Helsinki: Big Ships, Small Islands, Moomins + The Best Coffee

In my last post I shared images of our 'base camp' in Finland. It was, as the photographs show, in the middle of nowhere and a rental car was pretty much essential. Despite it's romote idyllic location we were only a 30 minute drive away from the images you see here: Helsinki. It really was the best of both worlds. Helsinki didn't disappoint as far as capital cities go. It is spotlessly clean and well maintained. There is some striking architecture, family-friendly museums, great places in which to eat and drink and the harbour with its gateway to all Helsinki's beautiful little islands. It's a very special place.

We took a boat trip to a near island, the price of which was included in our travel pass.

And we were mesmerised by the giant ships that came and went.

When visiting any city overseas we like to try out the public transport. Helsinki station was a stunning building both inside and out.

Helsinki isn't vast, and we managed to cover most of it during our time there. The Design Museum was a highlight. The proud Finns consider good design a part of everyday life. The local supermarkets all stock Iittala, Arabia & Marimekko kitchenware - in fact they don't really stock many other brands. But then why would they?

We took a trip out to the 1952 Olympic stadium and visited the fantastic Tove Jannson centenary exhibition which celebrated the fascinating life and work of the novelist, painter, illustrator and, as she is best known, author of the Moomin books for children. Did you know that the Moomin stories go back as far as 1945? Moomin's are very much loved in Finland and there are two Moomin shops which Lily and Arthur both took a shine to.

Helsinki is great for food and drink. Then there was the coffee. It was seriously good. Helsinki has lots of independent coffee shops, including Johan & Nyström by the scenic harbour. Not only did they serve the best coffee, but they also provided an excellent stock of design magazines and cookbooks to flick through. 

We ate at falafel cafes and a restaurants that offered a vast vegetarian buffet where you paid for your meal by weight (the plates, not yours). We had liquorice & lemon ice cream (devine), blueberry chocolate, rye breads in every shape and size, nordic berries and chanterelles and of course, there was always room for a cinnamon bun. 

Finland: The House, The Woods, The Lakes

We've been back from our Finland trip exactly one week: though it seems like an age ago now. We arrived home and got straight back into the daily swing of things within 24 hours: the kids completing their last few days at summer school and us back at work with 'to do' lists as long as our arms.

We're desperately trying to hold onto that holiday feeling: the relaxed clear headedness that you get while away from it all. Finland was what I call a proper break. 

This was our base: a beautiful wooden summer house in Kirkkonummi surrounded by woods and lakes, that our friend and her family generously offered up to us for our stay.

We had quality family time, enjoyed the beautiful surroundings, made new discoveries, enjoyed new experiences and ate lots of cinnamon buns. Yes, the cinnamon buns were really something.

 

If you ever get the chance to visit Finland, go for it - you won't be disappointed.

 

Aunties, Lemon Drizzle Cake & The Kinfolk Table

If anything brings out a traditional English cake in me, it's a visit from the Aunties. I've written about their visits on the blog before, here and here. Today they made their Easter visit to us: the kid's were spoilt; we took a walk along the beach; we had sandwiches & cake and drank copious cups of tea. 

I returned home from our Milan trip at the weekend with two lemons. They were each double the size of the ones available here. I had placed them in the fruit bowl, enjoying their rustic imperfections with  a sketchy plan to use them in a recipe in which they could take centre stage. Their moment of glory came today in the form of a Lemon Drizzle Cake.

I've baked countless Lemon Drizzle cakes, but for this occasion I decided to follow a new recipe. It did my Milanese lemons proud - a zesty lemony cake that's best enjoyed in the company of aunties. You can find the said recipe in The Kinfolk Table. This book is my bible. It is so beautifully written with stunning photography - it's a book that I get totally absorbed and lost in and a book I re-read over and over again.

Written by author Nathan Williams, who also edits the equally beautiful Kinfolk Magazine, The Kinfolk Table is a collection of recipes that Williams has gathered from a wide-ranging circle of home cooks around the world who are both reinventing and rediscovering the joys of casual entertaining. Williams takes the reader into the home of each of the contributors - chefs, bakers, writers, bloggers, artisans and artists - capturing what makes them each remarkable, and drawing out the rituals and traditions that bring loved ones to share their table. 

