Garden party

On a perfect sunny July day we had a garden party at T's place with a ot of wonderful stuff to eat. On the photos foccaccia and strawberries with raw chocolate, just to mention some of our treats. In a good company playing a neo-traditional Finnish outdoor game was more fun than expected.

My lakes

We had a marvellous summer holiday in Finland and Sweden. The sun, sauna, summer treats, meeting friends and family, lazy cycling and swimming. During one day we conquered 3 different bathing spots and all together we swam in 1 river, 3 lakes (several beaches) and 2 different seas. Not bad for a landlubber!

Slow summer

Oh, it is already August. The summer has been filled with lazy breakfasts, sunny brunches, outdoor luncheons, bubbly picnics, dinners, night-snacks and other delicate eatings but even bigger laziness has occurred when it comes to reporting, let alone photographing them. I will return later, when the cold winds blow outside. There are veggie restaurant reviews from Gothenburg, Moscow (still un-updated?), Lyon and Paris to come...

Now it's time to prepare snacks for tomorrow Poděbrady day trip: beetroot-feta-spinach and chickpea-curry-rucola wraps. Photos follow, or do not.

Baba

Sunday day trip: short bus rip uphill from Hradčanská took us to Baba. Beautiful part of Praha 6 on a hill with magnificient views all around.  After a walk down to Podbaba, lunch at cosy restaurant Pod Juliskou with surprisingly good choices for a veggie as well. And an ice cream stall with an apt name. Not.

BBQ # infinite

Oh, I have lost count on barbeques already. Whenever the weather permits, we pack our baskets and grill and head to Stromovka. Last time we had tabbouleh (with bulgur, so much tastier than couscous) and raw cauliflower salad with grilled zucchini and sweet potatos.  NB. The bird was not on the menu.

Mlsna Kavka

"Picky jackdaw" is a veggie restaurant in Karlin, Prague 8. After a long walk a tempeh burger with fries was just what I craved for. Juicy, big and tasty. Also I had one of the best home-made lemon limonades ever. M had falafel salad, which also was good. Falafels were fresh, moist and not dry at all. The restaurant employs people rehabilitating from mental problems and disorders, so the service can sometimes be slow or shy. Even more reason to support the establishment.

Restaurant Day in Prague

 The Finnish invention has of course landed also in Czech. This time we participated as restaurateurs serving Finnish pies and pasties. It was so much fun, although quite alot of work. Definitely our home restaurant will be open also in Restaurant Days to come!

My mom can be proud of the Karelian pies I baked without proper equipment and decent wood-heated oven.

Anti-pasta

Hahaha, pun intended. Last week finally I prepared tagliatelle-ish threads from steamed zucchini and carrot, served them with tomato ragu. Meatless, naturally.

Both the carrot and zucchini were on the short side, so the end result didn't really remind of the original, but it did the job of tasting good and not making me pastacoma-tired next morning.

Food. Good.

Dinner yesterday was mango-avocado salsa with lime&chili, plus sesame-fried mozzarella. The salsa was supergood, it could use a tad more sweetness but then the mango was very soft and ripe. Mozzarella did not behave nicely on the frying pan, it tasted good but looked weird. Tofu could be better, first marinated in sesame oil etc. and then fried.

For dessert we innovated a quick non-fat version of köyhät ritarit or fattiga riddare or sweet french toast if you're more familiar with that. We toasted slices of braided egg bun vanocka, topped the sweet toast with ice cream and there you go!

Weekend food summarized

It has been so many good dishes lately, it gets hard to keep up with them. This weekend it was russian, karelian and eclectic cuisine.

On Saturday we bought cabbage-mushroom versions of homemade varenikis that russian grocery store two blocks away  sells.  Tiny pies were steamed ready in 1,5 minutes and they were sooo good with sour cream and gherkins. Because Lidl had Scandinavian week, I could have Finnish Lapland cheese "leipäjuusto" as dessert. I warmed it in oven with cream and served it with arctic cloudberry jam. 

After a stroll in Stromovka, a salad as light Sunday dinner: white cheese and pears fried in balsamic vinegar & honey, pumpkin seeds, raddish, carrots together with ciabatta and [lame] Chardonnay.

Wine Food Market

 last week we got acquintated with Italian food market and restaurant near Smichovské nadrazi. The grocery department stacks italian delicacies like olive oils, pasta, wine, cheese... Whatever your heart desires.

After filling your shopping basket you can start filling your stomach from bakery, restaurant, ice cream and cake counter. We bought antipasti such as cheeses, rustic bread and delightfully strawberryish rosé from the grocery store. The staff kindly cut the cheese for us, changed our wine bottle to a colder bottle and even rinsed tomatos ready in a bowl! Very nice. And the tomatos were to die for, so sweet and juicy. Oh, and we also had sizzling pizza slices from bakery. Yummy. I honestly thought that would be enough and I would not need a main.
How wrong I was...

For main dish I had salad with some Piemontese cheese, grilled aubergine and zucchini. And final touch was a scoop of capuccino icecream.

