Girl in dragon costume bento

Hello everyone!

After a long break I am back :).

I hope you all had a great beginning of new year ^_^. As for myself, I was sick again… it feels much better this week, I am done with the flu for now. YAY!

Today for the first time during winter, LV went to pre school with her pulk (sled). We usually don’t allow her to because the most of the time, the snowy sidewalks are covered with a layer of sand, which damages pretty much the bottom of her sled. It has been snowing constantly lately in Helsinki and for some reason, the snowplow didn’t clear up the sidewalks this morning.

In the afternoon, big sister was so enthusiastic about playing with the sled, she convinced Pikkusiili to go out to play too. The result was having two hungry little girls coming home :). I prepared two bentos, my attempt to celebrate the Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year). It is the Year of the Dragon!!

(Lau! Feliz Ano do Dragao ;)

Contents: Farfalle pasta with spinach, feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes, red onions, walnuts and pecans, mini plum tomato, lettuce, red grapes, cucumber and a tiny mandarin orange. The dragon girl is a dessert-sandwich made with whole grain bread, nutella, green soy wrap, details made with cucumber, cheese, nori, wakame seaweed and jam for the cheeks :).

Ok… it is embarrassing, the girl should have looked like this (my earlier sketch-fooling around):

Hmm.. does the bento-girl look like a dragon at all?

Hmm.. ok… maybe a frog… Ahahahahah!

…

Happy Lunar New Year for my friends who celebrate it!

This post was written by karaimame exclusively for Acquiring Taste. All writing, images and other materials in this blog remain the property of Acquiring Taste and cannot be used without permission.

The gingerbread plan that failed

Oooooh yes, I wanted , I really really did… I wanted this post to be about a gingerbread house. I planned one for this year, made the models on paper… bought the decorations. Everything just ready, needed just to execute it.

Ahem.

Here comes the failure part: I could´t make it. I fell sick (again?!?) after Independence day and had a very very bad week with fever every single day. Gosh… am I frustrated? Totally. You CAN´T , MUSTN’T get ill during December! Not before Christmas… not when you have thousands of things to do…

Oh well, now it is gone. So my time spent sleeping and recovering. Blah. I redefined my priorities and reorganized my to-do list for the time remaining.

Result? No gingerbread house this year ;_;

But hey! One of the tasks from the list was to bake gingerbread with my daughters. It was a priority. I love to see them smiling while dealing with the dough and decorating with icing. Seeing them eating the little sprinkles “to taste all the colors” is just priceless… a must do every year on holidays >.<.

They deserve the fun! And I think it made me feel less bad I couldn’t make a gingerbread project this year ^_^.

For a recipe of traditional Finnish gingerbread, you can try the one I posted last year.

And… talking about gingerbread projects… My Gingerbread Carousel was selected to be featured on Cooking.com ´s Gingerbread Wonderland photo gallery! Thank you Allison for the lovely opportunity :).

This might be my last blog post until after Christmas. We are traveling to my in-laws tomorrow to spend the festive season and I can’t promise I will update the blog while there.

So, Happy Holidays everyone! Stay safe, warm and surrounded by good things :).

See you soon!

This post was written by karaimame exclusively for Acquiring Taste. All writing, images and other materials in this blog remain the property of Acquiring Taste and cannot be used without permission.

Little snack meal for Finland´s Independence Day

Finland celebrates Independence Day today, December 6th. Besides being a holiday, the day is marked by many events everywhere and it is closed with the annual President´s Ball which is broadcasted on tv every year.

For us, this tuesday was a day to relax. I was very glad we had this long weekend (LV didn’t need to go to pre school yesterday), to recharge our batteries and prepare for the Christmas Holidays.

We woke up very late and got surprised when we opened the curtains. Land outside was all covered with a white layer ^_^ ! The first snow of the year in Helsinki :)!! Too bad it melted away already, but it was beautiful in the morning.

I thought about making a bento featuring only Finnish food today, but in the end, I only made this little meal for my girls. Just to celebrate!

Contents:

- Karjalanpiirakoita – mini Karelian pastries

These little “pies” are traditional pastries from the region of Karelia, eaten all over Finland nowadays. Consists usually by a rye crust filled with rice porridge or potato mash. Barley used to be its filling in old times but not anymore. My mother-in-law taught be to make karjalanpiirakka years ago… her pastries are the best I ever ate! However.. those “mini” ones were store bought, pre-baked (yes I know, not the same as homemade…)

- Small container with munavoi

Butter mixed with boiled eggs (muna translates to egg, voi is butter), a usual spread for the karjalanpiirakka.

- Leipäjuusto “hearts” with mixed berries jam

Leipäjuusto translates to “bread cheese”. It is a fresh cheese which origins comes from Ostrobothnia(area from Finland which once belonged to Sweden), Northern Finland and Kainuu.