To me, it beautifully sums up what cooking, eating and sharing food is all about: those everyday rituals and sometimes-occasions that are the backbone of life.

Party {Can} Bags

 

 

Whenever I throw a party I always look for inspiration on the party blog Oh Happy Day. They never fail to set my creative juices flowing. Last year it was their crepe paper flower tiaras, but this year it was their 'birthday in a can'. 

I purchased a dozen tins of chopped tomatoes (decanting and freezing the contents) and made these party 'can' bags, which I filled with sweets. I'm glad I didn't have more than 12 to make, but they were a fun and unusual party bag. They would also work just as well as a ceative way to 'wrap' a birthday gift if it was small enough. You can see a step-by-step guide of how to make them over at Oh Happy Day.

Birthday No. 9 - The Cake

This year Lily asked if she could have her birthday party at a 'venue'. To date, I had always held any birthday parties for her at home. It was great when she was younger, but now I'm not so sure how our home would weather 12 nine year old girls. 

I've always throughly enjoyed organising the kids parties: picking a theme, transforming the room, creating invitations, planning games, sourcing treats and preparing the food. So it was with the combination of a heavy heart and light relief that we booked up a Pizza Party for her and her friends. 

However, my only condition to allowing Lily her 'venue' party was that I made the cake and party bags. So for year No.9 I made a 4 layer Chocolate & Vanilla Marble Cake, filled and covered with a Chocolate Chip & Cream Cheese Frosting. I selected bright blooms for decoration along with the 'Lily Biba' cake topper that I made by painting wooden letters and sticking them onto wooden skewers. 

As the children made their pizzas with the restaurant chef, we sat on a table-for-two across the way watching on with a glass of wine, unperturbed by all the flour flying around. 

I think it's fair to say that I have been converted to the idea of 'venue' parties. 

Nine

Nine years ago today my life changed forever when Lily was born. It only seems like yesterday, yet I can't recall life without her - it seems she has always been here. But no matter how the passing of time plays tricks with your mind, the fact she is nine is somehow hard to fathom. I am all to aware that those innocent years are now in short supply. Next year will be 'double figures' and before we know it she'll be a teenager. 

Nine. I've been trying of late to remember what it was like. For me that would have been 1981. It was the year of the royal wedding with street parties and union jacks. It was also the year that saw Bucks Fizz win the Eurovision Song Contest and their glossy poster was blue-tacked to the back of my bedroom door. My life was full of visits to grandparents, playing outdoors, hair ribbons, The Multicoloured Swap Shop and The Muppet Show, 10p mix bags from the corner shop and a pirouette clown obsession. Looking back now, 1981 also saw serious riots and hunger strikes, but that seemed to surpass the nine year old me. At nine life was still uncomplicated.

Much of Lily is still that little girl: she still looks sweet in her pretty hair bands, she still wants bedtime stories read to her and she'll still willingly hold my hand when walking down the street. But somehow nine is different: that little bit older. This year I signed off her birthday card with 'Mum & Dad', not 'Mummy & Daddy'. For a moment that saddened me.

So is it any different being a nine year old in 2014? Well, children today don't have the freedom we once had and computer games and 24 hour multi-channel TV weren't part of our everyday lives. We were recently explaining the concept of the Top 40 to Lily and how we would buy 7 inch singles in Woolworths and listen to the radio on a Sunday to catch who had made it to the number one spot, pressing 'play' and 'record' down on our radio/cassettes to capture our favourite tunes. Then come Thursday evening, if we were lucky, we might be able to stay up and watch Top of the Pops. Our enthusiastic musings must have sounded prehistoric to her young ears.

But swap the colourful hair ribbons for Weevz bracelets, Diana for Kate and Bucks Fizz for Olly Murs and I think that maybe being 9 hasn't changed all that much.

