A day off

Hello dears,

I had a day off today. In the morning I had dentist, which wasn't as bad as usually. Anyhow, since I had rest of the day off I wanted to do something. I decided to go in Nuuksio. You might remember that I wanted to go there again in autumn. I was a bit upset coz I didn't saw much autumn colors in Nuuksio. It was the one of the reasons why I went there today: to take photos of Finnish nature. Another reason was siberian flying squirrel reflector. It really looks like a squirrel hit by a car. Or what do you think?
 
 

I started my hiking tour from Haltia where I bought the reflector, I also took a couple maps so I wouldn't get lost in the forest. The route that I took this time was a new one to me. I was suprised how hilly it was. There was one moment when I felt like dying...it was really hard to get up the stairs.

My goal was to walk from Haltia to Haukkalampi and back to Haltia.

 

 

'

 

 

 

When I reached Haukkalampi I took a few photos there and then walked back to Haltia.

 

 

 

It enjoyed a lot my walk in Nuuksio. I'm sure I will sleep well at night. Hopefully I won't fall asleep before Champions League match starts. Arsenal plays against Bayern München. When it is possible to see Bayern München playing in Finnish TV I won't miss my chance to watch the match.

Till next time!



 

 

 

 

 

 

 





The evening with the eagle owls

Hello dears,

Yesterday I went to see a football (soccer) match with my friend in Helsinki Olympic Stadium. Huuhkajat (the eagle owls, also know Finland's national football team). It was such a dull match. Most of time I was freezing in cold stadium and hoping to have a cup of Irish Coffee.
 
The match was part of Euro 2016 qualification. Unfortnally Finland didn't maked to the Euro 2016 this time. Actually, Finland has sad history with championships. Once I heard a joke that Finland gets to the world cup when hell freezes over, the same year Finland will also win Brazil 7-1.

Anyway, back to the yesterdays match. Finland played against Northern Ireland.  The biggest excitement was when Paulus Arajuuri made a 1-1 goal on 87 minute. It's a shame that Finland lost their match against Romania. Yesterdays match would have been different if Finland would have won it. But no, their played 1-1 match which meant that Finland lost their chance to be a part of Euro 2016.

 But hey, good thing that there's always Germany. There people actually know how to kick the ball and what's more important, how to make a goal and keep the ball away the own goal. I know who I will support next summer when I will dedicate a month for football.

Here is a few photos from the match.

Till next time!

Happy cinnamon roll day!

Hello dears!

Today is cinnamon roll day. (in Finnish korvapuustipäivä) So I decided to make cinnamon rolls (korvapuusti). My version of cinnamon rolls is a Finnish one. This is how we made cinnamon rolls in Finland. I hope you will like them :)

Ingredients

25 g yeast

75 g butter or 75 g margarine

300 ml milk

¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt

50 ml sugar

³⁄₄ teaspoon ground cardamom

750 ml all-purpose flour

 

Filling

100 g butter or 100 g margarine, room temperature

100 ml sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

For Brushing

1 egg, beaten for brushing

 

Then let's get started. This is what you need to do:

 

Crumble yeast into a bowl.
Melt butter, add milk and gently heat the mixture to 37°C.
Pour over yeast and mix until yeast has dissolved.
Add salt, sugar, cardamom and stir; add about 200 ml of the flour and stir.
Add the rest of the flour and knead dough by hand until smooth and elastic, and it no longer sticks to the bowl (this shouldn't take long) nor to your hand (which takes a bit longer).
Mix the filling ingredients together.
Lightly flour the baking board and turn the dough on it.
Roll dough out to a 40 x 60 cm square.
Spread the filling on the dough and roll it up tightly, starting from the longer side of the square.
Cut the roll in 3-4 cm pieces.
Use a finger or a spoon to press down each tip to form ear-shaped rolls.
Place rolls on a parchmented baking sheet, cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
Brush the rolls with beaten egg.
Bake at 225 C for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

If you gonna make Finnish cinnamon rolls let me know did you liked it :)

Till next time!

The autumn trip to Nuuksio National Park

Hello dears,

I was a bit worries on Wednesday will I manage to go in Nuuksio coz I got a autumn flu. Nasty thing to have, I lost my voice on Thursday evening. I was freaking' out, I have never lost my voice before. But luckily I got it back yesterday, it's still a bit raspy. Anyhow, I decided to go hiking in Nuuksio with my friend. I think she was more exhausted than I was when I finally got out of the forest. And I was the ill one!