This kind of cheese is prepared into flat round disks then baked and grilled (or charred) for the dark marks. Usually eaten with cloudberry jam and coffee. They “squeak” nicely when you chew them ^_^!

- Mini yoghurt dessert with crushed gingerbread (piparkakku), thick yoghurt with vanilla, topped with Finnish bilberries (mustikka). The berries were collected from the forest in late Summer and they are an important source of vitamins during the Finnish winter.

- Muumipeikko or Moomintroll made with a fluffy slice of pulla (Finnish sweet cardamon bread). Eyes are dashes of melted chocolate

- Cherry tomato, cucumber slices, green apple flower and for a treat, Fazer sininen chocolates. The most loved milk chocolate of Finnish people ;)

Hope you didn’t get bored while reading my post today…  I really enjoyed writing about a bit of the Finnish food culture ^_^

Hyvää Itsenäisyyspäivää kaikille!!

(Happy Independence Day Finnish friends!)

This post was written by karaimame exclusively for Acquiring Taste. All writing, images and other materials in this blog remain the property of Acquiring Taste and cannot be used without permission.

Christmas tree bento

A bento to celebrate the Christmas season!

It was so good to return making bentos again… but it is weird to get back to the habit :/. I am totally needing some practice… not only on making the meals, but also… taking pictures of them! Gosh… I was so used to my previous settings in the old apartment I found challenging to take photos in my new kitchen. I will get better, I hope :P!

And yes, I confess I stole the idea of using the star picks for the Christmas trees from Sheri, the lovely owner of Happy Little Bento Blog. Her use of picks is brilliant, she will always be my bento-heroine inspiration of all times :).

AH! And before I forget!!! New bento boxes in this post! I got them before our moving from a sweet bento friend of mine. Thank you ^^, my girls loved the HK ♥!

Contents: rice with furikake, grilled chicken breast pieces, steamed broccoli, cucumber slices, pearl tomatoes, purple carrots, orange wedges, red grapes and Christmas shaped pasta. The tree is a mini onigiri wrapped with wilted spinach decorated with carrots “balls”.

Must say they enjoy eating spinach nowadays! Wohoo!!!

:)

This post was written by karaimame exclusively for Acquiring Taste. All writing, images and other materials in this blog remain the property of Acquiring Taste and cannot be used without permission.

2011 Advent Calendar – 2011 Joulukalenteri

December tomorrow!

Tell me what that means… Christmas is coming! Am I stressed? Nah…

This time I decided to take it easier… too much happened during the second half of the year, end of it should be more relaxing… (< did you just giggle there? I mean, I think I saw you smiling at least :)

Eh

As I told before, I invented this tradition to make a homemade Advent Calendar every year. After many rejected ideas (the most from my husband I must say :P) I decided for this Christmas Wreath, not as superb as the previous calendars, yet hopefully good enough to celebrate each day of the month and the most important: to get my girls excited about the upcoming holiday :)

I really considered skipping the tradition this year. I changed my mind when the other day, while browsing for ready chocolate-filled Advent Calendars at a shop, I was asked by my daughters if I was going make one for them… “because they still remember how the last year´s was”… *swoon* I melted.

2011 Advent Calendar – Christmas Wreath

Keeping in mind “it must be easy and fun”, this no-frills calendar was quite quick to assemble. I used a silver vine wreath (from a craft shop), “goodies” wrapped with red crêpe paper, wires and embellishments.

Brilliant right?! :D

I diminish the amount of treats they will receive each day considerably. Pretty much into a no-waste/keepsake style, using a 250 pieces puzzle for the filling (and plus! I can keep the wreath afterwards! Yay!). My girls love puzzles (we recently built a 1000 pieces puzzle together) and I thought it will be thrilling for them to build the puzzle during the countdown, not actually knowing what the final image is. Once I used the same idea with small Lego kits (Technic and Star Wars) and the results were quite funny and interesting!

How I made it:

• Dealing with the treats: after cutting the colored paper into 24 large squares, I put about 10 puzzle pieces in each, wrapping to form a ball, twisting the ends. Note!!! Sharp pieces and crêpe paper are a no-no combo… I totally recommend to use gifts that won’t rip the paper :P. Perhaps a cool option would be to use that sort of metallic plastic wrapping paper, if you have it on hands (I didn’t)
• Now the hard work. Using a craft wire (0.3mm), which I found to be more controllable than thread, I tied the little packages to the wreath, firmly so they stay on place. Be careful to hide the wire ends when done with the attaching.
• Finishing it: I decorated with small polka dots jingle bells, sparkling snow flake stickers, ribbons and a red bell. At very last, I added the numbers on each paper-ball.
• Done!!

I think it will be very easy just to pull apart the little packages from the wreath during the countdown… let´s see! ;)

Happy December friends!