 Happy Birthday Lily - you make life sweet. xxxx

New School No. 3 + Chocolate & Pistachio Biscuits

It has been a scorcher today - the last burst of summer, before she gives way to autumn. But despite the temperatures, I feel as though summer has ended: school is back, the football season is underway and the supermarkets are stocking Christmas goods (!).

Today, was Lily's first day at her new school - a big day. It's her third time as 'the new girl'. It was never our plan to move her around schools as we have, but luckily she doesn't seem affected by it, if anything it has made her a rather adaptable little girl, ready to take on any situation she finds herself in, which isn't a bad life skill to have. The school she is at now is where we had always wanted her to go. It's been a bit of a journey, two schools and an almost-house move, but we got there in the end.

My mind was preoccupied today, wondering how she was getting on in her new environment, full of new faces and unfamiliar routines. So I set about baking a batch of these Chocolate & Pistachio biscuits for us to have when she got home - a bit of baking can be quite a good way to kerb anxieties.

3.20pm couldn't have come soon enough. She came out of school smiling and filled me in on the days events on the short walk home. She loves her new school and has made several new friends - I had no need to worry. I'm so very proud of her. 

The biscuits, by the way were also a success. 

Chocolate & Pistachio Biscuits

220g unsalted butter

80g icing sugar

pinch of salt

1 egg

280g plain flour

30g cocoa powder

70g whole blanched pistachios

For the dough, combine the butter, icing sugar and salt. Add the egg, flour and cocoa powder. Add the nuts and combine. Chill for 1 hour.

When the dough is firm, roll it into a sausage and cut into 5mm slices. Preheat oven to 190C / Gas 5.

Arrange biscuits on a baking tray and cook for 12 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool.

Recipe: A la Mére de Famille
Photographs: Buttercup Days

Life Lately + Chocolate, Crushed Raspberry & Honeycomb Cupcakes.

Last week, we received some good news. Really good news. Lily has been offered a place at the same school that Arthur will be starting in September. After four years, an almost-house move, and two schools, our daughter will finally be attending our local school of choice. I had almost given up hope and was trying to fathom out how we were going to manage the school runs with two children that were in different schools in different parts of town. But last week, we got the call we had been waiting for. The relief, to finally feel settled on the school front, is huge. 

I can't help feeling for Lily though - the 'new girl' yet again. However, at the moment she is fine about it all. Moving school every two years is her norm to date. The school she will be leaving is tiny, so it won't be that much of a challenge to stay in touch with some special friends plus she has a couple of friends from her previous school and preschool at her new school. All those old paths are soon crossed again, even at the age of eight it seems. 

For now, Lily still has another three weeks left at her current school, then we have the summer holidays before a new chapter begins with a new school for both of my children. 

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I made these cakes at the weekend for Lily to take to a birthday party. They were Chocolate, Crushed Raspberry & Honeycomb Cupcakes and apparently a hit with the gaggle of eight-year-old girls.

Photography: Buttercup Days

Father's Day + A Time When I Didn't Like Pizza

It's Father's Day on Sunday. Both my kids have been plotting, planning and preparing over the last week for their daddies special day. They idolise him and approach this day with considerable excitement. My role in their carefully thought out plan is to try and turn the list of ever-so-slightly random and adventurous ideas into reality. 

Then there is my own dad of course. He's actually spending the weekend with my brother and his family, which will be a real treat, given that the distance between them (Isle of Wight - Tynemouth) doesn't allow for too many occasions spent together. I've written about my Dad before on the blog (you can read it here), but today I want to share a little story that came back to me recently.

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In 1980, we had a family holiday to America. It was a big thing. It was the first time that my brother or I had been abroad. We have a big extended family in Michigan, so this trip was spent in the company of our American cousins, all of who showed us a great and memorable time. Although only eight at the time, I remember it being an amazing adventure.

Naturally, many of my memories evolve around the food we ate. It was so different to what we ate back home: all the sweets were different and called 'candy', jam was called 'jelly' and as for breakfast cereal - I'd never seen so many varieties! I remember the pizzas too - great big things the size of dustbin lids. 

