Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial hosts a series every month called “In My Kitchen”. I thought I would participate this month and give you a little peek into my kitchen. Since it is October, it really is the end of the berry season. Lingonberries are the last of the berries, bright red and tart. My husband picked close to fifty liters of the little round berries this year.
Some of them we freeze. We collected empty milk cartons, washed them and dried them and reused them for freezing the berries. The cartons fit neatly in a row and are easy to stack in a chest freezer.
The berries that are not frozen end up in juice. It was the perfect thing to do when the weather was rainy.
In my kitchen can by found my favorite appliance. It was my graduation gift when I graduated with my Master’s and so it has some sentimental value as well. It is in use nearly everyday. In addition to being a trusty workhorse it is a design classic that never goes out of style. In my opinion.
In my kitchen I have plenty of fingerprints.
Of these little monkeys.
As I bake and cook, I can see the living room room from the kitchen since it is an open area, the heart of the house.
In my kitchen is a collection of recipes. The following is from my Mother-in-law and it was my husband’s favorite as a child and as he grew up. It is called Pyhäpiirakka. Pyhä in Finnish means holy or in this case sabbath and piirakka could be translated as tart or pie. So this tart could be called “Sunday tart”. Possibly meant to be enjoyed on Sunday afternoon with coffee or tea.
Pyhäpiirakka
Crust:
300 g/10.5 oz softened butter
3 dl/1.3 c sugar
2 eggs
3 dl/1.3 c flour
3 dl/1.3 c whole wheat flour
dash salt
lingonberries, blueberries or berry of choice.
Filling:
6 dl/2.6 c kermaviili(sour milk product) or Greek yoghurt
3 eggs
1.5 dl/0.6 c sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
Place the softened butter and sugar in your stand mixer and use the paddle attachment. Whip until light and fluffy. You may alternatively use an electric hand mixer. Add in one egg at a time, beating vigorously. Fold in the flours and salt. Scrape the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Flouring your hands, pat the batter evenly. Sprinkle the berries over the crust.
Using a whisk, mix the ingredient for the filling just until it is smooth and pour over the berries. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes at 200 C/390 F. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.
From my kitchen I am able to observe the passing of seasons of the birch forest across the road.
tableofcolors 
Laila, how wonderful to have you joining in, thank you! I’ve added your post to the list but WordPress is playing up a bit today, so it’s taking a while to update the widgets (don’t worry, I’ll keep trying!). Love the ligonberries, we’ve heard of them but never tried them. They must be a wonderful resource to have in your freezer. And how CUTE are your little monkeys!! It must be a joy cooking with them around to help! 🙂
I’ve enjoyed peeking into the kitchen of others and thought it would be a fun post to do. Thanks for hosting and coming up with a great a idea!
I so enjoyed having a peek into your kitchen, you and I have the same kitchen aid stand mixer, your little ones are just beautiful and I love the tart, it really sounds delicious. So enjoyed this post!
I have the exact same kitchenaid, too! 🙂 Have never had fresh lingonberry before. Must be wonderful to have such an abundant supply! Thanks for the tour, and I love your monkeys’ pictures! 🙂
Isn’t the kitchen aid just the best Suzanne and Angie, really a reliable chum 🙂
It is great that you have joined IMK. I’m sure everyone will enjoy your fresh and lively posts. How wonderful to grow so many berries. Thanks for another mouth watering dessert recipe.
Thank you invisiblespice! Finland is a country covered in lakes and forests. It is not very densely populated compared to many other countries. Even though berry picking here is very common, since most families will pick at least a small amount, it has been estimated that less than 10% of the berry crop and 1% of the mushrooms are picked every year. It would be a shame to leave it all in the forest when there is such easy access.
You have such a lovely view from your home! And the pie looks divine too.
Thank you! I really enjoy the view, it is like a painting that changes with the seasons.
Great pictures and the pie looks delicious!
Thank you so much! 🙂
Lovely kitchen, lovely family, and a lovely pie, too. 🙂 My Kitchenaid stand mixer is now 27/28 years old. I have always used it regularly and have all of the attachments except the grain mill. I have made pasta with it; grated cheese and vegetables with it; ground meats for whatever I was making; stuffed sausage with it; made baby food with it when the children were small; made cakes, tea breads and cookies with it; used it for straining tomatoes for tomato sauce and cranberries for cranberry jelly, etc. The just list goes on and on and on, kinda like the mixer. They are incredibly well built and will last a lifetime. It was a very nice graduation present.
