home cooking - kotiruokaa

Home sweet home! After travelling around for a couple of weeks and eating this and that here and there it feels good to calm down for some home cooking. My favourite companion by the stove is Kotiruoka (Home cooking), a book that has guided Finnish women in the art of cooking for decades. It's been updated every now and then of course - my copy is the latest edition. The recipes I've tried are very basic but results have been well received in our family. And even though I'm not an enthusiastic cook and like to make things the easy way, I appreaciate the instructions for handling fish, meat and poultry. It makes me think I could gut a fish if I'd like to, and also use meat that hasn't been precut and vacuum packed. I could if I wasn't too, too lazy.

Again today I thought how beautiful food is, I mean the ingredients. Potatoes peeled and yellowish, carrots and sweet potatoes glowing in shades of orange, onions in translucent white, and olive oil in greenish gold. They became a pot of goulasch, tasted marvellous and fed the family. Beauty for the eyes, strength for the body and comfort for the soul.

a saturday by the river - lauantai joen rannalla

midsummer - juhannus

A little boy + watercolours = midsummer joy!

Pikkupoika + vesivärit = juhannushuvitus!

at the playground - leikkikentällä

Humid and warm. An abundance of green, yellow and mosquitos. Ouch.

Kosteaa ja lämmintä. Runsain määrin vihreää, keltaista ja hyttysiä. Auts.

overalls for summer - kesähaalarit

The overalls have been such a popular garment here at Little Thimble household  that I made another pair. This time I added a pocket for carrying treasures, like the tiny stones and flattened cones my sweet boy collected today.

I found a bib that I had started last autumn, with an apliqueed house and some random embroidery on it. It will become something else now, for I can't bear the thought of that house getting all covered up in tomatosauce or what ever. I think I'll use it for a bag. A little boy must have his own bag for summer travels, don't you think?

Haalarit ovat olleet niin kovasti suosiossa täällä meillä, että tein toisetkin. Tällä kertaa lisäsin taskun kaikenlaisten aarteiden keräilyä varten. Semmoinen tulee tarpeeseen; tänäänkin poika poimi mukaan pikkuruisia kiviä ja litistyneitä käpyjä.

Löysin ruokalapun raakileen, jota aloitin joskus viime syksynä. Talon olin aplikoinut siihen ja jotain satunnaista kirjontaakin tehnyt. Taitaa siitä kyllä tulla muuta kuin ruokalappu, sillä en vaan raaski ajatella taloa tomaattikastike tai muu ruoka-aine päällysteenään. Luulen, että lapusta tulee laukku. Pieni poikahan tarvitsee oman laukun kesämatkoja varten, eikö vain?

evening arrives - ilta saapuu

calm - tyyntä

A calm, good day was this Tuesday of mine. O. was as dramatic as always ( it's not easy to be 15 months old and not know how to attach two Lego-cars together) but I managed not to despair. I got a little sewing done, let the dirty dishes have their way and accumulate, pondered about my weaknesses as a mother. And helped with the cars, of course.

And hey, the sweet bird cherry is finally blooming! Oh, summer!

Tyyni ja ihan hyvä tiistai takana. O. oli dramaattinen kuten aina (eihän ole helppoa olla 15 kuukautta vanha ja yrittää liittää kahta Lego-autoa yhteen), mutta enpäs joutunut epätoivon valtaan. Sain vähän ommeltua, taivuin tiskien tahtoon ja annoin heidän kasautua, pohdiskelin heikkouksiani äitinä. Ja autoin niiden autojen kanssa, tietysti.

Ja hei, ihanainen tuomi kukkii vihdoin täälläkin! Oi kesä!