School has been in session for two weeks now. Life has regained its order as now everyone must get up early. Although the weather has changed and nearly everyday there has been a short thunderstorm or rainfall, it still has been fairly warm. We have been madly trying to do all of the summer things […]
Category: Desserts
Enjoying Omar Toffee Triangles at 2am
We have had 38 days of hot weather and like usual, it always comes to an abrupt end. Last Sunday at the country fair it was still hot and on Tuesday morning as the kids left for their first day of school it was raining. The hot days are gone. It will still be warm […]
Vanha Pappila
In nearly every larger town and city in Finland there is a Lutheran State Church. Somewhere nearby there will be the parsonage. Pappi is the word for minister or pastor and pappila is the parsonage. Vanha means old. These parsonages are not in their current use and have been sold many years ago to private […]
Grampa’s Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins
In Finland the winter is supposed to be snowy and cold. Summers are supposed to full of summer scents (mosquitoes) and birch trees swaying in the wind. It may not always be so hot but it usually is warm. It seems as if the weather is a bit confused. Last winter the American Midwest got an […]
Baked under the Midnight Sun
Midsummer is almost here in just a week. The nights are quite light and it is so easy to loose track of time since the kids are not in school. It seems perfectly logical to start washing windows at ten o’clock in the evening as the sun is not telling us to go to bed. […]
Searching for the Skyline
It was a rainy and gray day. Mummu had agreed to take care of the children. As much as I love my children, it’s a fairly rare occasion to have the afternoon just to yourself. So this was a treat. Our mission was to find the city skyline. As my time in Minneapolis was coming […]
Ponyride
Ponyride started in an abandoned building but today the building and initiative is teeming with life. It is located in a previously abandoned building in Corktown, Detroit. On one exterior wall, volunteer graffiti artists have decorated it with color. The main entrance right off the street is rather unassuming but the stories within are everything […]
A bankrupt city
It was a relaxed whirlwind of a trip, if a whirlwind could be considered relaxed. So many new and old experiences re-experienced. Yet the pace was not hectic. Sometimes the moments best remembered are ones that are hardest to record. A hug or the feeling that your heart might burst when you see loved ones […]
A Perfect Ten
We have a tradition that the morning of your birthday starts with a song and gifts. Everyone else is woken up and we quietly make our way to bring the well-wishes for the coming year to the lucky birthday kid. A few weeks back when Marian turned ten our Erik had told me that he […]
In My Kitchen, March sweetness
I had been desiring something sweet. Shrove Tuesday had been on Tuesday and traditionally in Finland we would enjoy the laskiaspulla along with sledding in the white banks of snow. This year nature has not been following traditions and neither did I as we do not have any snow and really only got a few […]
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