14th of February Happy Friends Day!…

wait, what?!

Ok, I know, whole wild world know  the14th of February as the Valentine’s Day for all ones who have already found the love of their life or whatsoever. The thing is do they really need this day? I mean c’mon if there are two beings truly in love with each other they don’t need one special day to show their feelings or what the love is (baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me no more…). I don’t know, but it seems like people want to be with somebody just to show off, you know, all this changing fb status, photos on insta or whatever it is, making out in a crowded place which makes everyone else feel small nauseas, it’s like they like each other because everyone else can see them. Especially on the 14th of February. That’s why I prefer friends day which is celebrated in Finland in 14th of February. The difference is that in this busy world you don’t have time for all your friends wasting your time on studies, work or family, but on this special day you can waste on hanging out with your friends who may be normally far away and on this day they will come to you just to spend some time for catching up all year. Brilliant idea, right? Hanging out with the person that is as mentally sick as you are, refreshing old memories that still make your eyes filled with tears due to laugh that you just cannot stop it’s the way we should do with old friend that we can’t see too often. So now, go out with your friend of course and enjoy this one day, even only for an hour, eat pizza, watch a horror movie, make some food together, go hiking or just for a walk, but what’s the most important, have fun!

Hyvää Ystävänpäivää !

Happy Friends Day! :D

Do you have a sweet tooth?

I do. I mean who doesn’t! Ok, let’s get down to business ;) The 5th of February is celebrated in Finland as the Runebergin Päivä. I know that everyone is just excited here thinking that I’ll tell you history of this day, or that I’ll tell you everything about Runeberg’s life. I’m sorry to say that but I won’t. But don’t be mad, instead of it, I’ll give you a recipe how to make Runebergintorttu which is Runebergin’s muffins! yeeey! Ok, so if you are lazy, don’t worry, because you have to find only 40 minutes I guess to make ‘em. Ok, now:

WARNING: Do not have your favourites clothes on you during the process of baking.

WARNING 2: I know you all in fire due to excitement of making Runebergintorttu, but please watch out on yourself.

WARNING 3: Make sure you have your friends/family next to you when the muffins are ready because it’s just impossible to resist the pleasure of eating them all!

ingredients:

-200 g butter/margarine

-250g sugar

-2 eggs

-250 g wheat flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

-1 teaspoon ground cardamom

- 250g sweet bread crumbs

- 80 g ground almonds

-125 ml single cream

-raspberry jam

“Hidden piquancy” (To moisten):

-250 ml water

-125g sugar

-2/3 tablespoon arrack liqueur or rum

Icing

-125g icing sugar

-2 teaspoon water/lemon juice

And the the frosting on the cake (topping):

-raspberry jam/raspberry marmalade

Now, recall all the things you have learnt on OSH classes, CPR including, and:

1. Preheat the oven to 200° C.

2. Grind the almonds and combine them with the bread crumbs.

3. Cream the butter or margarine and sugar together.

4. Add one egg at a time, beating the mixture well after each egg.

5. Combine the flour and baking powder and stir into the mixture.

6. Add the cardamom, bread crumbs and almonds and finally the cream.

7. Mix lightly but do not unnecessarily stir the mixture.

8. Grease a muffin mould and put an equal amount of the mixture into the hollows.

9. Leave room for the mixture to raise in the hollows.

10. Using a floured fingertip, press a hole in the middle of each muffin.

11. Place about half a teaspoonful of jam or marmalade on each muffin.

12. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 15 minutes.

13. Boil the water and melt the sugar in it.

14. Flavour with the alcohol.

15. Moisten the baked muffins with the liquid.

16. When the muffins are still hot, add another half a teaspoonful of jam in the middle.

17. Let the muffins cool. (Keep calm and WAIT! Let the muffin get their swag)

18. Combine the icing sugar and water or lemon juice in a small bowl.

19. Pour the liquid icing around the jam.

Ok. I hope you’re still alive! Enjoy your meal and remember: you’re still on a diet ;)

Lecture's inspiration...

           Recently we’ve started a new chapter of our coursebook. There was a small fragment from the Great expectations by Chares Dickens. As such you are familiar now with this plot I just want to tell you something about my favourite Dickens's book, apart from the christmas serie of course. It’s A tale of two cities. I’ve seen various versions of this book on a bookshelves some longer, some shorter. That’s crazy when you find a great book that it's shortened. Dickens is about details, he wrote as if he was a painter: he was building book stories with details like the exact look of buildings, weather, clothes or gestures of characters. That is why we could imagine his imaginary world so close to his intentions. Now, when it comes to the language of his books, it can say something more about each character due to differences in dialogues between educated ones, the ones that have grown up in the countryside or the ones that English hasn’t been their native language. It makes Dickens's books so interesting. Next thing that makes his book fascinating is crossing stories of characters. We read about somebody with no clue that after a while this person will be a key character to the whole story. Every single plot seems to be planned with attention and everything makes sense in the end. While reading we just uncover next puzzle that makes us be attent. As for A tale of two cities, I love Sydney Carton in every single detail of his personality. Knowing that his life is already wasted he sacrificed himself for the love of his life - Lucy, by being switched in the prison with Lucy’s husband sentenced to death. You may ask why no one seemed to notice the fact that the prisoner had changed. It is simple… they looked alike but there were particular differences between them like the way of speaking, gestures or posture. I think that the thing that makes this book so beautiful is the change of Sydney from a man, often drunk and weak into a rave, fearless and whose strength was love to Lucy. I hope that maybe some of you’ll get interest in this book, for me so worth reading. 

Sydney Carton quotations from devianart