Now THAT'S a Burger!

Earlier this summer I had a 17 hour day traveling back from MN. I bought Gourmet magazine-- something I typically don't do--because their recipes are a bit complicated and expensive to make. Troy has been reveling in the fact that I've been eating more meat these days (for a long time we tried to be semi-vegetarian but he craves bacon like you wouldn't believe). He saw a recipe it it for a giant Aussie burger that he was completely smitten with the idea of. The day before I left for Finland he made it for me. I have to admit that I was surprised at how good it tasted!


Here's a picture taken while assembling the burger. Some kind of spicy mayo that Troy made from scratch, pickled beets, a fried egg, and grilled pineapple. For good measure, Troy threw in cheese, lettuce and tomato. Yikes, I could hardly take a bite, because the thing was like 6 inches tall!

A VERY happy boy with his ginormous burger.

*Update: Here's the recipe in case you are interested in attempting this at home: http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2008/07/aussieburger

Interesting Tidbits about Finland

I'm still thinking about my trip. Some interesting things I haven't mentioned yet:

• Finland has a female president (who my cousin met when she recently visited MN for Finnfest 2008 - http://www.justcoffeeart.com/announcements.html)
• Every Finnish man has to serve in the military or do some sort of civil service work for a year or more (women aren't required to do so but are able to if they so choose)
  
• When you have a baby in Finland the government encourages you to stay home in the first year by giving you money to do so (and guaranteeing that you still have a job to go back to if you are working).
  
• They have dual flush toilets everywhere, even in public restrooms (Finns seem very conscious about sustainability)
• Their diet is really very healthy - a typical breakfast would be rye bread with butter, topped with tomatoes, cucumber, and possibly cheese. There were some salad toppings that I considered a bit odd--one day I reached for little red chunks that I thought were tomatoes to put on my salad and they turned out to be watermelon!
  
• Despite the fact that the national languages are both Finnish and Swedish, Finns really don't hide their dislike of Swedes
  

Below is a menu in the elevator of our hotel - the translation really cracked me and Laura up. We weren't brave enough to try the game balls though.

Land of 188,000 Lakes

Finland very much reminds me of northern Minnesota--only there are more trees and more lakes, so it is even more beautiful. I couldn't believe all of the lakes. There seem to be lakes every few miles or so.

At the family reunion, we had the pleasure of taking a late night sauna and then jumping in the lake pictured above. If you are an experienced sauna-taker then you know how much of a treat it is to have one that is near a lake. The lake was very cold but it felt great. We went back and forth a few times and then relaxed outside our cabin with a beer. I slept so well after that!

One of my favorite days in Finland included a hike with relatives Pia and Pilvi and their families and our cousins Lee and Jon from the States too. We hiked through a bog to a lake and a little camping shelter and then had a little cookout. This is one of my favorite views on the way there. The shelter is actually on a little island and there is a floating platform that we had to get on to cross the water. You have to pull the rope to get yourself across. We went across in two groups but even still it was teetering a bit and I thought we were going to sink! It was pretty funny. 

Once on the island Emil helped Pasi start a fire and we ate yummy leftover smoked salmon with rye bread while we waited.  Then they cooked makkara (Finnish sausage) and we ate that with the most amazing mustard--I wish I had brought some of that back with me!

The shelter was really cool. You could actually camp there and there were some fishing poles too. Lee tried his luck fishing with some makkara for bait but the fish weren't going for it.

Here's the shelter.And Pia and Pauli.

And Pasi and Pilvi with cuties Lida, Emil and Lotta.  It was Lida's birthday so we sang her "Happy Birthday" in English and then in Finn too.  

This was one of the nicest days weather-wise that we had in Finland too. Pretty comfortable, not too hot or cold--perfect for hiking and eating sausages!

When we were with Mari in Kangasala she took us to an old tower to view the lakes that surround the town. Here's a view from the top.

It was windy up there! We had to stop for coffee afterwards to warm up. Finns are serious coffee drinkers. You can expect to be offered coffee at least two or three times a day, often with something sweet to go with it. I had no problem with that!

Here's a picture of us on the beach. As you can see from how we were dressed, it sure wasn't warm enough for swimming that day but we still had fun.

Finland

Sorry for my lack of posts but it has been a bit rough getting back to the grind after all of that traveling (28 hours on the way back because I wanted to fly with my sis and we got routed through Detroit).

Finland was amazing. The scenery was much like northern Minnesota, only it was more beautiful because there were more lakes and trees. It was so wonderful to reconnect with Mari and to spend time with family and learn about our ancestry.