However, at eight I didn't like pizza. Even now, I can't give a legitimate reason why, I just didn't like it. These pizzas often marked the end of days sightseeing with relatives, but like I say I didn't like pizza. So my dad would go on a wild goose chase for a McDonalds to by me a burger (no gerkins). He wasn't a soft touch and I'm surprised he put up with such fastidious behaviour. On one such occasion, I remember him returning with my paper-wrapped bun rather incensed muttering something about 'almost getting run over trying to cross the busy highway to get to McDonalds'. To top it all, I dare say his pizza was cold when he got back to us all.

I love pizza now and wouldn't step within 100yds of McDonalds. Dad: sorry that I was a fussy-eating eight year old.

Next Week: Milan.

We're off to Milan next week for seven days. I'm feeling quite excited, if a little unprepared. We only decided to go a couple of months ago. Normally, any trips we take are booked well in advance. The main reason for this trip is work. Milan is home to the world's biggest furniture fair, Salone Internazionale del Mobile - think a kind of 'Milan Fashion Week' for furniture and interiors. As well as the main event, there are countless satellite events throughout the cities various districts. 

It is our first trip to Milan, indeed our first trip to Italy. We toyed with making the trip alone, which would obviously make 'business' sense. We toyed with David making the trip on his own, while I stayed behind with the kids. To be honest I wasn't overly comfortable or happy with either option. The decision we finally settled upon was for us both to go with the kids in toe. This means that I won't really be able to do the business stuff. David will spend the first 48hrs of our trip attending the exhibitions and events during the day and the launch parties in the evenings. Once work has had its 48hrs or so, we can do stuff as a family. 

The real coup of this trip is that we're going to staying at my friend Sarah's city centre apartment. She moved to Milan with her husband and two young daughters just over a year ago, due to her husbands job. Since settling in her new city, Sarah has given us an open invite to visit. We all knew that the ideal time for our visit would be now. But, would you believe this; we will only see Sarah for a mere morning as she is coming back to the UK for her sisters wedding and will return to Milan the day after we leave. What bad timing! 

So, while David hangs out with the design world's movers and shakers in chic city spots, I will be exploring what cultural treats the city has to offer with Lily, Arthur, my terrible sense of direction and Sarah's recommendations. I speak no Italian, but am pretty good and communicating with gesture and expression, which will hopefully be enough to get us by. We will jump on the metro or travel by tram and get 'inside' the city. Lily wants to find the best Pesto Pasta and Arthur will be more than happy to try out the ice cream parlours. I just want to visit the food and flea markets, shop in the supermarket and people watch from an outdoor cafe, cappuccino in hand. As for the evenings, I'll happily give the swanky parties and bars a miss for a glass of wine on my friends couch reading through the pile of books that I will take with me. I'm happy with the simple life whichever city I happen to be in.

No doubt, I will come home with something to share on the blog, but until then, Ciao. x

Eight

This weekend Lily had her eighth birthday. She'd been counting the days since the Christmas decorations came down. Some weeks ago, I struck up conversation about her birthday, asking her what she might like to do. Her response was 'I'd like a birthday surprise'. Good. I like arranging surprises. She'd also muttered something about quite liking the idea of a party, but reluctantly felt that, at eight, she would be rather too old for that sort of thing.

Anyway, needless to say I started scheming, plotting and planning. The result of which was the most wonderful surprise. A total surprise. I invited 8 of her closest girl-friends, a mix of life-long and newer friends, over for lunch without Lily knowing. 

I made pizza's - plenty of them and served Birthday cake and ice-cream for pudding (for those interested, her cake this year was a Rose & Almond Cake - really delicious with a taste that reminded me of Battenburg cake).

I made each guest (Arthur had a boy-ish variation) a crepe paper flower tiara (as seen on Oh Happy Day), and dressed the table with place names, grown up cutlery & china and jam jars full of fresh spring flowers. It could have been a wedding reception! Needless to say 'the look' and the crazy effort that went into it wasn't lost on a bunch of eight year-old girl's - they simply loved it!

