MÄMMI TIME!

Altough being stacked up in every store for the moment, it still seems I am in the minority of Finns actually rejoicing that mämmi season is here! Well at least if you ask my Facebook feed, that is. It is a short and sweet (and a bitter one, if we are being literal and going after that taste here) season, lasting only for a week or two around Easter. Once my parents did this thing though where they froze mämmi and had it for midsummer dessert. With  Christmas dishes for dinner. (It tasted wrong on so many leves, but was rather fun of course)

Traditionally meant as a dessert, I like to have my mämmi (or memma, as we say in Swedish) for breakfast. I buy the version without sugar that is somehow sweetened slowly by itself. Don't ask, can't explain how it's done. As I posted here some seasons before, I started having mine with fruit and quark instead of the traditional cream and sugar. So I can both piss off people by saying I actually like mämmi, or then the tradtionalists by having mine in new ways. However, this year I noticed a version selling mämmi with quark in a duo-pack, so it is not just me! Or, then it was because of me.

I think the quarks with lemon or vanilla flavours taste best with mämmi, which makes it somethng of a double-easter thing, as I think flavoured quarks tend to resemble pasha, which we also have for Easter,  in taste. Pasha is a dessert that is served in Eastern Orthodox countries but also in Finland (having been part of Russia for 109 years just up until our independece in 1917 there are both linguistic and culinaristic remnants from that time) and, is unlike mämmi, perhaps easier to like. Kind of like it tastes good without having to think about it twice. It has quark and butter and cream in it with fruit and nuts and you get about all the calories you need for a week to survive in one serving. (BRING IT ON!)

Mämmi is bought in carton boxes made to resemble the original birch bark bowls it was stored and served in back in ye olde days. The dish is made out of rye flour and malt and baked in the oven. So it has quite a lot of protein and fibres and keeps your stomach full and well-working. Even though do I like it could still be described as what disappointment tastes like, because as I kid you'd picture it was some kind of chocolate pudding and then BOOM it was so much not that. However, if you ever find ourself over here at this time of year I do urge you to try this only-in-Finland dish!

EASTER BRANCHES - VAIHTOEHTO VITSALLE

(Half of the headline is indeed in Finnish in case you had to look twice. It gives the content of this post away.)

Easter is just around the corner and over here, if you have kids, it's time to decorate some branches!
(If you can find some, that is, as winter has lingered around longer than usual this year...)

The branches are for when the small ones go out "witching", which can be compared a bit to trick or treat on Halloween, altough here no tricks are involved, just wishing well for the year ahead.* Tradition is to decorate the branches with feathers, but I tend to go for animal-free options, and often just a make-do of what I happen to have in the cupboards at home. I just saw a pretty funny video from one of the big supermarket chains though, saying their feathers are a certified left over product from the food (=meat)  industry, which I think is good; to take as much as possible into use as long as it's there. But I'll stick to my alternatives anyway.

Here are some ideas -

Wrapping ribbon.

Folder paper...thingies. With more wrapping ribbon.

And pom-poms!
As the old wisdom goes: when in doubt, go for pom-poms.
Ok perhaps that was just made up right now but pretty sure it works.

I just got this idea to make bows out of chocolate bon-bon wrapping but that would mean I'd have to go trough a whole bag myself and...OK, it is so going to happen.

*) I've written a few sentences more on the tradition of small Easter witches, which combines both pagan and Orthodox believes, before; you can find it under my Easter-tag.

THAT ONE ABOUT EASTER

Easter. This year I managed to plan a little in advance (as in I beat my side note challenge from last year, did them the night before; tada!) and did not have to rely on what randomness I could find in the drawers. We went feather-free and decorated the willow branches with small pom poms. The kids use these to hand out for when they go around wishing neighbours well for the year to come and expect to get treats in return. They actually turned out rather nice so maybe next year I'll make a vase for us as well. Well, we'll see about that next year then...

And then! Once a year: Mämmi. Memma. Yum. During my thirty-something years of eating mämmi I have, being the kind of person who apparently just can't do things without having to alter them a little, come to the conclusion that I prefer mine with lemon quark, with or sans fresh fruit on the side. And this is for breakfast in my book (and most likely my book only); not dessert.

Well here's another one who also tweaks traditions. For the Easter walk Dag wanted to be a knight, not a witch, which is basically the whole thing and thus pretty much the only option, apart from a bunny or the witch's black cat every now and then. Well we've seen huge eggs and chickens over here too and if the kid wants to be a knight I'll of course turn him into one!
You can read more about the candy begging-well-wishing Eastern tradition in the some past posts of mine.

