Chanterelle Soup

Chanterelles are my favorite mushrooms. I like to dry them so I can add them to sauces all year long. Today we bought some chanterelles in a box and there were a lot of small pieces. I decided to make a soup with the small pieces and dry the larger ones.

We used to get a really nice chanterelle soup at the Hotel Grand Marina in Helsinki, but since they let Jamie Oliver into their kitchen, it’s not really worth going there. I wanted to try to recreate that, so I looked for a Finnish recipe. Finns know mushrooms! Feel free to use other mushrooms. I’m just using my favorite.

Gather your ingredients:
4 dl (about 1 3/4 cups) of chopped chanterelles (or other mushroom)
medium onion, chopped
3 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
8 dl (3 1/2 cups) hot water
1 vegetable stock cube
1 1/2 tsp salt
black pepper and white pepper to taste
2 dl (about 7 ounces) cream

Dissolve the stock cube in the hot water and set aside. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the chopped onion and mushrooms.
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Layered Tex-Mex Casserole

AKA Lazy Girl Tex-Mex Lasagna. Any time I simplify a recipe, I label it as a “Lazy Girl” recipe. This is one of my favorites. It’s hard to find good Tex-Mex at the restaurants in Finland, so I make it at home. If I don’t want to go to the trouble of making enchiladas, but want something more substantial than tacos, I make this.

Gather your ingredients. You’ll need:
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Plum Butter

We had a a large plum crop this year and I made plum jam and plum butter again. Every time I make plum butter, I have to call my mom and ask her how to do it. I decided to document it this time. Since the measuring is done only when working with the pulp, it’s easy to get started. It was late, so I put the plums into my crock pot and covered them with water. I let them cook all night. The next morning, they were soft and ready to be made into plum butter. You can do this on the stove. Just dump them in a large pan, cover them with water and cook on low for about three hours.

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Preemie Quilts

In September, 2006 the quilting group from the American Women’s Club in Finland arranged for the ladies of the club to make quilt squares for the Quilt Pink project. At the same time, we were working on a separate quilt to use as our own charity fundraiser and didn’t have time to finish the pink quilt. Since Quilt Pink was a one-time thing, we had all of those beautiful quilt squares waiting to be used.

On April 3, a member of the AWC went into labor and delivered her twin girls 15 weeks early. I had read about preemie quilt programs and knew that the leftover pink squares were about the right size for these sweet little babies. I called Linda, the quilt guru, and suggested that we meet at her place and make a couple of quilts. We met the next day and got started.

The backing is a beautiful old sheet with a white-on-white pattern. This isn’t the square we eventually went with, but it’s the only picture I took of the process.

These are the two quilts after they were quilted, washed and dried. Although we didn’t use the square in the above picture, these were actually the first two choices. The preemie quilts are about 13″ x 13″ (31cm X 31cm). Linda did most of the work because she’s a lot faster than me.

Thanks for looking!

Daffodil card

Here’s another thank you card for a speaker at one of our meetings. I wanted to try the “digital stamp” again. I’m pleased with the results of the blending. It’s very important to let the printer ink dry completely.

Thanks for looking!

Columbine card

This is a thank you card for our ambassador’s wife. She is the honorary president of the American Women’s Club in Finland and hosted us for a meeting in January. She is from Colorado, so I found a coloring page with Colorado’s state flower – the columbine. I saved the image and re-sized it in a Word document. I printed it on light cardstock then colored just inside the lines with colored pencils. I used Gamsol blending spirits to blend the colors into the picture. I used Glossy Accents on the blue to make it shiny :).

Thanks for looking!

Baby Luukkonen’s blanket

Baby L is finally here! I finished his blanket last night and delivered it to him today. I’m very pleased that he was willing to model for me.

First, the blanket was all spread out and he was placed in the middle. He enhanced every little valley and peak.

All snuggled up. He’s the most beautiful baby boy I’ve seen in a long time. Congratulations to Kaveri and Vesa!

Buttery Apple Cake

I made this cake for a baby shower. It was easy and delicious.

I used this recipe from Martha Stewart. Thanks, Martha!

IsÃ¤npÃ¤ivÃ¤ 2009

Kaveri’s baby shower invitation

A couple of friends and I are hosting a shower for our friend in a few weeks. I volunteered to make the invitations. This is a library card pocket. The party details will be printed and inserted into the pocket.

Thanks for looking!