Banana Cake

In the beginning of the week the bananas were cheep. We buy a lot of bananas as I make smoothies almost every morning. Banana-avocado, banana-mango-pineapple, banana-mango-orange etc etc. As still so many ripe bananas about to get too dark I decided to make a banana cake. The recipe said two bananas but, as they are quite tiny, I used three. Even if the cake has a flavor of cinnamon, ginger, coffee and cocoa. Despite all of those you still can feel the taste of banana. Shooting the picture on the kitchen counter is not the best possible place but I was in a hurry as the finals of “Dancing On Ice” was about to begin 😉 

Pikkujoulu ~ lilla Jul

Knitted Hat

As soon as I had finished the knitted pot holder I started to knit a hat. I already long ago had looked for a pattern on DROPS Design. The instructions did not seem too complicated. In two days I finished it. I was eager to try it on. Oh no! I should have knitted a medium size and not a large. Leif was laughing out loud when he saw me.  He suggested holes for the eyes as it fell down so I was unable to see anything. Hah-hah-haa . . . A rubber band and a “tupsu/tofs” was the solution. Now I can use it. The hat on DROPS’ pages looks a bit different but I’m okay with the way mine looks.

Cheesecake

I made my very first American cheesecake. Leif was suspicious about it. He wanted to know if it is a salty or a sweet one. I told him it is sweet. He loves everything sweet. It is a little too dark. luckily I did not burn it. I think it is delicious with strawberry sauce.

Chris Norman

Chris Norman live concert at Finlandia Hall, Helsinki.

I was there. It was good. Well better than good. As a fan I’d say it was amazing.

Interesting Day

I was in Tampere yesterday. We are four friends since many years back in time. We get together now and then . One moved to Tampere about a year ago. We thought it would be fun to go there this time. Tampere is about 1 hour 45 minutes journey by train from Helsinki.

We arrived at 11:52 am and our friend met us at the station. She had booked a table for us at the restaurant Tillikka for lunch at 1:00 pm . On the way there we had time to take a walk to see, among others , the port, many old factory buildings,The Tammerkoski bridge and the rapids. A beautiful, sunny, plus 8 degrees day.

We had time to enjoy the lunch for about two and a half hours. The food was really good . We talked and talked and laughed.

We all were interested in visiting The Terracotta Army and Treasures of the First Emperors of China exhibition at The Museum Centre Vapriikki. It’s been open since 14 June and will close 1 December. I am glad we were able to go there. There were lots of visitors . Of course as open only two more weeks. Good thing photographing was allowed. Bad thing, there were so many people , it really was hard to get some good pictures.

The museum closed at 6:00 pm . We still had time , before the train back to Helsinki , for a coffee at the railway station cafeteria.

Thank you dear friends for an incredibly nice day. And thank you dear husband and dear Canelo for picking me up at the railway station at 9:00 pm.

Finally ! The Second Potholder !

I have finished knitting the second potholder 🙂 I knitted the first one about two years ago. Neither of them is perfect. The one I made last week is a bit bigger than the first one. As you can see I, this time,  made so many mistakes on the cats. Some cats got too many rounds and some too few.  Also my stitches are too loose causing the size difference. Too late I realized it was about 2,5 cm larger.

Next I want to make a knitted hat. I chose a simple pattern. I already bought some yarn in gray. It would be nice to have the hat finished in time to wear it this winter but knowing me it may as well turn out an other project going on for years and years 😉

Grytlappsprojektet är avslutat efter ungefär 6-7 år ! Skönt 🙂 Det var enerverande att veta att jag hade något liggande i knutarna som behövde göras. Tyvärr blev denna andra lapp inte alls bra. Jag borde ha kollat stickfastigheten. Denna gång stickade jag mycket lösare vilket gjorde att den blev ca 2,5-3 cm större än den andra. Synd också att kattorna blev olika. Ibland hade jag stickat för många varv på dem och ibland för få. Grrr, märkte alla fel först när den var färdig ! Måste ha varit fel på koncentrationen. Men det är som det är och den får lov att duga.

Annars, det blev kvar garn som räcker till ännu en lapp. Så kanske jag någongång stickar en som blir den perfekta 😉 Men före det har jag ett annat projekt i tankarna. Skall försöka sticka en mössa. Jag köpte redan garn. Hoppeligen får jag den färdig så att jag kan använda den redan denna vinter 😀

Father’s Day 2013

Happy Father’s Day !

In Finland Father’s Day is the second Sunday in November which is today. Leif wanted to know already in the beginning of the week am I going to bake a cake. Yes I will I said. What kind of cake do you want I asked him. He said any cake is okay but please don’t make one with salty liquorice 😉

I wrote “täytekakku” on Google search, clicked images, scrolled down and found couple of cakes with whipped cream and green jellies (Fazerin vihreitä kuulia) topping. The Green marmalade balls are, since as long as I can remember, his favorite marmalade. He always gets a box of them for birthday as well as for Christmas present.

My cake does not look as nice as the ones I saw on Google search. I certainly  am no good a baker. The result is far from the cakes I see on The Great British Bake Off or koko Suomi leipoo.

 

Halloween Cake

In my Halloween cake of this year I use licorice sause and “Tyrkisk peber”. It is a strong licorice candy flavored with salty licorice (salmiakki) and pepper. I love it. Leif doesn’t. He was very skeptic about having these ingredients in a cake. The sause was for the decoration of a spider web on the top. That turned out disaster. The sauce spread out too much and you could hardly see it was a web. Looked nothing like on the picture I printed out together with the recipe. I was so disappointed. Leif said it does not matter. Main thing is the taste. He said it was delicious. I agree 😉

Bestämde mig för att även detta år göra en Halloween kaka. Förra årets kaka blev inte riktigt som jag ville. Min kära make trötstade mig med att utseendet spelar inte så stor roll. Huvudsaken är smaken. Minsann upprepades det igen också denna gång. Slutresultatet, enligt mig, katastrof !

Jag letade upp recept på nätet och bestämde mig för en kaka med lakritssås och krossad Tyrkisk peber. Leif ställde sig skeptisk till att ha nämnda ingredienser i en fyllkaka men protesterade inte nämnvärt. Förutom att lakritssåsen användes som fyllning så skulle den också användas till att garnera ett spindelnät på kakan.

Allt gick väl ända tills jag klämde såsen ur tuben. Usch nej vilket stort hål ! Slingan blev tjockare än jag tänkt mig. Resultatet såg ändå ganska skapligt ut fast det inte var lika fint som på bilden jag printade ut med receptet. Nu återstod bara att plocka undan och städade upp efter mig. Sedan gick jag gick och hämtade kameran för att ta en bild på härligheten. Då jag kom tillbaks såg jag till min stora besvikelse att såsen hade brett ut sig. Kakan såg inte alls ut som för ca 10 minuter sedan. Man kunde knappt se att det skulle föreställa ett spindelnät. Som vanligt beklagade jag högljutt min besvikelse och ilska för gubben min som, som alltid, bedyrade att det har INGEN betydelse hur den ser. Smaken är den avgörande faktorn. Dessutom tyckte han den var fin nog.

Nu är den avsmakad till eftermiddagskaffet. Även jag tog mig en skvätt trots att jag bestämt mig för att i princip inte dricka kaffe. Men en skvätt vid speciella tillfällen kan jag nog tillåta mig. Och kakan då ?  Visst var den lite annorlunda med lakritssås och Tyrkisk peber med nog så god.