And all the small witches left their marks on our door.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: 4 x BROWN

Gingerbread brown blouse that I came across for less than 5€ the other day at the Fida thrift shop.

Breakfast. Or, part of it.
Also: unintentionally inspired by my post a few days back, matching my snacks.

1970's vintage cowboy boots that I bought via Etsy some time ago. When you live in the countryside you need boots.

And then the best thing about Easter.
Mignon eggs. Full, solid nougat.

FRESH AND SOUR

Fennel is a vegetable which anis-like taste I sometimes crave for, and sometimes makes me go 'Uh, not now!'. It is however mostly the first option for me, and this easy-to-put-together side dish salad suits Easter well I think. It goes well with mild foods like eggs and rice to add some sour and piquant vibes, or middle along wiht some eastern dishes but also on top of a cheese sandwhich for example.

Fennel & Lemon salad
sliced or diced fennel
sliced cucumber
juice of a lemon
a bit of oil and white vinegar
black pepper

Just blend together in a bowl and you're good to go!

I use a white vinegar with black currant which gives some extra taste to the salad. If you want a spicier version you can add a little Sriracha sauce as well. And add some more oils and fine chopped cabbage if yo do,  but now we are going into totally different territories and salads already.

BUNNIES AND OTHER EASTERY THINGIES

Easter. Felt it was really early this year as I am not sure it's quite spring yet for real, at least not in the kind of way you'd dare to be sure about This year I learned how the dates are set, how it goes related to the first full moon after spring solstice. Aaaahaaa.

Dag bought home easter-grass they'd grown in his kids' club plus a black witch's cat he'd made. Milk cartons and toilet paper rolls, forever strong in the kids' crafting departement. I've made a ton of these as a kid myself; there would be some Christmas elves and angels and Easter witches and bunnies in every corner at every holiday of the year in our home when I was young. I was too small to remember what I thought of my creations myself, but when my sisters started bringing them home some years later I remember thinking they were ugly and started dreading the day my own offspring would clog the surfaces of my future lovely home with their cardboard-glue-and felt pieces. And then BOOM that day comes and you go aaaaaw and think everything is just adorable. Meow!
(Even though that cat obviously is a little drunk. )


On Friday I drove into town for a late night gogo-dance-and-eat-whipped-cream-on-stage gig (in other words nothing different from the usual) in the same time stressing for the following day's Easter-treat collecting that the children do on Easter Saturday, which I had not had the time to prepare properly. Or, I had kind of prepared it already as I had indeed stuffed some material in a plastic bag at the same time I packed my gogo gear at home in the city the day before, but not put into realisation.

(Backstage photo by Antti Vuorenmaa.)

So the next day I had a super-domestic-day and got up early to sew Dag a bunny costume. Well, a bunny hood, not top-to-toe (phew!);  he wanted to be a Easter bunny this year. This time I had also remembered to bring the face paint ton the right house (one of the things I stuffed in that bag)- last year I had to improvise with whatever I had in my make up bag - and Dag turned into a little bunny boy.

His older brother had misplaced his bunny costume I'd made him some years before and after some panicked searching we got a little creative and he became a cartoon mushroom instead. Because why not!
Dag's oldest brother is 15 already so he has skipped out on this for some years now already.

And then those damn pussy willow branches. The ones the kids hand out so they get candy. Let's just face it, I'll probably never manage to have them done well in time.  (Challenge for next year: do it! Well in time might mean I could get the kids to actually work on them themselves too). Usually they are decorated with feathers and crepe paper. But you take what you have and what time you have -  I added gift ribbons like last year and turned a couple of A4's into quick decorations and they did turn out rather decent.

And then the boys were ready to join up with a gang of some small yellow baby chickens, an Easter egg and some witches to go collect sweets.  It's a mix of eastern (Orthodox) and western pagan-meets-Christianity-traditions to go around houses, either on Palm Sunday (east) or Easter Saturday (west), and wish the people well for the coming year. And get lots of candy.



Meanwhile it was time for some (very quick and easy) baking as we had people coming over. Woom woom super Saturday.

Later I turned into the actual big B and hid some eggs around the house for the kids to search for the next morning.

It's always fun! Although one may bump into the ones that were the most well hidden later during the year...

The kids' sugar-rush stash.

Well, it's only once a year...