Thursday 25 April 2013

Picking Potatoes


Mimmi, Mimmi's Great Grandpa, Lily and me.



Our friend Sari invited us to join her family in their anual potato lifting. Four generations of her family were there, from her niece, Mimmi, and her nephew, Matias, up to her grandparents. 

We had a great time together and left with enough potatoes to keep Lily, Ernest, Gábor and Jen going all through the winter.


That was really hard work; fun but exhausting. I think I need a relaxing holiday now.


Friday 19 April 2013

Blueberries




These little berries are normally called blueberries in Finland but they are different berries from what you would get in  a supermarket in the UK or USA when you buy blueberries. In English speaking countries these little berrie are normally called bilberries or even huckleberries. Whatever you want to call them they taste delicious.

There are so many tasty ways to eat them. Lily likes to pick then in the forest and eat them as she walks home from school or to eat some on her porridge fo breakfast. But my favourite way to eat them is as blueberry pie.




Here is the recipe that Lily and I used to make Finnish Style Blueberry Pie:

Ingredients:

Base:
200g butter
100ml caster sugar
3-4 eggs
1tsp vanilla sugar
2tsp baking powder
600ml flour (Lily's mum likes to use 400ml plain and 200ml whole wheat)

Topping:
500ml (or more) blueberries 
50ml caster sugar

Instuctions:


Heat oven to 200 degrees C.
Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs.
Mix together flour and baking powder. 
Combine all the base ingredients and spread into a greased pie dish.
Bake for 10 minutes then remove from oven. 
Mix the bluberries and sugar. Cover the base with blueberry mixture.
Return pie to oven for further 15 minutes.


Can be eaten hot or cold but is alway best served with vanilla cream







There are also lots and lots of lingon berries in the forest but Lily, Ernest and I all like the blueberries best.




Next time I will tell you about the fun we had picking something a little bit bigger than berries.