The first sun beams and visitors

It seems that the winter is over – before it really started. A sunny weekend with +7 degrees C attracted more folks to the house. Hank and Angie, 7-year old Sam and his father were already there heating the hot tub when we arrived on Saturday. 

I spent the afternoon raking up twigs and leaves, picking the earlier cut shoots under the apple trees and enjoying the sun after several months of darkness. The sea was already open and a couple of swans were swimming there as in summer.

Boys and their toys

The boys (over 30 years old) took their scooters out of the garage and took a ride. Little Sam practiced with his new kid-size ATV, all-terrain vehicle or four-wheeler. It didn’t take long until he knew how to use it and the three boys went driving a small country road behind the house. I was horrified, but amazingly Sam was in control of the vehicle and he was so thrilled! The kid is not yet at school.

Organic moose dinner

We had 2.5 kg minced moose meat, unfortunately it was bought as frozen and not from my brother who is a hunter. He lives in the center of Finland, and we don't see each other very often. When we visited him once in the autumn, we saw a recently shot moose hanging there. It's a big animal!!

So we decided to prepare an easy dinner that everyone will love:  mooseburgers with mashed potatoes, hot truffle sauce and cold lingonberry sauce. This food is 100 % domestic (if you don’t count the truffles and black pepper), and made mostly of local ingredients and fully organic.

Truffle sauce:

• 1 liter Puljonki’s  ready-made truffle sauce
• 2 dl cream

Pour the sauce in a kettle and add 2 dl cream, stir and let it simmer.

Cold lingonberry sauce:

• 1 liter frozen lingonberries, self picked if possible
• 1 dl sugar

Cook the frozen lingonberries with sugar and let it cool. This is far better than the jelly at food stores as they contain 50% or more sugar.

Mooseburgers (for 10-12 persons):

• 2.5 kg minced moose meat
• 2 dl breadcrumbs
• 5 dl cream
• 4 eggs
• 2 table spoonfuls of thyme
• Black pepper, salt
• Melted butter

Mix the meat well with all the ingredients and let it rest an hour in the fridge. Then make burgers on two large oven pans, spread some melted butter on top of them and cook in the oven 20 minutes in 200 degrees. Meanwhile prepare the mashed potatoes. If you want to save time and have it easy, use 4 bags of frozen Oolannin luomumuusi.

Hot party

After dinner, there was quite a party outside in the dark, in the hot tub. After several hours of heating the tub, the water stayed one hour around 37 degrees. And that's how long they stayed there.

JD and I were offered a slot before the youngsters, but we preferred the normal sauna party.

On Sunday, it was sunny again! The garden was shouting for attention, and I tried to do my best. However, after two hours sweating we had to leave.