish made coat for a few times, since I'm not sure whether I like the shoulder pads or not. They kind of make me look like a bodybuilder, huh? :)

Me: vintage jacket, H&M blouse, Urban Outfitters jeans, Nature Breeze studded flats, second hand bag, Gina Tricot feather earrings, shades from Venice.

The legendary Viper Room

The Viper Room, a legendary nightclub on Sunset Strip in Hollywood, is a place I wanted to visit already on my last trip to L.A. It never happened, so this time I made sure we go. This rock/metal venue was opened in 1993, partially owned by Johnny Depp (<3). No later than the year of opening, River Phoenix died of a drug overdose in front of the club. Later on, young Hollywood celebrities, actors and musicians were regular guests of the club.

Both big and new names have been seen on the stage. We went to see Pink Fuzzy Animals (among others). They had only played a few months together, which was hard to believe.

I was surprised to see a Facebook post by a friend I met 2 years ago in Hollywood: her band SlowStart is playing at Viper Room this month! Wish I could see that, really like their first single I feel for you. Besides being the lead singer of the band, she's an author, a photographer and what not. Take a look at her bold blog Under L. Marie.

Second hand lace/fringe top, Machine jeans, second hand heels, second hand handbag,
Carlings leather biker jacket.

They weren't  as pink and fuzzy as I expected.

After The Viper Room we headed to The Playhouse. It is rare to hear hip hop music at L.A. clubs (wouldn't think so but it's true... it's all about house and trance nowadays), but on that Saturday they had a hip hop night with DJ Justin Credible. We danced the whole night and had tons of fun. We also bumped into Nonso Anozie (a.k.a. Xaro Xhoan Daxos from The Game of Thrones) a couple of times. He chatted and danced with us for a while and seemed to be very laid back and casual celebrity.

Justin Credible @ The Playhouse

Party in the U.S.A.!

PART(Y) 1

4th of July was on Wednesday, so the party went on from the 4th throughout the weekend. On Wednesday we went to Hermosa beach and a BBQ party afterwards.

Patriotic outfit no. 1: scarf turned into a top,  Zara jeans, Converse sneakers, RayBan shades.

PART(Y) 2 

First Fridays take place in Venice (Abbot Kinney Boulevard) on every first Friday of month. We went to see what it's like. All the stores are open late and people sell their handwork on the streets. The street sides are filled with food trucks and people lining for them, which makes the sidewalks sooo crowded. But anyhow, Venice First Fridays is a go!

After Abbot Kinney we headed to Lauren's house party nearby. Her place is amazing! The party was a great fun: traditional good ol' American house party with a dj and a beer pong table! :) 

Patriotic outfit no. 2 (apologies for the bad photo quality): Love Culture blouse, American Apparel denim shorts, vintage belt, Marc by Marc Jacobs clutch, Via Spiga wedges. 

Newport rooftop BBQ party

I don't know about you, but I first became familiar with the Newport Beach area scenery via the teen show O.C. (just barely over my crush on "Ryan"! ;)). Newport really is beautiful, even though we saw only a small piece of it last Sunday when we attended a nice barbeque party at a very beautiful house. The view from the rooftop was amazing! There was also a jacuzzi on the roof. It was too cold to dip in, but I could easily imagine myself sitting in hot, bubbly water with a cold drink in my hand watching the sun set far behind the rooftops...

Me: Topshop dress, Rossodisera fringe bag, Urban Outfitter sandals.
Javan: Calvin Klein shirt, Calvin Klein linen pants, RayBan shades,
Bass boat shoes.
Ashlee: GAP top, Pieces lace vest, Wefashion pants, Asos boots.
(Ashlee dug my luggage, put together this outfit and pulled it off perfectly!
Need to try that one myself one day!)

Green asparagus, pepper, beef, chicken, sweet corn and good music
coming right up! Also coconut chicken (yum!) was served.

Everyone likes Skittles, but how about Skittles mixed with vodka?
Anything with candy: yes, please!

I want this ghetto blaster! They won’t notice if I take it, will they?