Friday, September 26

Hahaa, can you in any possible way Not love this?

Tiedättekö. Olin tänään Stockmannilla keittiöosastolla ja yhtäkkiä, aivan suoraan sinisestä, eteeni tuli jotaki niin äärettömän hienoa että jos en nyt näytä sitä teille niin pakahdun! Ei, se ei ole se yrttiveitsi jota oon käynyt katselemassa kaihoten jo monta viikkoa, ei myöskään se valtavan kaunis puukauha. Eikä edes se ihana punainen tagine-pata, vaan tämä!

Katsokaa sitä! Katsokaa sitä! Ei voi olla olemassa ainuttakaan kaikin puolin niin äärettömän huippua piparimuottia niinko tämä! Hassu pullero kissa! En voi edes ajatella sitä olematta ihan valtavan iloissani ja huvittunut. Huh. Kukapa olisi arvannut että jostakin noin pienestä on näin paljon iloa. Ehkä joku lempparikeksimuottini Ikinä Koskaan.

Tiedättekö mitä tämä merkitsee? Sitä, että tänä viikonloppuna on leivottava keksejä.

Other news: aloin ommella sitä uutta mekkoa vihdoin tiistaina ja sain sen tänään valmiiksi. Soittivat mulle iltapäivällä Oulun kansalaisopistosta että hei, suklaakurssilla olis paikka, haluatko tulla. Pääsen tekemään konvehteja! Oh, and tomorrow ought to be quite something. I've been looking forward to it since Monday. Stay tuned.

Sunday, September 14

I'm in your coffee house, eating your cake.

And so went over a month, just like that. Where, I can't tell. I don't know. I guess school really does take that much time, then. There has been a few other things as well to take my thoughts and time away from posting. To mention some:

- Sanna moved to Ireland. Good god I miss her.
- Matriculation exams have started! Maths and English reading comprehension next week, please do wish me loads of luck. I'm scared like no other. English listening comprehension was Hard, I lost million points. Ha bloody ha.
- I've been spending all my weekends or even some part of every one of them with Mikko. This might be the biggest reason in my being still sane in the middle of the two aforementioned things and some others. I'm also more than immensly happy to have gotten to know him better recently.
- I could say I've been practising for the exams, but I haven't. Not as much as I should have by now. Instead, I've done other things. Not including sewing the new dress, thought, I haven't had nearly enough energy to do such thing.
- I haven't really even cooked that much interesting things. There have been a few days I've eaten maybe some rice with tomato & date chutney plus cauliflower and broccoli for dinner because I haven't had the energy to fix anything decent, either. Thank goodness for my sister, who's a real sweetie and has fed me many times when I've been too tired to.

There are still some nice and new things I've discovered recently. Like lavender, for instance. I mean really, have a look at This.

It's the very bread that this blog's name is all about, although the name was before I even knew such bread really existed! But here it is, the lavender bread. Curiously enough, this was the most beautiful and tastiest bread that I recall ever baking. I immediately accidently ate a quarter of it after shooting. I have also made a couple of other experiments with lavender, including lavender porridge and one other thing that I can't reveal just yet, I've promised to bake it for Elisa's birthday tomorrow and I don't want to spoil the surprise. I haven't told her what it is, you see.

Well, here's the recipe for the bread. Do try it if you will, it was truly good.

Romantic Lavender Bread

Ingredients:
makes 2 loaves.

Directions:

Combine yeast and lukewarm water until well blended and let sit about 10 minutes- it should look foamy and thick (if your water was too hot or your yeast is bad, it will not get foamy and you'll need to start over).

Combine buttermilk, oil, rosemary (or lavender), 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp salt in a mixer bowl, then add the yeast mixture and combine well.

Add flour gradually, beating slowly until enough flour has been added to form a dough ball that leaves the sides of the bowl in one mass.

Dump any remaining flour onto a flat surface, dump dough onto that surface, and with floured hands knead dough until smooth and elastic, about 5-10 minutes.

Set dough into a large greased bowl, flip dough over to grease both sides, cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk- about 1 1/2 hours.

On dough has risen, place dough onto a floured surface and cut into equal halves and form each half into a round loaf shape.

Set loaves onto a large greased baking sheet dusted with cornmeal. Cover with a clean, slightly damp towel and let rise 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Using a serrated knife, slash the top of each loaf with an asterisk (*) pattern and sprinkle each with a little coarse salt (optional).

Bake in center of the preheated oven for 15 minutes, spritzing occasionally (at least 2-3 times).

Continue baking another 45-55 minutes (no more spritzing) or until the loaves sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom and they appear golden brown. Let cool on racks completely.


The precedent Thursday from last Thursday I suddenly felt like going for a walk in Kaakkuri despite the wind. I went to the shore. I've never gone there alone before nor with anyone else than Sanna. I spent a windy half an hour taking pictures.

It's incredibly relaxing to take photos of tiny little ricks and plants. It truly is.

And then last but not least, a picture of one of my favourite café's, Saara's, cappuchino. Oh and you know what, the cakes they sell really Do taste as good as they look. Says missus I-treated-myself-with-sacher-cake.

Isn't coffee beautiful?