Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Helmikuu!

Helmikuu means, as you may have guessed, February. Long, cold and dark January is gone, we are one month closer to light and warmth. This calls for celebration which we here in DancesWithWool will do with kahvi and pulla. This corner of the earth consumes huge amounts of coffee.
Someone who knows the perfect translation for pulla please do so in the comments...

I got this Meme from Lankakomero.

4 jobs you have had:

I wonder if there has been any, seems to me I have always been just a mother and nothing but a mother and the life before becoming one seems like a dream somebody else dreamed

4 movies you could watch over and over:

Casablanca

Aki Kaurismäki's newer films

Out of Africa

Some Perdo Almodóvar films, e.g. Hable con Ella

(After I have posted this I'm sure I'll remember a whole lot of other good ones ...)

4 TV shows you love to watch:

I'm more a listener, so I'll include radio here

Sunday afternoons there is a History Document I try to see

There were two shows I had to see all the episodes, but they are not on any more, the other was The Onedin Line and the other The House of Elliot

4 places you have been on vacation:

The farthest I have been must be South Korea

Florida, USA

Paris, France

England

(We took the children with us to England, and they saw there many, many interesting places like London, the Tower there, Sandringham (where the Queen spends some of her time), the Sherwood Forest, the house of Beatrix Potter just to name a few. The very last night there we spent in loveliest BB in Lake District and they had newborn kittens there. So once home safely we asked the girls what they enjoyed most during those two weeks over there, and you know the answer... yes the kittens. Surely we could have found them closer ...)

4 of your favorite foods:

Coffee

Salmon cooked by the open fire

Blackberry pie

Reindeer meat

(I know a story of a woman who was married to a Lapp and she was vegetarian by heart. Once she moved up north she started to eat reindeer meat, it really was unavoidable to her, so she declared it to be a vegetable since the animal mostly lives on lichen and mushrooms.)

This is where I often cook during summer time. See the black coffee pot there, that kind of coffee is the best and made by my husband, he makes the best coffee.

When I once praised the taste of the coffee I was told that it is not the coffee but the company ...

(The picture was taken few years ago, and then that was my hair color.)

4 websites you visit daily:

Lots of Knitting blogs (more than 4)

www.yle.fi

4 places you's rather be right now:

I'm in my favourite place right now but if I'd have to leave I'd love to see

Iceland, Ireland, Scotland and Italy

4 bloggers you are tagging:

At this I'm no good, I don't know who would like to play and who has not been playing yet.

I'll add one more thing to the meme

4 places you have lived:

Turku

Rauma

two months in Helsinki

almost a year in Van Wert, OH and the year was 1977-1978 (exchange student)

And now meet Marie N. We share a long history, she was only eight years old when I was living with her and her family. My year was very good, I got to see many interesting places in the States (eg New York, St Louis and New Orleans) and we even crossed the border to the north and I saw Niagara Falls. It was a memorable year.

This is all for now and next time there will be less talk and more wool...

PS. I think anyone who wants to join the Finnish Olympics Knitting Team is welcome. Quilting has been very popular in Finland and still is. People weave a lot - I have a loom also and have handwoven carpets in the kitchen like so many others especially in the countryside. Knitting is becoming more and more popular and crocheting too.

PS. I have not knit a sweater with Satakieli but I think it would make a beautiful sweater. I have used it only for mittens.

PS. Marie, you want to try Alpaca, it is very soft.

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous15:10

    Ahahah! para uso exclusivo da mamã? Great idea! I love Fazer chocolates, my father always brought some from his frequent business trips to Finland.

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  2. Anonymous15:29

    We call pulla "cinnamon in the corner/turn/bend". This makes one think of the Olympic Games. We have, four people in my office, been trying to find the right word in Olympic-English. Because we have decided that you have given us the best of ideas! Pulla must be the Olympic telly-food nr. 1, especially when our skaters (or yours) round the corners/bends/turns on the 10.000 meter.

