So no one seems to want Google Wave invites (I guess the Google Wave boom has gotten old already), but how about Voddler? It’s basically like Spotify for movies.

In a recent newletter Voddler informs the new version of Voddler will feature web-based movie-player, search tool and mouse control. I’ve had Voddler for a while now (and to be honest been very disappointed with it so far), even though the service has claimed only to invite/have Swedish members. Voddler is however now opening its doors officially for Finland, Norway and Denmark.

So how about it? I had three invites, but only one remains…

I’m on a total pie frenzy at the moment, and whoever reads my blog is hopefully  happy to get their hands on the recipes. I’m continuing on the curd trend, but the filling is still very different this time.

The crust is the same as for my Blueberry Curd Pie, in other words: 100 g butter or margarine, ¾ dl sugar, 1 egg,  2½ dl wheat flour, and 1 tsp baking powder. Mix it all up, flatten out into your pie dish and place it in the fridge while you mix the filling.

Filling:

• 250 g curd
• 2 dl cream
• 3 eggs
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• ½ dl lemon juice
• ¾ dl sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and pour the filling into the pie dish (onto the crust). Warm the oven to 200° and bake the pie for approx. 25 minutes. Let the pie cool down entirely before you add the peaches and sugar glazing.

You’ll need about 250 g canned peach slices or halves/enough to cover the surface of the pie. Make sure the peaches are drained before you place them onto the pie. Boil about 1½ dl water and stir ¾ dl jelly sugar into the water. Let the mixture cool just a bit and pour as much as needed evenly on top of the peaches with a spoon and let the pie cool down again.

Best served cold.

It’s about time for a proper new rant about life in my blog, don’t you think? I just need to figure out how many weeks I need to backtrack…

Well, for one thing the Push Up challenge has clearly gone to hell. It all started with me for some reason having a tough time with week 4 of the challenge, I was only barely managing to do the required amount of push ups on each set and there wasn’t even that many of them. Then I went on a trip to Helsinki which lasted from Saturday (13th) through Wednesday (17th), and the whole push up thing didn’t even cross my mind. When I got home I thought I’d pick up from week 4 again on Monday, in other words yesterday, but alas now I have a cold. So now I’ll have to wait for my body to recover from this cold in order to be able to start training again. Frustrating to say the least.

As far as school goes I received pretty positive news last week: I have passed at least two out of the three parts of the exam for the course Japanese III! The results for the third part have not come yet, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t pass since I found it very difficult, but two out of three is already a huge load off my back. I’m kind of bothered by the fact we are not given any opportunity to retake the Japanese exams to try to get a better grade though. I honestly don’t understand why, I thought it was common practice in all universities worldwide.

Second meeting with my boss coming up tomorrow. I’ve prepared a list of topics to discuss regarding improvements at the reception of the camping site and the camping site in general. I’ll also get to see how many applications have come in and then  start the interviewing process next week already, I’m so excited!

It’s been really cold here in Vaasa (and Finland in general I suppose?) the past few weeks. I’ve pretty much avoided all contact with the outside air as much as possible. Right now it’s about -17° C here close to the center of the city, but the temperature in the outskirts of town seems to be even lower, approx. -21° C. I’m lucky though for living on the west coast, other parts of Finland have hit even lower temperatures. The record this winter was set up in Kuhmo just a few days ago, -41,3° C. I also just thought of something, why isn’t there a proper and cool (no pun intended) English equivalent for the Finnish noun pakkanen? It means ‘minus degrees’, as in “Ulkona on kova pakkanen.“, “It’s many minus degrees outside.” or perhaps more naturally in English “It’s really cold outside.” (which of course doesn’t constitute the temperature being below zero, which is unthinkable for some foreign sissies for whom ‘cold’ means +10° C amirite?).

Last but not least I would like to give you guys the link to Shane Dawson’s Youtube channel (or why not his second channel as well!). I’ve usually just browsed random videos and clips on Youtube, but I happened to stumble upon this guys channel a while back and figured it was worth sharing. I really think he’s funny and creative in his videos and they are definitely worth a watch. Of course I feel a little bit left behind: when I discovered this guy he already had like over a million subscribers. Go figure.

I really do. I haven’t made one of my own in a while though. Usually I’d just throw some strawberries, a banana, perhaps some canned peaches, fruit juice and yogurt in there and mix it up, and yes, it would be delicious. I’ve found a new favorite at the store though, namely Chiquita Smoothies. They are however pretty expensive, so it got me thinking…

The motto is “Just fruit in a bottle”. Seems simple enough, I should be able to “just put fruit in a bottle” (or a glass, I guess) all by myself and for alot less money, right? But then I start thinking “but surely I can never make them as delicious as the Chiquita smoothies!”. But you know what? The recipes actually seem to be posted on the Chiquita website. Summa sumarum, if Chiquita actually isn’t full of bullcrap and their smoothies really are “just fruit in a bottle” and in addition composed exactly like their recipes online I should be able to make the exact same smoothies at home for alot less money.

