I have an engineer <3

Sam handed in the final version of his bachelor’s thesis today and to celebrate we bought a couple of ciders & beers and you guessed it, fired up the grill

I’ve been pimping our garden ever since the snow showed the slightest signs of melting. Our latest garden feature is a small pink bucket filled with water with a fake LED-light up waterlily Sam got from his sister. It’s a little trashy-kitch but what can you do, we’re students with a quirky style

I don’t usually drink cider (I’m a beer girl) but it was such a sunny day that I thought I should make an exception and go for a fruity girly cider. Most of the fruity ciders sold in Finland taste overtly sweet and are terribly artificial, but I have to admit that there is one brand that I love and that is Rekorderlig. Even though they have fruity tastes geared towards teenage girls who want to get drunk without tasting alcohol they taste a lot less shite than other brands. I tried the strawberry-raspberry for the first time and it was good. Easy to drink, refreshing and not overtly sweet or fake tasting.

I marinated red peppers and zucchini in oil and a herbs de Provence spice mix before grilling them until soft and a ‘little’ charred (oops ).

One of the reasons I love grilling is because it makes chicken taste phenomenal. Chicken is cheap and unsurprisingly we eat a lot of it and there is nothing wrong with that. But once the chicken hits the grill our humble everyday dinner becomes something truly delicious. I marinated the chicken in soy sauce and some sugar and then grilled it until cooked through. I then brushed it with a thick and sticky soy sauce, sugar and tamarind sauce glaze. Yum

I also grilled some corn and tomatoes. I use ready cooked corn on the cob which is the only corn on the cob readily available in stores here year round. The best way to cook it is to brush the corn with oil and to grill until warm and nicely charred all over. Then I make a sauce of crushed garlic cloves and melted butter which is then brushed on the cobs right before devouring!

We ate on our patio and it was the perfect laid-back way to celebrate. Once Sam officially completes his degree we’ll have to organize a proper party but that’s to come…

-Laura

Ps. Check out my summery nail polish

Taking over Turku

Last Wednesday we decided to escape school and go on an extempore road trip to Turku. There is a bit of a rivalry between Turku and Tampere and I’ve had some terrible experiences there… But it being this year’s culture capital I decided to set prejudice aside. And really, how bad could it be with Riikka our personal Turku native as our guide

Our first stop was at one of the cities most notable landmarks, Turku Cathedral. We checked out the a free exhibition, “Viimeinen Ehtoollinen” (The Last Supper), which had art by Franchine LeClercq, Pauno Pohjolainen and Andy Warhol.

Gorgeous church organs @ Turku Cathedral.

Our next stop was at the Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova museum. The museum houses a modern art gallery (Ars Nova) and an interesting history museum/archeological dig site of medieval Turku (Aboa Vetus). Lucky for us we had student cards and a CityShoppari-card so entrance was only 5,00€ (8,00€).

Ulla Jokisalo’s Guises of Play exhibition made an impression with some creepy photos and collages using fairytale themes and the medieval ruins were really cool! Well worth the visit

After exploring medieval Turku we went back above ground and walked around the center of town wondering where to eat. Unfortunately it was a rainy day, otherwise it would have been nice  to have a picnic by the river. In the end we opted for lunch @ Cafe Brahe a well known establishment with three cafes. They’re known for their H-U-G-E pastries  which look delicious:)

I went for a chicken and sun dried tomato salad with Parmesan flakes, croutons and Caesar salad dressing. The salad was fresh and crunchy. The chicken was a little bit tough but the huge dollop of sun dried tomatoes made up for that

After the salad we had to have coffee and at least try one of the pastries. Again we used the CityShoppari-card to get a 2 for 1 deal on Cafe Brahe lattes. We decided to test the carrot cake and it turned out to be delicious! <3 Moist, flavorful and everything a carrot cake should be. Definitely worth the money!

Feeling a little naughty for skipping school we ended up making up for it in Turku as our next stop was Riikka’s old hangout, Panimoravintola Koulu (Brewery restaurant School). And true to its name the restaurant and brewery is housed in an old school house. The whole decor, atmosphere and even smell screams old school house and it was just the perfect place to sit down with a glass of beer (or cider), read the paper and chat for a few hours

I opted for their unfiltered lager Lehtori, whilst Riikka went for the cranberry cider and Satu ordered the black currant cider, all products of the brewery. The beer was OK. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that good either, a bit of a let down. Satu’s cider was really fun. To be honest it tasted like homemade black currant juice which was not a bad thing at all. Riikka’s cranberry cider however was by far the best. It tasted like a very nice lambic, not so much like a cider and I really do like lambics <3 Can’t wait to go back to try out more of their stuff!

All in all a fun trip. Turku is officially Bacon and Friends approved!

-Laura

St. Patrick’s Day

As most people know, St Patrick’s day is a national day for the Irish, but it is celebrated all over the world. It’s one of the biggest holidays celebrated in restaurants and pubs: 13 million pints of Guinnes is said to be drank during the day all over the world! And we wanted to be a part of that.

It’s not that the holiday itself has a real meaning for us, and it is actually quite silly to celebrate such day here. But it’s a nice way to remind ourselves, that maybe the pub culture in Finland should change a bit. On St Patrick’s day the pubs feel British and Irish – people go have a pint with their friends after work, eat something and have a laugh. People are friendly and in a good mood, no intentions of getting dead drunk right away.. And also, with the green beers and ciders, hats and scarves, there’s this nice sense of community! There’s some magic to St Patrick’s day, and if you don’t think so, you’ve been in the wrong pub!

We visited O’Connell’s with some of our friends from school. The place was decorated with green colour and pictures of shamrocks. We were all offered a free scarf or a hat, but as we already had the hats from last year, we all took scarves. And as fun as it is, the green food colouring in the drinks makes them quite unappealing.. Magners didn’t taste half as good as it usually does!

Riikka continued with the theme later on, buying a nice chunk of Irish cheddar, Kerrygold’s Dubliner. Riikka has a weird obsession for matured cheddar cheeses, and will post more about that some other time..

Laura on the other hand continued her St. Patrick’s day celebrations at home with Bobby and a nice pork roast her boyfriend made.

I went to see Chicago the musical with friend of mine, and the show was great! Afterwards I went to celebrate more St. Patrick´s Day with some friends from school. First time in Ruby & Fellas, which is a new Irish Pub and Kitchen in Hämeenkatu. Very nice place, must definitely go there again! Maybe we should go to eat something, menu sounded delicious.. the drink list was a bit pricy though, but Guinnes was only 5e yesterday. There was some live music too! -Satu