Adventures in Finnish Cookery

I really love to cook and my husband might let you know that with recipes I have the attention span of a gnat.  I hardly ever make the same thing twice, I'm awful at following recipes (I'm always improvising due to pantry supplies or food allergies) and I always like to try something new.  I'll make/try anything once.  So, it is no wonder that along with our exchange students come new cooking adventures for me.  I wonder if my sons ever get tired of me asking how things taste, if they've had anything similar before and what kind of recipes are close to it in their country.  I'm so curious about food and I love to eat!

So, below are some of my adventures in Finnish cookery this year.  I haven't done a ton of Finnish cooking, because one of Freddy's goals is to try EVERYTHING American.  But, it has been really nice to try some special things at Christmas and recently for Fat Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday).

New Apron and Oven Mitt from Finland for Christmas.

Christmas I made something that was a wide step outside of my comfort zone, Gravlax.  For a very long portion of my life I never liked fish.  Sounds ridiculous now, but I think I only did fish sticks a couple times as a youngster and I decided that fish and I would not be friends.  My Dad wasn't a fan either, so I never thought it was a weird thing to pass on food with scales.  When I got food allergies, I realized how fortunate I was to be able to eat any food, so I took a new position in my food life...  try everything that I'm not allergic to at least once.  That philosophy has had a hand in leading me to the land of fishes and while I like most of them, salmon is just not one that I'm a fan of.  Gravlax is cured or marinated salmon.  I'm currently wrinkling my nose thinking about salmon.

But, fortunately for me, once finished Gravlax doesn't taste very salmon-y.  I liked it quite a bit.  At Christmas time we also made the traditional gingerbread, rutabaga casserole and Christmas pudding.  Pictures coming....

Freddy's parents sent me a note telling me of a Fat Tuesday pastry that they normally have and how much Freddy liked them.  They offered to send me the recipe if I wanted to try to make them.  Really... did they have to even ask?  Below are pictures of making the fastlagsbulle.  Freddy said they were great and Mike rather liked them too.

 Then on Sunday after our drive back from Columbus we told Freddy that he had to cook dinner for us because he has not cooked a thing here in the US (really we were just feeling lazy!).  The closest he's gotten to cooking is stirring something for me on the stove and putting together peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.  He said he had the recipe for Macaroni Casserole that he hadn't made.  We of course all went into the kitchen and made it together.  Quite tasty.

Freddy even made his own "head chef" hat.

Doing dishes while Freddy was watching the stove.

The finished product!