The food was delicious, simple but good as it should be. The service was fine too. One of the younger waiters seemed to be a bit lost with his plates asking around who oredered what but that was just cute. The place seemed to be laidback and informal, big tables and one open space to dine. On a Wednesday evening it was buzzing with people. Too bad that it closes already at 22.00, also on weekends.

All in all a really good experience. Though a meat and fish eater place mostly, there are vegetarian salads, pizzas and pastas available.

Definitely want to go again, maybe for lunch or for serious grocery shopping. Or bringing guests, or just taking a tram trip for gelato.

Project 2014 #2: Moving house

It is one week until the Grand Moving Day so I'm still pretty at ease. Everything will be evaluated into keep/sell/give/recycle categories, I'm not going to any unnecessary stuff to the new home. Everything will be packed neatly, no uncategorised sacks of indeterminates. No moving day morning panic, no carrying last things without any package in my bare hands.

Yeah right. Previous times I've ended up moving all the whatnots, tchotchke and everything. Dirty laundy, half eaten sandwiches and half-filled garbage bags. Figratively speaking, maybe.

This moving project is special in every way though, so maybe I'll be organized and prompt until the very end. I packed tentatively one box of books, weighed it in my hands and unpacked it quickly. Too heavy, will affect negatively to friendships.

One thing that I've learned is to pack a survival kit: toilet paper, towels and soap for moving help to wash their hands before eating the gigantic moving day pizza, sparkling wine to drink first morning in new home etc... Taking care of moving help satisfaction is important: drink, pizza, snack and so on. Moving in winter makes it easy, no one will probably dehydrate carrying boxes.

Packing should be done room 2 room, eg. only livingroom stuff in one box. But on the other hand, clothing and linen is a great padding in every box so I may not follow this rule.

The easiest thing is to empty kitchen shelves before moving day. It has been couscous with every thing imaginable. It has been lentils and rice, mej'adra. I've been eating oatmeal porridge with lingoberry jam and maple syrup. Both very tasty, may I add.

Asian food weekend

We visited the vietnamese SAPA market again and now happily munching the retreats: steamed pak choi, tofu and morning glory with rice and ketjap. Bought also some grain tea and a lot of rambutans.

Pasta Genovese, comfort food / carb coma

Yum yum nom nom. Pasta Genovese is about the first food I've prepared 2 days in a row just because it is so good. It IS. SO good, warm, creamy, gooey, filling...And how quick and easy, just throw everyhing in a pot! The dish makes me feel having an imaginary Italian nonna serving it to me. Total comfort food. Yesterday with red tomato+olive sauce, today with home made pesto. We had some snow, so there's need for extra warming winter foods! Spuds!

But as it seems to be with white pasta,  and now even more as there were potatos added, the quick carbonhydrates makes me sleepy, lethargic and drowsy after eating and next morning. Not to mention swollen and puffy. So I guess it is arrivederci nonna, at least for some time now.

Project 2014 #1: Upcycling leftovers

I'm not a big fan of new year's resolutions. On the other hand I just love projects. So year 2014 will be - among all other things to come -

The year of innovative upcycling of food leftovers. We've started already.

Yesterday's basmati rice + basic tomato curry = tomorrow's deep-fried balls breaded with crumbled rye crackers and Christmas gingerbread! Yes, really. Try if you dare.

Yesterday's nordic beetroot-sweet potato-root veggie casserole = tomorrow's hamburger patties. Wouldn't post a photo becuse the patties looked like cookies made of elphant dung. But good with hummus, Gloucester cheese and arugola on toasted bagels.

Dream dessert

Food invedes dreaming: last night someone was very upset about being offered beetroot-chocolate mousse on a rye cracker crumble. Hmmm... that can possibly be prepared and probably it's not going to be awfully yucky either. Considering all the hype about beetroot cakes over Christmas time. I may have to try it.

Sunday syrnikis

 Weekend brunch is incomplete without pancakes. Either American style fluffy ones, banana-egg simplicities or these delicious quark pancakes. This Sunday they were delightfully non-symmetrically shaped, served with maple syrup and pineapple-mango jam.

Saturday macarons

This photo presents the many wonderful - if a tad decadent - weekends I've been fortunate enough to spend in Prague. This was 2nd of the 4 (four) cafés we went during one lazy Saturday.

Here we come, year 2014

International buffet table: polish smoked cheeses, swedish dip sauce, latvian pastries, malaysian spicy marinade, czech potato chips (?) and finnish Marimekko napkins. 'Twas a lovely bubbly evening,  costume party with eating, dancing, fireworks and friends.

Christmas eve dinner, umpth cassarole

Åj. It was a nice Christmas dinner, partly planned and partly improvised. Beetroot sweet potato cassarole (umpth version, we've been preparing several from several ingredients) with blue cheese and layered salad. Plus all the extras, cheeses, pickles, breads, wine. Meateaters had meat and fish but that's not interesting at all. Plus sweets, chocolate, salty liquorice, gingerbread, cookies, cookies. And did I say cookies?

Plus two presents, more on the way still!