Here in Hancock we have a significant Finnish American population. Because of this, we have some cultural events that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else. Most recently, we celebrated Heikinpäivä (or Heiki's day) marking Winter's halfway point.
We have a parade with people dressed as characters from the Kalevala (Finland's definitive collection of folk tales), Finnish folk dancing, Finnish food, and, most importantly, the market where you can buy crafts and Finnish products.

My husband and I spent a few months in Finland in 2008 and we picked up a few Finnish habits;
we love to sauna
we love rye bread
we love Marimekko
and Fred loves Salmiakki.
Salmiakki is a Finnish candy that almost everyone outside of Finland finds abhorrent. I can tolerate the liqueur, but the candy tastes vaguely like salted fish to me. It's very difficult to find in the states, so Fred looks forward to stocking up during Heikinpäivä.

5 got to try it for the first time last weekend. How do you think he liked it?

A happy Friday to everyone! It has been a bit of a harrowing morning here in my house, unfortunately. Today I'm going to share some of my favorite artists, but first I have to share my embarrassing bad mom moment.

I should preface this story by explaining the situation a little bit. I am afraid of spiders. I can't look at pictures of them because I imagine those pictures crawling on me under the covers at night while I'm trying to sleep. I also seem to attract spiders. Not so much anymore, but spiders used to follow me wherever I went. I'm pretty sure I could find spiders in Antarctica.

I have been working on this fear for over ten years. I've gotten a LOT better. For the most part, spiders that are less than one inch across do not bother me unless they are on my face. However....

The old houses in Hancock, where I live, have what I call "seasonal spiders". We see them in the Spring and in the Fall and rarely in between. These are not normal spiders though. The only spiders I personally have seen that are bigger are the cane spiders in Hawai'i. These buggers are the size of the palm of my hand and they can MOVE. They can probably run faster than me, not that I run all that fast, but I'm like a thousand times their size.

The up side of these particular spiders is that they are so heavy they can't climb. They stay on the first floor and they stay on the ground. Or so I thought.

The little guy and I woke up at around nine and had our nice, happy morning snuggle time and then we got up and went to the bathroom so I could change his diaper. Both of these rooms are on the second floor of our house. We're laughing and playing and then one of these big mama spiders walks right past my feet. The maternal instincts that I was sure would turn me into some fierce warrior to protect my child completely abandoned me and I ran from the room shrieking. Five started crying and I had to go downstairs to put shoes on before I could force myself to go back in and rescue my baby.

The only thing that mitigates my guilt at all is that I knew he was safe up high on the changing table...

As embarrassing as it was to call my husband at work and beg him to come home to kill a spider or let us move to another state before lunch, that is exactly what I did. Big Fred, wonderful man that he is, dutifully came home and hunted for the spider. The bad thing about not being afraid of spiders though is that he doesn't have the adrenaline and paranoia to help him find them. He declared the beast gone and got ready to leave. I convinced him to go with me while I changed the diaper just for a minute. As I timidly re-checked everywhere that Fred had, I discovered that my nightmares had indeed come true and not only did that horrible spider make it to the second floor but he had climbed up the wall behind my husband, leaving no safe zone for me at all. Yes, I abandoned my child once again as I  ran from the room shrieking.

So I'm now sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, baby on my lap, where I can monitor my perimeter constantly and attempt to take my mind off the invasion with some of my favorite artists. Enjoy!

Sanna is a half-Finnish half-English illustrator and printmaker. I think her work is incredible. Her designs are inspired by her childhood summers spent in Finland, rich with nature and folklore. She's done work for album covers, candy wrappers, milk cartons, plus she's developing her own line of products. She also dis several designs for Marimekko a few years ago, they are featured in the pictures below. Click on any of the pics to check out her site.

You may recognize her work from my last post as well. I have a set of her postcards framed in the baby decorations. It was actually what we built all the decor around.

Cilla is a Swedish artist whose works always seems to revolve around textiles. She uses unconventional materials to depict traditional textile patterns like in the glass floor mosaic below and the plastic bead picture below that. She also designed several fabrics for Ikea. Click to see what they currently have of hers. Click either of the top to pictures to go to her blog. She hasn't posted in years, but it has some more great pictures of her work.

I got her book, Knitprovisation, for Christmas in 2008 and it rocked my world. Her stuff is bizarre and not for the faint of heart, but it's also amazing and beautiful and incredibly creative. Click on the picture to see it on Amazon.

Do these two artists get you in the mood for all things Scandinavian? Check out my Scandinavian-themed treasury on etsy! Come back Monday for some new recipes and perhaps a new product update...

I usually cook for the whole week on Sunday when big Fred can play with little Fred, but since we didn't get home from Madison until Monday, I was cooking on Tuesday with a tiny sous chef. Luckily, we already had our recipes planned out and they were full of steps that could be done and left for an hour or two.
Food for the week is almost always a big pot of soup, a casserole, a breakfast dish, and salad fixings. This week I made a pesto veggie pasta dish, taco fixings, and a pannukakku with cherry cabernet sauce.
I'd love to hear your strategies for cooking with a family- leave them in a comment!

Pannukakku with Cherry Cabernet sauce- Gluten Free!

I thought I'd share this week's breakfast recipe with you. If you're not gluten-free, just use regular flour in place of the oat flour.
Where we live in the UP is chock full of Finns and Finnish recipes, crafts, and products abound. This recipe is adapted from Finnish Touches Recipes and Traditions released by Penfield Books.

Pannukakku is a Finnish baked pancake. Aside from being baked in the oven, it is also closer to custard than a traditional American pancake. It is delicious served with my cherry sauce, fruit preserves, or just lemon juice and powdered sugar.

Ingredients for pannukakku

4 eggs
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 Cups milk (you can use any you like, I use full-fat goat milk because I don't do well with cow milk)
1 Teaspoon salt
1 2/3 Cup oat flour (again, easy to sub wheat flour in here if you like)

Preheat oven to 425. Beat eggs and sugar until thick and foamy (I use a stand mixer, and hand one would probably work well too- I wouldn't recommend this recipe be done by hand though). Add milk and salt, mix well. Add in half of the flour and beat for a minute. Add the rest of the flour and beat for 10 more minutes. Grease an oven pan that's at least 8 by 11.5 -you don't want it to be too thick, thinner is better. When you're done mixing pour the batter into the pan and put it immediately into the oven. Bake for around 25 minutes. It should be brown on the sides and bubbly and brownish on top.

Ingredients for cherry cabernet sauce
at least 1 Cup dried tart cherries
1/3 Cup sugar (more or less to taste)
enough Cabernet and cherry juice or water to cover cherries

Combine all ingredients in sauce pan. Bring to boil over medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until cherries look a bit plump. Let cool and mix in food processor to desired consistency.

This sauce is great on ice cream, pancakes, even toast!