You have certainly gotten good use out of your Kitchen aid! Do you have the ice cream maker attachment. I was thinking that maybe it would be next on my wish list 🙂 It is handy when one machine has multiple functions since it reduces the amount of kitchen gadgets on hand. I prefer to have my tables clear so that there is room to roll out a cookie dough or pie crust.
No I don’t have it. I believe it came out several years after I got my Kitchenaid and with 4 kids, you couldn’t make enough ice cream unless you owned a creamery. 😮 I do, however, have a Lello Musso 4080 Lussino 1.5 qt ice cream maker that is one of my favorite kitchen toys. Baby Lady gave it to me for Fathers Day several years ago and it makes fabulous ice cream in about 40 minutes. With fewer children at home (now none 🙂 ), it makes just enough.
I understand what you’re saying when you talk about countertop and table space. I used to live in a 1900 sq. ft. home. Talk about crowded. Fortunately, we bought the house where we currently reside 9 years ago. We gutted the house and remodeled it. It took 6 months to remodel but now, for the first time ever, I have a kitchen large enough to house my kitchen toys. 🙂
Thanks so much for the tour of your kitchen. This has been a lovely post to read with my morning coffee. Your Kitchenaid is an impressive-looking beast. A birch forest view! How divine. I’ve only ever tasted ligonberries in imported jam, which I love. Can’t imagine having such a bounty at my fingertips. The tart looks beautiful. I’m off to check out ‘In my kitchen’ now. Sounds like a fun challenge!
PS. Lovely monkeys too!
Thank you so much for your lovely comment! Lingonberries have a flavor somewhat similar to cranberries. They can often be interchanged between recipes if one or the other is more readily available. But yes, I do love the fact that we are able to get the wild berries to close to home. Hope you found some other interesting posts from “In my kitchen”. 🙂
I’m echoing the sentiments of others, but everything about this post is lovely. The Sunday Tart looks divine, and I’m adding it to my file of recipes I have from you. Love the picture of the children, too!
Thank you so much Maddie! Hope you have a chance to try it out!
Ditto all of the above, maybe Grampa could use cranberries since we don’t have any lingonberries growing in these parts…always love the pictures…
Cranberries would work great I’m sure, as would just about any berry. I’ve made this recipe with blueberries or a mix of the two. ❤ Laila
Your monkeys are truly beautiful.
I love ligonberries- I bought them bottled and wish I could find them fresh!
The Sunday tart is an interesting recipe- it reminds me of a Hungarian tart my mother used to make. Thanks for sharing!
Aren’t they cute 😉 They make sure that I don’t ever have to complain of boredom! Did the Hungarian recipe use a sour milk product in the recipe?
It used sour cream- which is a soured milk product, right?
Yes it definitely is. Sour cream would probably work in this recipe as well!
Now I completely understand why you freeze your berries in your milk containers- fifty litres of berries, you would certainly want them stacked nice and neatly- brilliant!
Beautiful pics.
Yes, we run out of plastic containers quite quickly! 🙂 The lingonberry is an easy berry to freeze since it has a fairly thick skin compared to blueberries. They don’t stick very much to each other and so it quite easy to just pour out the amount needed and then returning the carton to the freezer. But we have used this method with our blueberries as well.
How lovely of you to join in the fun and what a fabulous IMK format you have put together. I would love a kitchen aid, maybe one day. Your little ones are adorable and I bet they love eating all the delicious goodies you make.
Have a happy day.
🙂 Mandy xo
It was definitely a fun post to write! Glad you enjoyed it Mandy. I sure hope you can get a kitchen aid someday…put it on your wish list 🙂
I love being in your kitchen with all its charming monkeys and good views and wonderful food. Isn’t it sad that less than 10% of the berry crop is picked each year?
Thanks for dropping by! The amount of berries available is vast. And truly the Finns are nation of berry-pickers, but maybe it is good that not all of them are picked. They are an important source of nutrition for many of the grouse-type birds and for the bears as well before they hibernate.
