food as entertainment, autumn nesting.

The weather here is changeable.  20% chance of rain seems to mean it will rain 20% of the time on that particular day.  Since I've arrived, there has not been a day without sun or a day without rain.  I believe this is the nature of early Fall in Helsinki.  The birch trees are already shot through with streaks of yellow, and I am greatly anticipating ruska, the two week period of Autumn color in Finland.


I've been nesting for the Winter, and for me this involves tea-drinking, reading, listening to folksy music (Ola Belle Reed and Devendra Banhart), and lots and lots of cooking.  I've been experimenting with traditional Finnish dishes, mainly focusing on lingonberries because they are the one of the few things in Finland that seem surreally cheap.  2€ gets you a liter of Lingonberries at the outdoor markets, 3€ buys 2 liters.  In taste, lingonberries resemble small, juice-y cranberries.  


I've baked a lingonberry tart (known as Puolukkapiirakka) with shortbread crust, Lingonberry porridge (Vispipuuro), and I've got Tilliliha (beef stew) on the burner right now.  The lingonberry tart would've been more successful if I had a tart pan, but was still tasty.  Vispipuuro is similar to what I imagine grits would taste like if you stirred in cranberry sauce.  It is a mild breakfast, especially with vanilla yogurt poured over.  The Tilliliha is delicious, but I haven't shown real fidelity to the recipe.  I will not make beef stew without  potatoes.


In further seasonal celebration, I have been planning to make a leaf-peeping expedition to Nuuksio National Park weekend after next.  I am now wondering if I must go this weekend to catch any of the Fall colors.  My mentor has very kindly offered to take me to Sweden with him for a conference, so I will be on the road for 7-8 days.  Fall passes so quickly here, the leaves might be gone before I return!  My thoughts are that I can always return to the park if I hit it before peak colors, but I can't go back in time if I miss it, so I should go both this weekend and when I return from Sweden.  


Incidentally, bunnies here look like bunnies back home.  I snapped this pic from my balcony.  There's snow on the ground 3 months of the year.  I wonder if they turn white or hibernate...