This post was written by karaimame exclusively for Acquiring Taste. All writing, images and other materials in this blog remain the property of Acquiring Taste and cannot be used without permission.

Blogging again and hopefully a smooth come back

I don´t even know how to start this again…

Let´s see… Has it been 4 months since last post? We are almost in the end of November!! Gosh, this year is definitely going too fast…

Some of you already know we sold our old apartment and moved to a new one in the end of Summer. Moving was a total madness, the place is bigger but feels there´s not enough space for all our stuff… and the furnishing and decor are still half done :P

After a short summer vacation (bothered immensely by our moving) my Luonnonvoima started pre-school. That meant… changes in our daily routine and schedules. Also, no need to make bentos: sadly (or… luckily?) LV gets her meals at her day care place.

Anyways, I want to keep making bentos :)! I might not be offering them so often, but the idea of giving my daughters a fun, nutritious and balanced meal can’t be easily forgotten right? ^^

I planned to make a come back to my blog on October. Unfortunately we fell ill and could only spend time fighting off a nasty cold that seemed to last forever. Cough and sore throat coming and going… husband got really sick, followed by my two daughters and I myself. Argh, more than a month. I still have a sore throat and very low energy, guess I am still recovering from this nightmarish times.

But here I am! Christmas is coming… I had some ideas in mind for the traditional crafts I try to do every year… I really hope I can execute them and show to you guys in the next blog posts!

:)

Have a great week friends!

PS: The pictures in this post were taken in early September at a park located very near our new home. The park, called “Arboretum”, is a forest research area founded by the Helsinki University, situated very close to the “Old City Bay” (Vanhankaupunginlahti). The whole area is a nature reserve and you can go there for a walk, go biking, watch birds (there are two towers for observation), flora or just relax. It is a really cool place to be in the craziness of the city :).

 

This post was written by karaimame exclusively for Acquiring Taste. All writing, images and other materials in this blog remain the property of Acquiring Taste and cannot be used without permission.

Oh balls! Chill out with some ice cream!

Whoa! Summer is almost ending! After two months-silence I think I should update you guys…

We sold our old apartment!! (yay, fantastic!)

And at the moment we are (still) in this quest to find a new home for us… we must leave this place before July ends… or in other words this week . *sigh*

(Wish us luck? Yes?) ♡

…

It has been very hot around here lately… and I am living in this sea of moving boxes. Sorting things, packing and getting crazy O_O.

Ah well… nothing beats the heat and the heavy moods like a good and delicious cone/bowl/*whole batch* of ice cream right? :) Specially when the ice cream is self made and easy to prepare…

I made two types of ice cream for our monthly Twitter Food Party in July. The “party” happens every month on its last Monday and is organized by a group of friends on twitter. Everyone can participate! If you have a twitter account, just post a picture of the month theme dish using the hash tags #twitterfoodparty and #twittericecreamparty. Very simple and without any stress ^__^.

As we are having this dysfunctional life, I can’t spend as much time in the kitchen as I wished (and love) to. To prepare the ice creams I used two recipes from the ice cream bible “The Perfect Scoop” by David Lebovitz (If you don’t have it yet and you are super interested about making your own frozen delights, this cookbook is the best!). Two Philadelphia-Style ice creams = no eggs, no custard, less work (score!)

Vanilla Ice cream, Philadelphia-Style

makes about 1L

• 2 cups heavy cream (750ml)
• ¾ cup sugar (150g)
• pinch of salt
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• ¾ tsp. vanilla extract (I used NoMU vanilla paste)

Pour 250ml of the cream into a medium saucepan and add the sugar and salt. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the saucepan and add the pod to the pot. Warm over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved.

Remove from heat and add the remaining cream and the vanilla extract.

Chill mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (I left it overnight)

When ready to churn, remove the vanilla pod (reserve the bean for another use), then freeze the mixture in your ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

 

Chocolate Ice cream, Philadelphia Style

makes about 1 L

• 2 ¼ cups heavy cream (560ml)
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (50g, I used Valrhona cocoa powder)
• 1 cup sugar (200g)
• Pinch of salt
• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped (170g)
• 1 cup whole milk (250ml)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (I used NoMU vanilla paste)

Whisk together the cream, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a large saucepan. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full, rolling boil (it will start to foam up). Remove from the heat and whisk in the chocolate until it’s completely melted, then whisk in the milk and vanilla. Pour the mixture into a blender and blend for 30 seconds, until very smooth.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then churn it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

I let my 4yo daughter decorate her portion with some sprinkles. Isn’t this cute? She put chocolate crispies on the top of the chocolate ice cream and hundreds and thousands sprinkles over the vanilla one ^_^.

From both ice creams, they loved the chocolate one the most. Wah, they really enjoy dark chocolate, just like their mama!

