Phew!

It's been a busy week.

We went skiing at Lykynlampi on Sunday in the sunshine.

M's skating school had their end of term performance on Monday (the tinies were hilarious). The bigger ones, especially the formation skaters, were just amazing. Here's M's class in the middle of their routine...

On Wednesday, I made Easter decorations with the Martat ladies. We covered eggs in paper and fabric, and us (and some of the table in my case) in glue.

Thursday was the last of the miniliga races at Pärnävaara, which was great fun. M came in a very respectable 7th. Everyone won a medal or a cup, ate lots of grilli makkara and went home smiling.

Today we've had a girl's morning out in town (including buns at Houkutus), followed by skiing on the lake in brilliant sunshine.

All in all, a top week!

Vatruskas!

Yesterday we learned how to make vatruskas, with our lovely ex-neighbour Taina (who used to work in a bakery in Illomantsi). Best of all, we then ate them with munavoi.

Here's the recipe:

For the dough you'll need

1 litre mashed potato
1 egg
1 dl flour
1 teaspoon salt

For the filling:
some cooked rice (1/2 litre water, 1.5 dl rice, 1/2 teaspoon salt)
a little melted butter

First of all you boil the potatoes (which should be a nice floury variety) without peeling. Once cooled, peel (as M's demonstrating here, it should just come off with a blunt knife).

Mash, and add the egg, flour and salt. Mix together, to make a very soft dough.


Then make the dough into a round stick. Cut into 10 pieces, and pat flat, in a rough half-moon shape.


Take your cooked rice, and add a little melted butter. Place a teaspoon of rice on each half-moon.


Fold the dough over, patting gently down. Use an upturned mug to shape into a half-moon (from the offcuts, you should get another 5 vatruskas).


Bake in an oven at 300 degrees (or the hottest it will go) for 10-15 minutes.


Once they're done, brush with a little melted butter. Then top with munavoi (egg butter - yes, there's lots of butter involved here), and scoff...


...very quickly, before the small child eats them all!