While I was busy setting everything up, David had taken Lily to work for an hour, by the time she came home all her guests were ready, waiting and hiding behind the sofa ready to jump out and  'Surprise!' her. Lily's face was a picture. She stood speechless, beaming ear to ear, then after a moment or two very calmly and matter-of-factly said 'Hello'.

After Pizza, cake and a play each guest left with their pretty hair piece and a party bag and Lily sat down and drew breath.

On Sunday, her actual birthday, we had a day at home (plans to go out were cancelled due to the bad weather), Her uncle, aunt and cousin came over (another surprise) and we had a 'Lily style lunch' of Pesto Pasta and Chocolate Brownies.

A perfect weekend for the perfect little girl.

Happy Pancake Day. Happy Birthday.

I love pancakes: both the making and the eating. In our house Pancake Day never passes by unmarked. I always remember my mum making us lemon & sugar pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, so it goes without question, that I now make these delicious sweet and sour crepes for my children. Simple food that brings on a kitchen-full of smiles.

Today is also my dad's birthday. I wonder if he'll have cake or pancakes today? If it was my birthday I'd have both. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD xxx

The Hand-Me-Down Desk

Some of my most treasured possessions are those pieces of furniture that have been a constant in my life. They are what can only be described as comforting. They're all pieces that I can remember from my childhood.

My great-grandmothers wardrobe stands in Arthur's bedroom and despite it's age and old dark wood, it fits in effortlessly with his modern styled room. Then there is our dining table, that I've written about on this blog before, that originally longed to my grandparents. Also there is my lamp, probably originating from the late 60's, that's lives in my living room: that was rescued from my parents old house some years ago when they were about to get rid of it. In my eyes that just couldn't be thrown away: as far as lighting goes it was practically part of the family!

Then there is my desk. I was the 'middle' owner of it really. My grandfather made it for me when I was little; so little that my feet dangled above the floor when seated at it. The metal frame part of the desk had been the same metal frame of the desk he made for my dad. My grandfather reconditioned the frame and made a new wooden lidded desk top (complete with ink well) before passing it onto me. Once I grew out of it, it was kept in my parents loft and, once I left home, it took residence in the various lofts of the homes I have lived in.

Now it's in Arthur's bedroom and therefore under its third ownership. He loves it. He should get a few years out of it yet, as when he sits at it his feet still dangle above the floor, much like mine did. 

How very comforting that is.

Move Over Nigella

This is the cake that Lily baked for David last weekend. It was her birthday present to him: a gingerbread cake with white chocolate cream cheese icing and sprinkles in 'gunners' red. All very much her own work. Not bad eh?

A New Year + Distance

So here we are in a new year: 2013. The decorations come down tomorrow and all traces of Christmas will be gone, packed away in the loft for another year. It was a good Christmas with lots of time spent relaxing with family and good friends; all the day-to-day stuff that dominates the other fifty weeks of the year firmly pushed to the back of the mind.

In our home the start of January is never dull as we have a very important birthday in the house (David's: today), it seems to just gate-crash itself into the tail end of Christmas and therefore extend the kid's excitement somewhat. They both have an effortless ability to get more enthusiastic about our birthdays than we do ourselves.

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However, the new year hasn't been rosy everywhere. Someone I'm very close to lost her father on New Years Eve. It was unforeseen, cruel and shattering and I can't begin to understand the emotions that she must be experiencing at this time. There's roughly 350 miles between us. I want to be there. To do what, I don't know. I just want to take round a cooked meal for an evening that ends a tough day. I want to take her little girl, who has lost her granddad, out for a milkshake or an ice cream on the windy beach (I'm certain she'd have no problem eating ice cream in January). Just lots of little nothings. How I wish that distance wasn't so great.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! What I really love about Christmas is the time spent with family and friends. So far there has been time spent with my family, the one I grew up with; my family that I married into and old friends, many of whom we've known for so long that they are considered family. Happy, relaxing, warm times with great company and delicious food!

And it's not over yet: we're off to the Isle of Wight tomorrow for a few days to do 'Christmas' with my parents, before arriving home in Hove to see in 2013. Perfect.

