Just the two of us

On Friday, the 1^st of August, we suddenly noticed that the house was empty. No kids, no noise, no shoes in the porch. Finally, we had one evening alone, just the two of us. We celebrated that by a ‘kräftskiva’ (crayfish party in Swedish).

We ordered ready-cooked crayfish from Ölander, who is farming them in an old limestone mine. In previous years we have managed to get large, jumbo size crayfish, but this time they had only medium-sized ones. The night was tropical and we ate late at night when it was already dark. Simple garnish included toast, mayo, dill and – the most important – Linie Aquavit schnapps. In addition, we had wine, Mudhouse Sauvignon Blanc.

 

The next day, we got visitors from Mexico. JD’s cousin and his wife who live close to Cancun spent two days with us. We made very typical Finnish summer food, smoked salmon with Siikli potatoes, herb dressing and cucumber salad. I had picked blueberries and for dessert, we had vanilla-blueberry cake according to a recipe by Kinuskikissa found on internet.

Smoking fish on a grill

This summer we bought a new smoke box that can be used on a grill. It has proved to be handy. You add some wood chips, a small twig of apple tree and juniper plus three lumps of sugar in the bottom, put the fish on a rack above it and put the lid on. Then you put the box on a grill and close the cover. A two-kilo salmon needs approximately half an hour to cook, get the smoke flavor and some color. We even managed to cook 4.7 kilos of salmon in this box when we had 14 dinner guests. That took a bit longer time. Very delicious!