Yes, it is good to maintain a balance. Also when all the berries are picked, it is usually a sign that people are starving, so we wouldn’t want that to be the case. 🙂
Laila, you live in such a beautiful place. I adore that view from your kitchen. I think I’d stand out there every day if I had access to such a beautiful patch of green 🙂 Love the look of this tart. When I last visited my relatives in Sweden, we ate lingonberry sauce, lingonberry ice-cream, lingonberries in muffins… all sorts of things! I love the bright crimson and the sweet-tart flavour. I love the look of your husband’s favourite tart. It’s beautiful. I’ll definitely give it a go, possibly with redcurrants or blueberries in place of the lingonberries (as we can’t find them over here). Beautiful post xx
I really do enjoy the view everyday. It changes with the weather and seasons and brings a sense of peace and quiet in an otherwise fairly busy life. I hope you have a chance to try out the recipe and I’m sure the red currants or blueberries would work wonderfully! Thanks for stopping by!
What a lovely post. Wish I could try lingonberries. Beautiful tart!
Lingonberries are a fruit of the Nordic forest. I know that there are some lingonberry preserves/jams available. But this recipe can be made with really any berry. A tart red currant would probably be quite wonderful. 🙂
What a great post! Can’t believe how many berries you picked – and what a great idea for putting them in the freezer. Kitchen Aids are brililant and the kids are gorgeous – as is the tart!
I must not take the credit for picking since my husband is the expert in the field in our household. But I do help with the aftermath 🙂 Thank you for stopping by!
Very nice post and the children are adorable! I’ve never had lingonberries, but would love to try them sometime. The tart looks delicious! 🙂
Thank you so much Julie!
I love how reading IMK brings me to kitchens around the world. I’ve never seen a picture of fresh lingonberries before as we don’t have them in Canada (just in IKEA!!) and what a smart way to re use containers.
Your children are adorable and good bakers too!
I agree, it is interesting to see what other have and do in their kitchens. Kitchens and food reflect the culture and times. A real life artifact.
I’m very envious of your beautiful view from your kitchen! I can imagine that you must enjoy numerous cups of coffee enjoying the sunshine and that lovely view. I’ve never heard of lingonberries before. I will just have to imagine the taste of that beautiful tart as where I live in Jordan I’ve never seen berries of any kind apart from strawberry. Oh how I miss them! But I might try and adapt this tart to using some other types of fruit such as figs which I have plenty of at the moment. Thank you for sharing this post with us. 🙂
I would love to hear how figs or other fruit work in this recipe. I have used several different berries before to much success. It really is a versatile recipe. Thank you for your comment!
The pie looks delicious and I love the view from your kitchen to the forrest, really beautiful! Warm regards, Bridget
Thank you Bridget!
It is so impressive to see the many responses , in the comments, to your blog. You must feel good about that. I’ve been in your kitchen and it is remarkable. As is the kitchen lady.
Love, Grampa
P.s. Kaija requested a popover recipe and sent pics on email.
It certainly warms my heart that so many have taken the time to read and comment. Made my day! I was just chatting with Tin and Vil over the weekend that I should do a popover post since that’s what we were enjoying Sunday morning. I’d be happy to share your recipe! They always bring Gramma’s and Grampa’s to mind.
Love, Laila
ps. maybe I’ll have to ask Kaija if she would share her pictures 🙂
Love this post! What a kitchen! And what a gorgeous family! 🙂
Thank you Miss Marzipan!
Those lingonberries look wonderful but 50 liters!!!! Brilliant idea using milk cartons to freeze them. The last thing you need is a bag or container to pop open, spreading little berries all over your freezer. That’s a beautiful view of the birch forest to look upon from your kitchen. This time, though, I think it rather pales when compared to that delicious looking tart of yours in the foreground. 😉
Yes, 50 liters does encourage creative thinking skills in a person! 😉 But juice is certainly a good way to use them when ideas start running low. I usually freeze the juice and thaw it out as needed. Well, the tart is now gone…but the scenery in its fall colors is still there changing a bit every day. 🙂
Laila, I love your graduation gift (a classic, yes!), the photos of your children (adorable) and their “fingerprints,” and also your outdoor cooling rack. 🙂 Thanks for the tip on freezing berries in milk cartons — great idea!
Thank you for stopping by Kim! Yes, the gift has certainly been one that I have used countless times. Hope you have a chance to sometimes try out the milk carton idea…we got the idea from a friend.
The little monkeys are absolutely adorable!!!
Thanks, I must say that I think so too!
