Recipes

Pannukakku (Finnish Pancake)

Leave a comment
Pannukakku, fresh out of the oven.
April 1, 2012

4 eggs
¼ c. honey (~3 oz.)
¾ tsp. salt
2 ½ c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. flour
4 tbsp. butter

Put a 10 ½” heavy frying pan into a 425° oven for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, beat together eggs, honey, salt, milk and vanilla. Add flour. Beat until smooth (some flour lumps are ok). Add butter to pan in oven; when melted, pour batter into pan and bake 25 mins until browned.

Serve immediately. Delicious with peaches and drizzled honey (or maple syrup when peaches and honey are lacking).

I learned this recipe from Grandma Pam who got it from The Old Country Cookbook, a locally produced cookbook of Northern Minnesota recipes. Griffin loves it, doing a happy dance whenever he discovers that it is on the menu. In the family, we always refer to it as “Pannakukken,” but I’ve seen it written on line more often as “Pannukakku.” My Finnish is nonexistent, so I’m not sure what’s correct, though my understanding is that the word translates as “pancake.”

This post inaugurates a new category in our blog: recipes. We’ve been looking for a central, accessible place to keep favorite recipes. The blog kills a flock of birds with one stone: easy formatting, optional pictures, categorized, searchable, and it allows us to share with our friends and family. Yay!

Griffin

Quotes

Leave a comment

A few random thoughts from Griffin:

  • “I get sad sometimes that Grandma’s not here.”
  • “When the Minnesota State Fair opens, we will meet Aunt Carol and Uncle Bob in the summer time when it opens!” (He is constantly asking if the Fair is open yet, and while we did go twice this past year, we have never met Bob and Carol there!)
  • During a discussion about what kind of present he would like to get his new brother or sister, I suggested a “soft blankie,” like the one he has, so that the baby can have his/her own: “I would like to SHARE my soft blankie with the baby!”
  • “Scuse me, Daddy. I want you stop talking. Then come over here on the couch next to me and keep talking about your students.”
  • “Let’s go <insert anything he wants to do here> RIGHT QUICK!!”
  • “Daddy’s a boy? So both of us are boys and the rest of our family are a girl.”

 

Griffin

The Inevitable

1 Comment

It had to happen sometime. We’ve got a very, very curious child, and despite his energy and zeal for life, we’ve made it nearly three years with few…er…bodily mishaps. But yesterday went a little something like this:

Sarah: “It’s time to go to ECFE, Griffin. Let’s clean up and head upstairs to put our shoes on.”

Griffin: “Nooooooo! I want to play blocks!”

S: “I know you want to play blocks, and we can play them later, but now it’s time to go to school.”

G: “NOOOOOOO!” <insert crying tantrum here>

S: “Okay. Well, it sounds like you’re pretty upset about not playing blocks, so I’m going to head upstairs and get ready. You come up when you’re done.”

<crying and wailing ensues for about three minutes>

G: <coming up the stairs> “Mama. I’m done. I put a penny in my mouth.”

S: “Oh? Well, that’s not something we put in our mouths. Time to take it out.”

G: “I can’t. It’s not there.”

S: “Did you spit it out?”

G: “No. Look. Mama take it out!”

S: “Well, if you didn’t spit it out, and it’s not there, you probably swallowed it. Did you swallow it down your throat?”

G: “Yes. Mama take it out!”

S: “Does your throat or tummy hurt?”

G: “No. Where is my penny?”

S: “Well, it’s in your body now, so it will probably come out in your poop.”

G: <excitedly> “I want to poop it out RIGHT NOW!!!”

After trolling the internet, a call to the pediatrician, and support from parents at ECFE, it was decided that we would just have to wait to see if it came out on its own. I do have to admit, though, that being under the spell of pregnancy hormone-induced anxiety, I let some of the internet findings of coins being lodged in the esophagus one way and then being dislodged and killing a child, or coins causing ulcers, or any of the numerous “my child needed surgery” testimonials get to me. I checked on him multiple times during his nap, reminding me of nap times postpartum when I would nervously check to make sure he was still breathing.

But predictably, he survived both nap time AND the night, and this morning from the bathroom I heard:

“Mama!! MY PENNY IS IN MY POOP!!!”

Whew.

The shiny penny!

Griffin

Winter Carnival 2012

1 Comment

Spent the morning at the winter carnival in downtown Saint Paul. It was a good day for it: chilly, but sunny with little wind. In addition to a lot of amazing ice sculptures (and the chance to watch the artists at work), there was a high-tech angle too: a robotic snowplow race! Fresh donuts and hot chocolate were welcome too.

Forgot to bring the good camera, so these are from the iPhone.

Griffin on the Ice Throne

Ice bar

Ice sculpture

Andrew's highlight: the robotic snowplow competition!

Griffin

The Princesses and the Potty

1 Comment

The Pink Potty Hook

It looks fairly innocent, but this bit of pink plastic had us stumped for a week. For those of you who don’t immediately recognize it, it is a potty hook: a place to hang the kid-sized potty seat when it’s not in use. As usual with most kids’ stuff, they only come in insanely gendered versions—I can’t remember if Griffin chose this because of the hot pink, one of his favorite colors, or if the boy stuff was out of stock that day.

Last week, in the interest of science, Griffin and his good friend Zoe sent these princesses on a nautical expedition to explore the ever-fascinating sewers beneath the toilet. Alas, like Shackleton in Antarctica, the Pink Potty Hook did not make it very far. It is the perfect size for vanishing down the mysterious potty hole, but not nimble enough to traverse the narrow, treacherous bends beyond. At this point the stymied (but gleeful) young scientists turned the experiment over to their elders.

How to rescue the princesses and, hopefully, return the potty to functionality? It was a surprisingly daunting challenge. Unlike an average blockage, this shipwreck resisted the plunger and was beyond the reach of simple grasping gadgets (or even fingers… yes, we tried). More advanced tools, such as wire clothes hangers, were equally impotent.

After a week of failed attempts, we determined that nothing less than a radical solution would succeed. We shut the water off, drained the tank and bowl, and removed the entire commode. Even then we could neither see nor reach the wreck from either direction. Grandpa Jeff, our toiletless houseguest, suggested the winning strategy: a length of plastic hose. From beneath it was flexible enough to snake up the passage but stiff enough to push the Pink Potty Hook back out.

The treacherous narrows where the Pink Potty Hook was shipwrecked for more than a week.

In total, this adventure cost us a mere $11 (replacement wax seal and floor bolts), far less than a plumber’s fee. Moreover, we learned that toilets have more bark than bite—they are not nearly as intimidating as they seem. As an added bonus, the usually dubious territories behind and beneath the toilet are immaculately clean.

The three princesses (captain, first mate, and bosun?) happily survived the soggy ordeal, necks still coyly bent and coiffures unsullied.

Three Princesses

The latest news from Sarah and Andrew.