Merry Christmas - enjoy the rest of the festive holiday. X

The picture in this post of the Pistachio and Boozy Cherry Pavlova I made when friends came over yesterday evening. This morning only a lone slither remains in the fridge.

Realignment

You'd be forgiven for thinking that I had given up with Buttercup days: it's been so long since I have written a post. I haven't given up at all, just taken a bit of an unplanned break. 

I've been doing this blog for near on two years now and it can at times be all consuming. It's odd as I am obviously doing this blog off my own back and can indeed stop at any point, but as with so many things you start, build up and put loads of work into, it can be hard to just end it all: it would be like it was all for nothing.

But the truth is, over the last month or two life has been really busy. Nothing special, but just every angle of it demanding my time, energy and attention. My work / home balance has been somewhat off kilter during the last quarter of this year, which can in turn make for quite a stressful time. Family and friends are forever telling me that I take on far too much. They are probably right. So I am trying to cut myself a bit of slack and clarify what is important and deserves my time; saying 'no' to stuff, which is not in my nature. This blog is important to me, but not essential, so I put it on the shelf for a month to give myself a chance to slow the pace and get the other stuff done.

I've altered my work hours in the business too and am only taking on non-business work projects that I really want and, more importantly, have the time to do. For example, I was heavily involved with Lily's school in the run up to Christmas: organising and doing Christmas crafts with years 5 & 6, running the crafts at the school Christmas fayre and sourcing and collecting prizes for the school raffle. I was doing all this whilst working to launch our new business blog (the final part of our rebrand), writing my weekly food posts for Heart Home blog and getting everything ready for our family Christmas. So when the notice went up at Arthur's play-school asking for help with their Christmas fayre, for the first time ever I didn't put my name down. For me that was a hard thing to do. I turned up on the day with a batch of homemade mince pies, no flash cake, and that was it. 

I have just one more day at work tomorrow then it is headlong into Christmas. I really can't wait: we have some great days planned seeing family and friends, some days we're having family trips out and other days the four of us will just hang out at home doing nothing in particular, which is a pretty rare indulgence. It should be time enough to recharge ready for the new year ahead. So please bear with me, the regular post are coming back. 

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The pictures attached are of the kids making Christmas paper-chains for their bedrooms. They so can't wait for the festivities to begin and neither can I.

Here we go: the countdown to Christmas starts here

How the devil are we back here again with Christmas just around the corner? Tomorrow sees the start of many festive activities that our weeks are peppered with from now until the end of the year. It's not our lives that are a social whirlwind, but rather those of our children. As of next week come the nativity plays, carol concerts and parties. 

Tomorrow is Lily's school Christmas Fayre. Again this year, I am 'head of crafts'. Sounds a rather grand title, but it basically means I spend the duration of the fayre and the two weeks running up to it knee-deep in glitter and spend many hours pre-folding paper and cutting out cardboard reindeer antlers and such like. It should however be fun and a fitting excuse to eat a mince pie.

Fireworks + Politics

Yesterday we took the kids to see our local fireworks at Hove Cricket Ground. I love fireworks night: I've never grown out of it. It hasn't been until recent years that Lily has embraced fireworks. We had a couple of false starts taking her to displays when she was younger only to have to leave seconds into the display as she was clearly petrified of the bangs and unfamiliar darkness. So it was with a little hesitance that we took Arthur to his first fireworks display last night, aged three. He told me that he really wanted to go and that he didn't mind loud bangs as he was three and could deal with it. He was right. He was so full of expectation. He sat, as good as gold, waiting for the display to start and when that first rocket launched and exploded into a riot of glitter in the dark sky his eyes were wide and his smile was priceless. He sat there drinking it all in. As a result, I think I spent more time watching his reaction than the actual fireworks. 

On an entirely different note, though equally topical, Lily today asked, in all sincerity, if she could vote in the US elections. She was rather miffed to hear that she couldn't. She has apparently been following the pre-election campaigns on Newsround and had already decided who she would vote for. 

It says a lot when a seven-year-old can clearly see who should win this election.