Ensimmäinen adventtisunnuntai

My greetings for the week are also from the kitchen. Finland doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, but we enjoyed a special candlelight breakfast on the first Sunday of advent. Rice porridge is a very traditional thing to eat here during Christmastime. The kids often complain about other porridges (something many Finnish parents like their children to eat all year), but they love this one. I'm sure part of the reason is the excitement about who gets the single lucky almond hidden in the porridge, but it also really is delicious, creamy and filling. Perfect with a sweet soup made of dried fruit and spices, or then simply with cinnamon and sugar. We also tried an exceptionally good malt bread, and I had made caramelized almonds the night before. That was because there was leftover melted sugar from the gingerbread house. Remind me to delegate assembling the gingerbread house next year! I almost lost my advent spirit doing that one.

I even managed to find a rice porridge recipe adapted to an American kitchen. I haven't tried this one, but why don't you! Remember to tell me how it turned out! And if you have kids, did they like it, and who got the almond!

Thankful!

Turkey.  Our grandmother's sausage stuffing.  Green bean casserole, carrots, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy.  And a yeast bread, baked the same day, which usually seems too daunting a task when I'm not cooking so many other things (not that I cooked all those things by myself!)  And a cake (just to switch things up) and of course, pumpkin pie.  Oh, and the frozen cranberry "salad" (the creamy marshmallow kind) that I totally forgot about until dinner was over!  The kitchen transitions from organization to chaos and back again many times during the preparation of this meal.  Lara, are there any Finnish holidays which are so centered around cooking up one ridiculously huge meal?

Synkkää

Two full months of parenting sick children - and counting, more or less. The ultimate marathon of patience. Our baby will soon no longer be a baby, but he is still not sleeping through his nights. We've tried everything, but he keeps waking up several times almost every night.

It's so dark now, with daylight only from about 8 am to 4 pm. With a thick layer of clouds it's actually more like dark in the day and darker at night. Too dark for pictures, so the ones you see above are from my archives. From the end of May, when the sun plays on the walls at 9 pm. November is the price we pay for our white nights!

This is Finland at its worse, the time of year that calls for sisu. Every Finnish person knows exactly what it means, but there is no precise translation into any other language. A dictionary would call it persistence, perseverance, stamina, guts, or (this is my favorite) stick-with-it-ness.  It's what we consider to be our national trait. An essential trait for anyone who would want to live here in November. Or for a little people with a long history of living next to a huge, intimidating neighbor.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I would even enjoy November, if I had the opportunity of just knitting my evenings away. Yes, I've heard some people say they like November.

This must be my most gloomy post ever! I promise something more positive next week. But here's another example of what it means to be Finnish: it's culturally completely acceptable to be openly gloomy when you feel like it!

It seems Amy is in need of a little blog vacation. Sisu to you, cousin!

Sumu

One morning the sun rose to meet with an impressive fog. These pictures are best without words. Enjoy the silence.

(Alternatively you can try this as background music. I especially like this version of the song.)

Audobon

It's funny how little coincidences happen.  Today, we had a friend come over to visit, and she brought her book of bird drawings with her.  She has been carefully drawing them from other books and pictures, and includes amazing details of the nests, individual feathers, and what might be in the birds' stomachs.  I keep saying it is just like the big Audobon book of birds.  During the visit, I talked to a neighbor of mine who is very involved with our local Audobon Society, and was telling her about this blog.  I have been meaning all day to email the link to her, and now that I am mentioning her, I suppose I should finally get to it!  Welcome, neighbor, I hope you enjoy looking at our blog!

Here are some of the highlights from the visit!

Kuume, kakku, kirje ja 17 keltuaista

So the next morning after my last post I had a sore throat. And the next day a fever. It wasn't enough to get exhausted. I had to get sick to allow the baby to finally sleep overnight at his grandparents' (with his daddy), so I could get some proper sleep. I'm grateful we have a man in the family who will make sure the boy gets to go through his separation processes!

Until about Thursday having a party on the weekend seemed quite unlikely, but then we decided to try anyway. I don't know many good cake recipes, and I didn't want to make the same I always make, so I thought and thought what kind should it be. I finally realized it had to be an angel food cake for my little angels! I had never made an angel food cake before, so can you imagine my despair when I realized in process, the night before the party, how complicated it was! It will be a while before I ever try that one again...

But with the generous help of family we managed to pull it through, and were happy that we did. It was the combined birthday party of all our children.

Now I have 17 egg yolks left over from the cake, waiting for me to put them to use. I guess I'm going to have to make the biggest hollandaise sauce ever and distribute it to all of our relatives. Any other suggestions?

(Oh yes, one special highlight from last week was a real old-fashioned letter from a friend. A piece of nice paper with unique handwriting folded in an envelope with a stamp on it! How enjoyable! That's one practice I would like to return to a world dominated by social media.)

Fruit loop, parts 1, 2, 3, and 4

It's apple season!  But the drive to the region full of orchards, farms, and wineries takes you around Part 1 of this journey, which I call, Mt. Hood: Will We See It Or Not?  A light breeze gave us intermittent views through the mist. 

Part 2:  Farm Fun!

Part 3:  The Beautiful Town of Hood River

Part 4:  What Am I Going To Do With All These Apples and Pears?
There is an orchard here that grows almost 100 varieties of heirloom apples.  They have a policy that any apple that is slightly less than perfect or accidentally falls on the ground (regardless of bruising) goes into the juice-apples bin.  So for 29 cents a pound, I get enough apples to eat (check), can applesauce (check), make into pies (check), and still have leftovers (help)!!  And I still have a box of pears to deal with...