We started our day with a nice breakfast in Haltia. After the breaksfast we went to see the exhibitions. Which I found really interesting. There was an exhibition about why people love the hiking.

                                          A view from Haltia. Looks really beautiful!

                    At the exhibition in Haltia. This jacket is a bit too big for me.


In Haltia we checked the map and decided to walk to Lake Bodom. It wasn't as near as we first thought it would be. In the end we walked about 9 km before we reached beach of Lake Bodom. 

                                                              Finnish forest.

 

Doings of the ice age.

 

The Lake Bodom

 

It was a fun day in the fresh air in a good company! I definitely gonna make another trip to Nuuksio in autumn.

Till next time!

Helsinki International Film Festival

Hello dears,

It's September and the highlight of September is HIFF , Helsinki International Film Festival, or as we Finns call it Rakkautta & Anarkiaa. This festival has been my highlight of the autumn for years. As a movie lover it's great to see other than mainstream movies. This year I am going to see movies from Arfica, USA and Iran. I'm really looking forward the movie from Iran.( A few years ago I saw Iranian movie called as "A Seperation". Some of you might know it won  Best Foreign Language Film in 2012. ) Ever since I have liked Iranian movies.

Next week I am going to see Grandma and Taxi. A week later I am going to see Crumbs.

Here are the trailers all the movies.

Grandma

Taxi

Crumbs

Now I am curious to know, what do you think? Would you go to see those movies? If you would; why? If you wouldn't; why not?


Till next time!

DIY Christmas cards

Hello dears,

I know, I know...it's been a while. So sorry...I was so busy at work that I didn't have any time to update my blog...but now I'm back!  :)


As some of you might know I make Christmas cards early...this year very early. I got an inspiration, and rest is the history now. I wanna share how I made my Christmas cards this year. Maybe, just maybe some of you might get inspiration too! Some people says that making Christmas cards takes a lot of time, a lot of money. I say, no it doesn't. I only needed some buttoms, white ( you can choose the color that pleases you) cards, glue gun and colored pencil.

 

This is all what you need to make a Christmas card

My idea was pretty simple. I glued the buttoms on a row and draw a ribbon so buttoms would look like Christmas ornaments.

            This is what my cards looked before I glued the buttoms on the cards.

                                                            This was the result.



When I have draw the ribbons and bows. I wrote "Hyvää Joulua" all cards. Because I do send Christmas cards to my friends in abroad I also wrote "Merry Christmas" those that I will send to USA or other countries and "Frohe Weihnachten" those that I will send to Germany.

Now when I am done with Christmas cards I am planning to make necklaces of pines as Christmas presents to my friends.

Till the next time!

Matcha cheesecake

Hello sweeties!

I know, I know, it's a while of my last post. I'm very sorry about it. Yesterday I made matcha cheesecake. I wanna share the recipe with you. It's my own recipe so that's why I added a lot of matcha powder so if you aren't familiar with the taste of matcha don't add it as much as I did. You might not like the result. Now matcha cheesecake is my favorite cheesecake. I definitely gonna do it again. I think it's prefect dessert for hanami festival picnic.

Matcha cheesecake:

1 package graham crackers, crushed
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted                                                                    

3-4 tablespoons green tea powder (matcha)

2 tablespoons hot water

200g white chocolate

3 leafs of gelatin                                                   

2 packages (400g) of cream cheese

2dl whipping cream

1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

1 teaspoon of stevia ( you can also use white sugar)

 

 

 

Put the graham cracker crumbs in a mixing bowl. Drizzle in the melted butter and mix until evenly moistened. Press into the bottom of( a 20cm ) springform pan. Put the pan in a fridge until the topping is ready.

Put leafs of gelatin in the cold water. Whip the cream. Combine cream cheese with matcha powder and vanilla sugar. Melt the white chocolate and it with cream cheese-matcha-vanilla mixture. Add cream on the mixture.

Boil the water. Press the water off from the leafs of gelatin and add them 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Add the mixture to the cream cheese mixture and mix.

Take the springform pan off the fridge and add the cream cheese mixture on it. Put the pan back to the fridge and keep there 2-3 hours or over the night.

 

 

                                               Matcha cheesecake served with matcha latte.

 

 

You can serve the cake with coffee or tea or with matcha latte, like I did. If you are curious to know how to make matcha latte let me know. I will post the recipe ;) It's also super easy to make.

 

Enjoy!

 

Till next time!~~