Here are the Chiquita recipes, as written on their homepage:

Strawberry-Banana: Light and Lovely 6 crushed strawberries ½ pureed banana 2½ pressed apples 1 squeezed orange	Pineapple-Banana: Perfectly Sweet ¼ pureed pineapple ¾ pureed banana 1½ squeezed orange 1 drop of lemon juice
Raspberry-Pomegranate: Sensual and Satisfying 1/8 crushed Pomegranate 12 crushed raspberries ¾ pureed banana ½ squeezed orange 25 pressed white grapes 1 drop of lemon juice	Blackberry-Raspberry-Yangmei: Sweet and Sour 91 crushed blackcurrants 14 crushed blackberries 5 ½ crushed raspberries ½ pureed Yangmei ½ pureed banana 1 ½ crushed strawberries 19 pressed white grapes
Coconut-Mango: Indulgent, Rich Taste 1 pureed mango coconut milk ½ pureed banana 2 ½ squeezed apples 12 pressed white grapes	Mango-Passion fruit: Fresh and Stimulating ⅓ pureed mango 1½ pureed passion fruits ½ pureed banana 3 pressed apples 1 squeezed orange

Now I’ll just need to figure out how to for example press an apple, or where the hell to find Chinese Yangmei… berries?

One of my long time favorites, not too sweet yet deliciously velvety and refreshing. A typical Finnish dessert in some aspect, as one if it’s main features is a dairy product, in this case curd (rahka in Finnish, or kvarg in Swedish). Funny thing is I don’t even like blueberries, but this pie makes them taste like little bits of heaven.

Crust:

For a very basic, semi-sweet crust you’ll need 100 g butter or margarine, ¾ dl sugar, 1 egg,  2½ dl wheat flour, and 1 tsp baking powder.

Mix the butter/margarine and sugar, add the egg, then the flour and baking powder. Place the crust evenly into your pie dish, presto! Baking is really no rocket science, I wonder why some find it so challenging. Anyway, moving on…

Filling:

• 200 g blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1 dl milk
• 2 dl curd
• ½ dl sugar
• 1 egg
• 1-2 tsp vanilla sugar

Place the blueberries onto the crust. Mix the milk, curd, sugar, egg, and vanilla sugar in a separate bowl and pour the mix on top of the blueberries on the crust.

Place the pie into a oven heated to 200° C and bake it for approx. 25-30 minutes.

This bread has alot of taste in it and works as a snack, a compliment to a meal, breakfast, or really at any other meal occasion you can think of.

Ingredients:

5 dl milk, 30 g fresh yeast, ¾ dl pesto, 2 dl wheat germs, 6 dl full grain wheat flour, 100 g grated cheese, about 1 dl sun dried tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic and ½ dl oil (eg. rape seed oil or olive oil).

Warm the milk to about 37° C, add the yeast and stir. Add the pesto, wheat germs, and flour and mix into a smooth dough. Chop the sun dried tomatoes, press the garlic and add into the dough together with the grated cheese (of your choice) and oil. Spread the dough even onto a baking paper covered baking tin. Let the dough rise for about 20 minutes while you warm the oven to 200° C. Bake the bread until the surface gains a golden brown color (about 20 minutes).

Cut the bread into squares and enjoy!

I just realized I have 22 of them to spare, does anyone need an invite? Leave a comment to this entry and let me know!

“Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.”

Read more at the official Google Wave page…

It’s only February, but things regarding the camping site, where I’ll be the foreman – or forewoman if you will – this year, are starting up already. Today I met my boss and we chatted some about what awaits and what needs to be done. We’ll meet up in a few weeks again, after which the interviews will start for people who have applied for summer jobs at the camping site. I’ll be mostly in the background during the interviews, but it will be a great working experience to have, and I’m definitely looking forward to being a part of the selection process. It’s vital for me to have a good crew at the camping site; as much as I am in charge the whole machine needs to function for the best customer experience, so no loose screws please! I’ve also started to gather a list of things that need attention/need to be taken care of regarding the camping site before the season starts. Oh, and big changes this year, since I’ll be the only foreman stationed fully at the camping site. The past years we have had a bar/grill/store foreman as well, but this year the task will be handed to someone who’ll also be in charge at Wasalandia, the local amusement park that the camping site is a part of. Hence this person won’t spend all of her/his time at the camping, like me. I think I can handle the responsibility though… maybe?

From one thing to another, the train tickets have been purchased and I’m heading to Helsinki on Saturday morning, only a few days to go! I’m so excited and can hardly wait to meet Mr. Special Someone. I’ll probably also meet up with an old classmate of mine, who lives in Helsinki nowadays. I keep daydreaming about the trip and all in all it feels great to get away from Vaasa as well, even just for a few days.

I’m however not excited about writing this short essay in Japanese, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Ok, so I gather it’s not a good idea for me to check the mail immediately after I get out of bed. For two days in a row now I have experienced utter confusion when checking what the mailman brought me. I guess on some level the confusion was called for, as I’ve received totally unexpected things by mail the past few days, but being generally disoriented and sleepy has not exactly helped to relieve this confusion.

Yesterday I received a card from the US. Clearly this made no sense to me, who the hell would send me anything from the States? It was only after I opened the envelope I realized my friend, who had been to Seattle on a business trip, had sent me it.

Today a thin package had arrived. In my confusion I tried to get my thoughts sorted, wondering if I had ordered something and forgot about it, or was it maybe just some mail commercial thingy. Imagine my surprise when I opened the package and found the book “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World” inside it! Thank you Renato, this was truly the biggest surprise and sweetest gift I have receive in a long time ♥

There’s so much deliciousness in this book. Where do I even start? I want the Coconut Lime Cupcakes and the S’mores Cupcakes and the Banana Split Cupcakes and the Chocolate Cherry Crème Cupcakes and and and…

Keep going in the same column as last week. Before you move on to week 5 make sure to do a test to see how many push ups you can do at the end of week 4 (make sure you do this test a few days before heading into week 5).

Keep reading…