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  3. Anonymous16:12

    Oh, man, I miss Fazer blue. Sometimes I can find little individual Fazers, but nothing beats the big blue bar. I miss Finnish coffee, too. And the salmon cooked on the open fire... now I'm hungry.

    I like the "cinnamon in the turn" translation of "pulla." I sometimes see a cruddy version of pulla in my local store called Swedish cardamom bread. It's never just right, though. For all the doughtnuts and fried-pastry junk Americans eat, we don't seem to eat sweet-dough breads like pulla often enough to get really good, fresh ones.

    My grandmother taught me to quilt but declared I was too much of a hätyyvää to enjoy weaving.

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  4. Anonymous16:44

    In Sweden, we would probably call it kanelbulle and obviously bulle/pulla are related words.

    The "generic" term is vetebröd which refers to a white, sweet, yeasted bread.

    In America, cinnamon roll may come closest to a pulla.

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  5. Okay, I looked up the word Pulla in my Finnish lesson book, the English pronunciation is
    "pool-la" with the stress on the first syllable and it says the English definition is "Sweet Bun" But from the description in one of the later chapters talking about foods it says it is a sweet yeasted cinnamon bun", also kahvi is pronounced "Kahh-vi" with the stress again on the first syllable oh and this is something intresting, Kahvila meaning Cafe' is pronounced Kahh-vi-lah with the "H" silent.
    Chocolate: Suklaa is "Sook-laa"
    Febuary: Helmikuu = Hayl-mi-koo with the long ooh sound on the end.
    Sugar: sokeri is "soa-kay-ri"

    I will post the Finnish alphabet, vowels and consonants and their pronunciations on my blog later on this evening. It is tooo long to post here.

    So Lene, after reading your post and looking up the food references in my book, I am now hungry for some pulla and a kuppi tee!

    P.S. My tee kuppi from my poika says "The world's best Mom." Is that what your kahvi kuppi says?

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  6. Your pulla looks exactly like a cinnamon bun to me, though there is probably a difference. I love cinnamon more than anything, so I'd probably really enjoy it.

    Are you all gathered in a tent in that picture? That's what it looks like! There must be a vent up at the top for the cooking fire...

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  7. Anonymous22:30

    mmmm....Kahvi -- one of my favorite flavors for ice cream and candy and beverage (hot or iced). Cannot live without it, but thankfully I do not need it every day. Pulla sounds wonderful for breakfast and snacks too. The suklaa I can do without for the most part (more for all the other ladies out there!) The exception is European chocolates -- no question better than the American.

    I'll add a bit of knitting talk -- I finished a slipper (first try and first ever use of circular needles and dpns) but I've not yet felted it down to size. I plan to finish the mate then felt the two of them at the same time. They are 100% wool and the yarn is very loosely spun. The swatch felted wonderfully. I cannot wait to wear them as I'm perpetually cold.

    Thank you, Lene and all your readers for the inspiration.

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  8. Do you quilt? I know how to quilt but I have never made one. I would love to see what Finnish quilting looks like.

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  9. Anonymous16:52

    Minullakin on kangaspuut, noin 150 vuotta vanhat, miehen suvussa olleet pohjanmaalaiset runko kangaspuut. Niillä on edelleen oikein hyvää kutoa, vaikka nyt ei ole tilaa pystyttää niitä (eikä aika oikein löytyy). Ja kudottuja mattoja, vaikka asumme kaupungissa. Pidän käsitöistä!

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  10. I'm definitely going to check out Aki Kaurismäki's films.

    Lovely post. I really would love to visit Finland one day. I've seen it from St. Petersburg, but that doesn't count!

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  11. Lene I love your laavu (I think that is how it is spelled), as you call it your summer kitchen.

    I camp during the summer and love cooking over the fire in my clay pots. How wonderful that you can do that in your back yard!

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