Hi Laila, your Sunday tart looks absolutely delicious. welcome to IMK gang it’s great to see more kitchens around the globe, plus being the home of Lordi and one of my favourite Eurovision countries is a bonus.
cheers
Jason
Thanks Jason! It was definitely a fun post to do and looking forward to doing another one in a month. And yes, I love getting a little peek into the kitchens of others as well.
Beautiful and evocative photographs – they are always just right, so well-judged. And such a fabulous recipe. The photo of the lingonberries is poetry though. I will look at it again and again. Sophie
You are too kind Sophie! Glad you enjoyed them.–Laila
Your children are too adorable for words! Such lovely things in your kitchen 🙂
Thank you so much–the kitchen is one of my favorite rooms in the house!
i came to visit your blog today and surprise—my scheduled post for today was all about what’s in my kitchen! fun to read about yours. that first photo of the berries is mouth. watering.
I went and checked out your post. What a fun series you are doing. Thanks for stopping by.
How wonderful to have such an abundance of berries. i love this slice. i often bake with yoghurt. No wonder your children look like they are glowing with health with all that greenery around them. thanks for a peek into your kitchen
The berries are a great supplement, with the only cost being a bit of your time in the later summer and early fall (and of course the electricity to run the freezer 😉 ) The kids are often outside for at least a few hours of the day and in the summer sometimes for the whole day. Being outside everyday, rain or shine is really a part of Finnish culture.
By the way whats dl in your recipe and is c a cup as in 1.3 c?
dl refers to deciliter and c refers to cup 🙂
oh I missed this post! SO happy you’ve joined the IMK family! I’m very impressed with your berries!! 50 ltrs!! WOW! x
So glad to have joined in the IMK family 🙂 This year was a fairly good berry year since the frost did not get the flowers in the spring and growing conditions remained good during the summer.
Hi Laila, I have never seen or heard of lingonberries before. How do they grow – is it a bramble? And (I have to ask) what are the blue ones? Did a few blueberries sneak in?
The lingonberries usually grow under the forest canopy and usually in areas of the forest that are not quite as dense. It is an evergreen shrub and part of the Heath family (Wikipedia). I have a picture of the lingonberry in a previous post from last fall. Here is the direct link: https://tableofcolors.com/2012/10/14/wild-weekly-photo-challenge-fall-and-cream-of-mushroom-soup/
And yes the blue one is a blueberry that snuck in, they often grow in the same areas.
Thanks Laila, you learn something everyday. Thanks for the link, I will check it out.
oh my goodness, those children are GORGEOUS!!! what i wouldn’t do to get them in front of my camera!! 😉 lovely post as always… and you’ve inspired me to try something new as well!
Thank you Audrey! The little ones display so much enthusiasm for life with their boundless energy. They are so much fun to photograph.
Another wonderful kitchen to look around. I knew nothing about lingonberries so it’s been good to learn about them and the tip for freezing. Love your view – trees make a wonderful view as they change so much in the year. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for stopping by. Blogs give the opportunity to do a liitle armchair travelling 🙂
G’day! Love Lingonberries for cooking and baking, true!
Thanks for sharing your recipe and the little one…WISH I had their energy too!
Cheers! Joanne
Viewed as part of IMK
Yes, I admire the rather endless energy of the little ones, especially at bed time! 😉 Thanks for stopping by!
I LOVE these berries, and eat them every morning on a piece of my homemade, very dark bread.
Perhaps you could share the recipe sometimes? 🙂
What a clever tip – freezing the berries in milk cartons. We don’t have berries where I live but I’m sure it would work equally well for other things I freeze. I love that last photo with the golden afternoon sun on the cake – a real taste of a Finnish Autumn afternoon. Welcome to IMK.
I’m sure the milk cartons could be used for other things as well! They keep the freezer neat and tidy! Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting!
your little monkeys are the cutest things ever and I just love everything about your kitchen. thank you for opening its doors for us!
Yes, they are quite cute and often quite “helpful” 🙂 as well! Thanks for stopping by!
I’m another lingonberry lover. We get them occasionally, imported from you, I guess. We can also get them frozen as well. I love the tartness of them.
Your children are gorgeous. Make the most of them as they grow up so fast.
It is lovely to see your kitchen.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Lingonberries are a versatile berry. I’m trying to enjoy my children…time does seem to fly–Laila
Your kids are so gorgeous! They are very lucky to get to eat this beautiful desserts you prepare 🙂
Thank you so much! 🙂