Spring food

Since I don’t own a car I do most of my shopping in small stores, and not supermarkets. But today Satu took me to Prisma (a supermarket), and I got inspired by the huge variety of ingredients. I saw some cheap fresh asparagus and decided to go with that. They also had a great offer on smoked whitefish (only 9,90€/kg), and I had to get that – usually fish is so expensive I hardly ever buy it.. But today I got a pretty fancy meal with low cost!

The important thing in cooking asparagus (whether you cook them in water, grill them, fry them..) in my opinion is to make sure they stay firm and crunchy. I cooked my asparagus in boiling water for about 2 minutes, and then fried them in a pan with butter, garlic and thyme. I didn’t bother peeling the stalks first, just cut some of the ends.

I seasoned the asparagus with salt, pepper and a dash of lemon juice and served it with some grated matured cheddar (had an old small piece in the fridge that needed to be used), fish and grilled tomatos!

- Riikka

When it snows, go shopping.

I woke up this morning to find that it had snowed at least 10 cm during the night and more was coming. A bit of a bummer since I was hoping that it would look at least a bit more spring-like for my birthday this Thursday. Since my arse hurts like hell from yesterdays workout at the gym (never trying out that thigh-exercise-torture-machine again!) I opted for a day at IKEA and Prisma (supermarket) rather than my planned Zumba class.

IKEA for me usually equals meatballs and the mandatory packet of scented candles (seriously who can leave IKEA without buying anything? ) rather than cheap, hard to assemble plywood furniture. Once we got there we headed straight to the cafeteria/restaurant. I of course went for the meatballs (15 pieces) and fries (5,95€) whilst Sam (my boyfriend) decided to go for some weird looking mushroom filled cabbage rolls (4,95€). They had some special pancake/crêpe offer; 2 pancakes with vanilla creme and strawberry jam (1,50€). Yummy!

My meatballs in creamy gravy were good, as usual. Fries were hot and crisp and to be honest 5,95€ for a meal that is both satisfying and filling is a good deal The mushroom filled cabbage rolls looked OK. Not a really big fan of cafeteria boiled potatoes or cabbage rolls but Sam said they were good and worth the money. The crêpes I was a little skeptical about since they were cold and something they don’t usually have on their menu. They turned out to be quite delicious with the cream and jam, a perfect ending to the meal.

I ended up buying a TRYGG glass bowl (1,95€) and on Thursday it’ll be filled with booze for my birthday! In addition to this I bought my grandparents a KONCIS roasting pan (14,95€). And would you believe it, I left IKEA with no candles! I resisted the sickly smell, the cheap price tags and just sailed on by to the cashiers!

In Prisma we stocked up on food and drinks for the party. I’m thinking about making some interesting ice cream… with bacon. But more about that later! Other food I’ll be serving will also be bacon related, needless to say. All in all we hauled 700g of bacon… but I’m starting to think that won’t be enough (not that there’ll be that many people attending)!

-Laura
PS. Shame on you Prisma for not having kitchen twine! Guess no one wants perfectly tied roasts in Finland (anymore?). I’ll have to make do without it for tomorrows lunch… but more of that tomorrow!