Things that I loved about the trip:

1. Spending time with my sister--she asked me to be her maid of honor in the airport on the way there!
   
2. Meeting Mari's husband and little boy--we hadn't seen her in 17 years (boy does that make me feel old)!
3. Seeing Leo and Pia again (they are relatives that visited in 1986) and meeting the rest of the family.
4. Spending time with our cousins Lee and Jon from the states. We don't see them often and it was so cool that we all were able to go at the same time.
   
5. Playing silly games such as "throw the boot" at the family reunion. Despite language barriers, we could all laugh and have fun with this.
6. Taking saunas--especially the one at the reunion where we were able to jump in the lake. Pretty much every Finnish home has a sauna. I will miss that!
   
7. Learning more about where I came from--we have a family tree dating back to 1515!
   
8. Eating lots of salmon (especially the smoked salmon that Pasi and Pilvi made)
9. Trying new kinds of food, including: reindeer (it was surprisingly good!), lakka (cloud berries), and I think lingonberries (not sure because the name didn't translate well)

I'll be adding more to the blog as I have time. Here's a Shutterfly site I started about the trip: http://lauraandlissagotofinland.shutterfly.com/

A Cloudy Day in Helsinki

Well it's a cloudy day in Helsinki and it's looking like rain so I figured I would take time for a quick blog post. We arrived here yesterday and are here at the Hotel Helka until very early on Monday morning. We haven't had the best weather on our trip but it has still been wonderful. We have met many distant cousins and also spent time with Mari, a woman who stayed with my family for a summer when I was 15 years old.

Here are a few pictures from the trip that Laura took. She brought her laptop so I've been able to check email now and then. That's been nice. I'll write and post more pics when I have more time.

Mari, Laura and Topi in Tampere.
A roadside stop near Multia, Finland.
Mmmmmmm....smoked salmon.
A very beautiful place where we hiked with family.

Saying Goodbye

We said goodbye to some the first people we met in Charlottesville this week. Shana and Mary are the first Ph.D. students to graduate from the music department (from the sister program to Troy's--not composition but musicology--they call it Critical and Comparative Studies).

It was a bittersweet experience to say goodbye to these amazing people that we have really grown to love. Mary and Jeff (Mary's husband--an astronomer) are going up to Colgate for jobs and Shana is headed to Yale. I am really excited for them. Great new jobs and a fresh start in a new place. Moving can obviously be terrifying (as we well know) but it is really exciting at the same time. Though I hate the feeling of being unsettled, I love the process of decorating a new place and making if feel like a home. I find that meeting people is hard but I don't think the 3 of them will have trouble at all since they are such good people and they are already connected to universities.

We had Mary and Jeff over before they left for Troy's new specialty, Thai grilled chicken (a Cook's Illustrated recipe) but I think I must have been wobbling the camera because the picture didn't really turn out. Next time I'll use my gorillapod.

They gave us a number of things that they didn't need anymore or couldn't fit in their car for the move, including a bit of an expensive bottle of terrific tequila and a nice cherry tomato plant that is producing really well (wonderful since the tomatoes that we planted in the garden that the ground hog hasn't already gotten have some kind of terrible blight)!
We also acquired some pretty flowers that dress up our front steps from Shana. Liz was nice enough invite us to a dinner on one of Shana's last nights in town. She made coconut chicken for Shana (who has an incredible sweet tooth). Alli and Sarah joined us for dessert. I got a nice pic of the 4 CCS students.

This will likely be my last post for a while as I'm leaving on Wednesday for Finland! I'll be sure to blog about that but might not have good access to a computer until I get back (the 18th).

I have made Troy a blog author so I'm hoping that he'll make some updates about his crazy work projects while I'm gone. I'm sure he'll be putting in some very long days while I'm gone. He nearly turns into a vampire, staying up all night and working while I'm away. Instead of blood, he survives on peanut butter sandwiches though.

Maybe Troy will post a picture on the blog from his recent MRI. Shana told Troy he could ask the technicians for a CD of the images from his MRI. Of course, he was all over that. He has a plan to model his vocal tract for a new music robot. He could explain this better than me so hopefully he takes a few minutes to blog while I'm gone...

Engaged!

My sister and her longtime boyfriend Ethan are now engaged! He proposed to her on a stop on a motorcycle ride. He got down on his knee at sunset on a beach on Lake Superior. We are so happy and excited for them!

They are planning a wedding in October already as they are anxious to get started making babies. ;) Laura and my mom have been looking at wedding dresses together this week. At times like this I wish I was closer so that I could be more involved. It's such an exciting process, and they are needing to move pretty quickly to get everything planned.

They are looking into sites near Lake Superior--a place they both truly love. I'm sure the wedding will be as beautiful as they are. This pic wasn't taken after the proposal, but it well could have been. I'm sure they looked just as blissful.

The gorgeous ring that Ethan had custom-made for Laura. It is made of palladium.