Knits and Christmas mustard

Thanks to the unexceptionally big catch of cep mushrooms last autumn, I gave dried mushrooms in glass jars as Xmas presents to our kids, together with some of the best recipes for pasta and soup. So, that was easy and didn’t require much preparations in December. Instead, I spent my time and energy for knitting and cooking, mostly in Helsinki, because we spent the Xmas there.

Knits for a baby-girl

My first grandchild is expected to be born in two months time (February). A winter baby needs warm clothes in the Northern hemisphere, said my granny instincts immediately after I heard the glad news. The babies sleep outside in Finland every day, no matter how cold it is. It is regarded healthy!

I bought white and light grey Italian Lana Grossa Baby Wool before I knew the gender and planned to knit a jacket, hat and pants for the unborn baby as a Xmas present. I had to spend several weeks to find a pattern that I knew existed in the 1970s when I used it for my own daughter. Googling baby knits didn’t help, I couldn’t find that particular pattern. Until I started to search in Swedish and 1950s old patterns.

There it was, on a Swedish webshop selling antique knitting patterns! I paid 2 euros to the bank account of the web shop owner and she sent the old pattern by post. While waiting for this pattern I knitted a baby blanket from Alpaca-Silk yarn. The white yarn lasted  also to bootees, mits, scarf and another hat, so our baby-girl will get the whole set of accessories.

 

Spicy home-made mustard is a must with the tradional ham and  Xmas casseroles.  I make it every year well in advance with Kalevei Keihänen's recipe. He was a famous Finnish businessman in the 1960s and 70s in the travel industry. My first trip to the Mediterranean was on Keihänen’s package trip to Isla de Majorca in 1972. A couple of years later, as a young student, I started cooking in my own kitchen and this mustard was one of the first successes. It has stayed on my Xmas menu ever since.    

Xmas mustard á la Keihänen

• 2 dl Colman’s mustard powder
• 1 ¼ dl sugar
• 2 dl whipping cream
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon potato flower
• 1 tablespoon vinegar

Combine all the ingredients except for vinegar in a stainless-steel pan and mix them until smooth. Put the heat on and stir all the time. (You can also cook the mustard in water bath.) Heat the mixture to boiling point and then take the pan from the stove to cold water to cool down. Add the vinegar, fill two small glass jars with the mustard and seal them well. The mustard is ready immediately, but it gets even better with time.

Darkness, dead leaves and corpse berries

After a busy autumn and several weekends either traveling or at home in Helsinki we headed to the island in the morning of our Independence Day, the 6th of December.

Besides celebrating the independence and relax a bit, we wanted to check the windows, set mouse baits (or killers = hiiribaari in Finnish), rake the dead leaves before the snow comes and make the final preparations in the house for the winter.

 

Precious independence

We Finns take independence very seriously, it is not self evident for us – has never been in the past and is not even today with several new signs of cold war. My father and JD’s father were both as young men (17 when the war started!) defending our country against Russians in the Winter War (1939-40) and in the Continuation War (1941-44).

Luckily both men survived and were able to tell us about it. Thank you, Dad! You made it possible for us to enjoy freedom.

After sauna, we had dinner and sat in candle light surrounded by total darkness, as if we were the only ones on the island. Of course we watched on TV The President’s Independence Day Reception, like everyone does.

 

Last berries before the snow

Corpse berry

Luckily it was not raining or snowing on Sunday, and I worked a couple of hours in the garden, raking leaves and emptying and washing flower pots. All the flowers and leaves were dead, except for the corpse berry (Symphoricarpos albus var. laevigatus). Somehow the name is so representative to the season. At this time of the year, it is normally already icy and snow. Now it was +4 degrees and even the sun popped up for a couple of minutes.