Sunday brunch

How I love slow, lazy Sunday mornings.

When we're all home, and there's no rush to do anything or go anywhere, it's nice to take the time and prepare a proper breakfast or brunch.

Bread rolls, sauteed kale, bacon, fried tomatoes and scrambled eggs. And freshly squeezed juice. And coffee.

Perfect start for a lovely day! Have a sunny Sunday!

Blueberries, so many blueberries

A week of summer vacation spent at the cabin in Eastern Finland resulted in litres and litres of blueberries (or, officially bilberries, I guess).

Most are in the freezer to enjoy during winter but some I baked into a pies and pancakes.

INGREDIENTS

150 g butter

1,5 dl sugar

1 egg

3 dl flour

1 tsp vanilla sugar

1 tsp baking powder

blueberries (recommended amount approx. 350 g)

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for the crumb:

100 g butter

1 dl sugar

2 dl flour

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for the vanilla custard:

3 dl milk

 1 egg

2 tbsp sugar

1,5 tbsp corn starch

vanilla sugar to your liking

Heat your oven to 200 degrees C.

In a large bowl, mix together soft butter and sugar. 

Add rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth. 

Grease a large (30 cm) pie dish with butter and spread the dough on it evenly. 

Add an even layer of blueberries, amount depending on your taste (more blueberries, more moisture).

Prepare the crumb by mixing all its ingredients in a bowl by picking & crumbling with your 

fingers and sprinkle it on top of the blueberries. 

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. 

For the vanilla custard, in a kettle mix together milk, egg, sugar and sieved corn starch. 

Heat up on medium heat while constantly whisking. 

Be careful not to boil, as the egg will cook and you will have clumps. 

In 5-10 minutes the custard should thicken. 

Remove from heat when consistency is to your liking, let cool a bit and add vanilla sugar. 

Cool to room temperature.

Best, if served immediately!

But, will do the following day too :) Enjoy!

The better pasta

Pasta bolognese is something we make quite often, but normally it's our fast food. Minced beef & canned tomatoes and it's ready. This is the better, slower version.

It's still nothing more than chopped onions and garlic, seared minced beef, seasoning (salt & black pepper, beef stock cube) and tomato pulp, but it has simmered for two hours in a cast iron pot.

Well, I loved this, but the thing about living with a two-year-old is the immediate feedback. And apparently this time it wasn't good. See, no sauce.

If you'd like to take my word, and not the two-year-old's, for it, here's the very simple recipe for this very tasty bolognese.

700 g minced beef

1 medium sized onion

2 garlic gloves

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp butter 

1 can of tomato pulp

beef stock cube

salt, black pepper

1 tbsp chili seasoned olive oil, optional

Peel and chop onion and garlic. 

Heat your cast iron pot on the stove, add (both) olive oil(s) and butter and let butter melt. 

Add onion and garlic and sauté for a few minutes. Mix so they don't burn. 

Add minced beef and quickly sear it. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add the can of tomato pulp and half a tomato can of water. 

Throw in the beef stock cube and mix until it dissolves. 

Reduce heat to low, cover the pot with a lid and leave to simmer for 1,5 to 2 hours, stirring occassionally. 

 

Coconut chicken

Super easy, super tasty, kid friendly, healthy. My criteria for everyday food. And this coconut chicken ticks each box.

This recipe makes enough for three (the kid eats as much as I do) and you'll probably have enough left overs to make a small lunch salad the following day.

i n g r e d i e n t s

500 g chicken fillets

2 dl flour

2 eggs

2 dl coconut flakes

paprika

garlic powder

Heat the oven to 200 C degrees.

Cut the chicken fillets into 1 cm thick strips. 

Place flour, paprika and garlic powder into a bowl and mix. 

Break eggs into another bowl and whisk to mix the yolk and the white.

Place coconut flakes into a third bowl.

One by one, dip the chicken strips into the flour & spice mix, then to eggs and then to coconut flakes. In each bowl, make sure that the chicken gets completely covered. 

Place the strips then on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cook in the oven's middle rack until coconut has turned golden and crispy (approx. 15 minutes).

Serve with rice and veggies.

I often get asked if I make simpler versions of these dishes for the kid. I don't. This particular recipe would go down well with any kid, I'd imagine, but whatever I cook, the kid eats the same as we do. Only he eats it from an Angry Birds plate.

My sous chef

The kid loves taking part in, well, everything. So we give him little things to do, like taking napkins to garbage pin and carrying socks from the dryer to the closet. But what he loves is help with cooking.

I hate mess, so for me it's an effort. To keep myself from telling him what to do or what not to do, not to make mess, to be careful, and so on. And yes, there's flour EVERYWHERE, but if I focus on the kid's happy face, it's okay. And actually, he's pretty careful and precise in his actions.

I've decided that Saturday's are pizza days. After a working day I just don't have the energy for cooking anything fancy but still, it's weekend, so I'd like to put something nice and tasty on the table. I just need to come up with new recipes as in my pizza the only thing that's ever different is whether I top it with parmesan or mozzarella.

Enjoy your weekend!

Celebrations

It's not typical Finnish food but still not too bad for Finland's Independence Day celebration dinner.

Salad was kind of an accidental creation but turned out to be absolutely yummy; romaine lettuce, spinach, canned peaches and fresh persimmons, topped with roasted chevre and balsamico syrup.

Happy Independence Day Finland.

Saturday chill

For some, it's fredagsmys. We work late on Fridays so we prefer chillin' on Saturdays.

If there's no time (or energy) for actually cooking anything, wine, cheese and crackers will do the trick.

Have a nice evening!

Lovely weekends are made of...

... long, proper breakfasts.

... adventures and treasure hunts in the forest.

... being creative and getting started with Christmas decorations. Cones are the result of the mentioned treasure hunt.

... eating well.

Have a lovely week!