Winter trip to Nuuksio
On Saturday I learned how you really shouldn't try to bake cookies. You make a cookie dough and put a part of it in the freezer. Then you forget it there for a year. You take it out and decide to try to bake some cookies out of it. Maybe the dough would still be good? You're impatient so you put the frozen dough in the microwave to defrots. 10 minutes should do the trick. You look into the microwave after said ten minutes and the dough has at least doubled in size and some parts of it have baked and some are still raw. So... it seems that you can bake cookies in the microwave. Then you try to salvage at least some of the dough and mould it into small balls and put them in the oven. You then proceed to forget them in the oven for a too long time. When you take them out they're slightly black and hard enough that you could knock someone out, if you threw them at them.
Don't do what I did and you might get some half-decent cookies. At least I managed to not screw up the other half of the frozen cookie dough. Those came out all right. I added blue cheese to the Christmas cookie dough while I was rolling it with the rolling pin, but it doesn't really taste much like blue cheese after you bake them in the oven. So it's better to just add the cheese on top of the Christmas cookie after you've baked them.
Christmas cookies + blue cheese = a match made in culinary heaven.I went to Nuuksio national park yesterday with MM, who is in Finland for the Christmas holidays. We walked the 2 kilometers long Nahkiaispolku route. It was my first time there in the Winter. It was quite beautiful with all the snow around. We made a fire by the Haukkalampi pond and barbequed some sausages, potatoes and yams. I warmed my toes and finger by the fire.
We sat by the fire watching the frozen pond when the sun started to set around 3PM and it gradually got darker. The snow turns blue when the sun starts to set. At first it's a light shade of blue and then it gradually becomes a darker shade of blue. It was snowing all the time as well. The only sounds we could hear were the fire burning and wind blowing in the trees. It was also the first time that I extinguished a fire with snow. :p
MM was brave enough to walk on the ice on the pond. I wasn't certain that it was thick enough. It hasn't been that cold for all that long and I really don't want to fall into the freezing water, if the ice should break. (I did walk across the big "fountain" today at Tapiola tough, but many people had walked there before us, so it seemed like it'd be okey.)
The walk back to the bus station was quite an adventure. There's about 2 kilometers of road with no streelights before you get to the bus stop, and it was already around 5PM when we headed back, so no sun light. We had headlamps, but it was snowing and the wind was so strong that we could barely see three meters in front of us. When we turned the lamps off we could see much better, especially after our eyes got used to the dark. I don't know what light the snow reflects, but it reflects enough light that you can walk without any light and still see where you're going. It's pretty amazing. You should've seen the bus driver's face when we got into the bus. xp We looked like snowmen.
It's bliss to go to sauna after doing outdoors stuff in the Winter. True bliss.Today I went swimming with MM. There was a "moonlight" swimming night (kuutamouinti) at the Tapiola public swimming pool. The pool was open later than usual and they basically only had the lights in the pools on and there were candles around and music playing. It created a nice mood. It was also my first visit there since they renovated the place. They had added some jacuzzis, steam baths (höyrysauna) and a therapy pool with massaging jets and stuff. There's a similar event on Wednesday at Espoonlahti's swimming pool from 19.00 to 20.40.
Don't do what I did and you might get some half-decent cookies. At least I managed to not screw up the other half of the frozen cookie dough. Those came out all right. I added blue cheese to the Christmas cookie dough while I was rolling it with the rolling pin, but it doesn't really taste much like blue cheese after you bake them in the oven. So it's better to just add the cheese on top of the Christmas cookie after you've baked them.
Christmas cookies + blue cheese = a match made in culinary heaven.I went to Nuuksio national park yesterday with MM, who is in Finland for the Christmas holidays. We walked the 2 kilometers long Nahkiaispolku route. It was my first time there in the Winter. It was quite beautiful with all the snow around. We made a fire by the Haukkalampi pond and barbequed some sausages, potatoes and yams. I warmed my toes and finger by the fire.
We sat by the fire watching the frozen pond when the sun started to set around 3PM and it gradually got darker. The snow turns blue when the sun starts to set. At first it's a light shade of blue and then it gradually becomes a darker shade of blue. It was snowing all the time as well. The only sounds we could hear were the fire burning and wind blowing in the trees. It was also the first time that I extinguished a fire with snow. :p
MM was brave enough to walk on the ice on the pond. I wasn't certain that it was thick enough. It hasn't been that cold for all that long and I really don't want to fall into the freezing water, if the ice should break. (I did walk across the big "fountain" today at Tapiola tough, but many people had walked there before us, so it seemed like it'd be okey.)
The walk back to the bus station was quite an adventure. There's about 2 kilometers of road with no streelights before you get to the bus stop, and it was already around 5PM when we headed back, so no sun light. We had headlamps, but it was snowing and the wind was so strong that we could barely see three meters in front of us. When we turned the lamps off we could see much better, especially after our eyes got used to the dark. I don't know what light the snow reflects, but it reflects enough light that you can walk without any light and still see where you're going. It's pretty amazing. You should've seen the bus driver's face when we got into the bus. xp We looked like snowmen.
It's bliss to go to sauna after doing outdoors stuff in the Winter. True bliss.Today I went swimming with MM. There was a "moonlight" swimming night (kuutamouinti) at the Tapiola public swimming pool. The pool was open later than usual and they basically only had the lights in the pools on and there were candles around and music playing. It created a nice mood. It was also my first visit there since they renovated the place. They had added some jacuzzis, steam baths (höyrysauna) and a therapy pool with massaging jets and stuff. There's a similar event on Wednesday at Espoonlahti's swimming pool from 19.00 to 20.40.