Today was a bit busy! A few errands in the morning and gift wrapping and the last bunch of cards and packages made it to the post office. Our school girls had “evening school” which is a tradition at their school on the day they have their Christmas program. They also have a bake sale […]
Category: Desserts
The texture of snow and little gifts
The winters in Finland are dark but on the days the sun comes out it turns into a winter wonderland. Today the sun came out and when I noticed how everything was glistening I was in a hurry to make it outside before the sun would sink behind the trees. But with the little ones, […]
Salted Caramel Brownies
Over the past few months I have kept running into different versions of the salted caramel brownie and salted caramel ice cream on the internet. Since I like a rich brownie and the thought of having a caramel flavored with sea salt to compliment the sweetness of the brownie sounded delicious and balanced, I decided […]
Happy Father’s Day
Tomorrow is Father’s day in Finland and I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce the great father of our five children. Over the years it has been wonderful to watch him grow into fatherhood. Every parent grows into parenthood at their own pace. There are the rewarding moments and sometimes mistakes […]
Banana Bread and Saturdays
Dear readers I apologize for the long break between posts. Sometimes in life too many things happen at once and one is forced to leave some things for later. I had one of those situations. I have been itching to post and am so happy to finally be able to. Below is the story of […]
Grampa’s Almond Braid
A couple of weeks ago I posted about Tikkupulla or pulla baked over a bonfire. In Finland there are many different versions of the traditional pulla. Pulla basically is a sweet bread that has yeast in it and is most often flavored with cardamom. They can be filled with cinnamon, sugar and butter or simply […]
The migration of geese and an apple treat for the occassion
This week has been gray, rainy and even a bit drab. What made it unique was that right over our house and in the fields around us gathered hundreds of Barnacle geese. There were a few White-fronted and Bean geese in the mix. It was a real cachophony of sound and when they all took […]
Tikkupulla
Tikkupulla is a sweet bun dough flavored with cardamom that is wrapped around a stick and baked over an open bonfire. Languages portray the people and their culture, creating words to describe the things that are a part of life. I did not find a suitable word for it in English other than sweet-bun-on-a-stick. Tikkupulla […]
Birthdays are only once a year
Fortunately we have a large family. We get to celebrate seven birthdays every year. And each birthday happens to be in a different month. It’s a day that the kids wait for all year long. I let them choose a theme for the cake and then try my best to fulfill the wish. They plan […]
Grampa’s Fresh Fruit Tart
Life is all about learning. Sometime the best way to learn is from older generations. They have lives full of many different experiences and can give us younger ones genuine perspective. Since Grampa has been baking and doing product development for many years, I asked him to share some of his knowledge from time to […]
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