Happy Summer everyone! Wish you all a great time and lots of ice cream :). Hope to start blogging again when we settle down ;), see you then!

 

This post was written by karaimame exclusively for Acquiring Taste. All writing, images and other materials in this blog remain the property of Acquiring Taste and cannot be used without permission.

 

 

 

 

A sunny spring day walk

♩♫ “Lily, my one and only. I can hardly wait till I see her” ♩♬

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a super weekend! We finally had a relaxing one after so many hectic days… No house showing scheduled at the last moment and no running around like a mad lady getting the house presentable. Uh… yes, you got it right… we are trying to sell our apartment.

It has been very difficult to cook and use my kitchen properly with all this “stand by” mode, so no food for this post, just pictures I snapped on a sunny spring day walk  :).

Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) might be one of my favorite flowers. Its lovely scent in the air makes me sure Spring has arrived. Places were all covered by its leaves… but not much flowers bloomed yet.

“Kielo” (in Finnish) is the national flower of Finland. It is so tiny, so cute, smells so good and it is highly poisonous!  ^__^  So “lily”! *grins*

Gorgeous day wasn’t it? Weekend was so sunny and warm… (we had rain on monday, bleh :P) Luonnonvoima could practice her skills with her brand new kick scooter and Pikkusiili enjoyed to discover the birds at the park nearby.

And we saw a cute mother duck and 10 little ducklings! Oh wow… I asked to my girls “Imagine if mama would have 10 children” … hubs added “you would be mad”. Ahahaha :D

…

Let’s see if I can still blog something else this week. Maybe a bento or a recipe… I am so needing to relax a bit >.<.

Have a great day friends!

 

 

This post was written by karaimame exclusively for Acquiring Taste. All writing, images and other materials in this blog remain the property of Acquiring Taste and cannot be used without permission.

 

 

 

Little dogs bento

Hello all!

Yea… I know… I haven’t posted for a while. So much has happened… all I can say is changes are (perhaps) coming in our lives (and for good I hope! *fingers crossed*)

Blogging, friends and readers are still very important to me, *big hug*. It´s just that right now I don’t have much time for the internets :( … for cooking… or crafting… time to myself and the girls. Weeee… sounds like busy huh?

Anyhow, I don’t know when I’ll be capable to write here again… please bare with my inconstant appearance online :P. I will try hard to keep doing something!

…

I made these bentos to my daughters couple of days ago ;).

Contents of the boxes: mini raw carrots, cherry tomato, tamagoyaki with spring onions (under the tomato), turkey hot dogs wrapped in egg sheets, cucumber slices, lettuce and juicy cherries. Little dogs made with zakkoku mai (mixed grains) rice, nori details and ketchup for the cheeks.

Those cherries were the first ones I spotted this year. Actually, Luonnonvoima spotted them first and asked me to purchase them. She really loves cherries… (can someone eat too much of them and get belly ache? Omigosh, that little girl can eat big amounts every time! >_<)

:)

 

This post was written by karaimame exclusively for Acquiring Taste. All writing, images and other materials in this blog remain the property of Acquiring Taste and cannot be used without permission.

 

 

 

Long weekend at the cottage. Yay for Spring!

After posting some random pictures on twitter during my staying at the countryside I decided to show something here too.

Weekend was very fun, sun appeared every day… so warm and cozy. The lake was still frozen but snow melted away from the most of the fields. My girls could enjoy the good weather and went outside to play with grandpa´s cat Moona. It is so nice to see them running around free :).

It is quite often that we still play with snow on Easter holidays and I need to pack winter clothes for the girls. This year was different… Easter was late and we could all experience the Spring awakening in the cottage. I enjoyed it, reloading the energy and seeing beauty after cold months made me good.

The small yellow flowers are the very first ones to bloom in Finland on Spring. They are called “leskenlehti” (Tussilago farfara). The purple flower surprised us on Sunday morning… there wasn’t anything on its spot when we arrived … A beautiful purple Crocus woke up to say hello :).

Luonnonvoima showing her baking skills helping grandma to make pulla (Finnish sweet cardamon bread). Grandma was making “korvapuusti” (Finnish cinnamon rolls).

A swan couple. They are pretty… but man… they make such ugly sound! *lol* One day LV was playing outside alone and those birds started “singing” it scared her to death…. poor little one, she never listened to that before, she ran insides telling she got afraid :P.

Those swans are called “laulujoutsen” (Cygnus cygnus)… “laulu” refers to singing/song in Finnish… Can’t understand the name, they sing really bad.  >___<

…

*sigh*

After good company, good food, good resting and clean weather… back to the routine…

Hope you’ve all enjoyed your Easter weekend!

Happy Spring!

 

This post was written by karaimame exclusively for Acquiring Taste. All writing, images and other materials in this blog remain the property of Acquiring Taste and cannot be used without permission.